International Programmer Angie Driscoll interviews GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR filmmakers Anna Lorentzon and Barbara Bell
The title says it all! Notorious website insex.com packaged bondage as art and sold kink as caché. Members, models and its founder reveal how money gagged safe-words and power poisoned work environments at this pomo experiment turned porno empire.
Angie Driscoll: How did this film come about and how did you know it was the project for you?
Barbara Bell: Anna and I enjoyed our collaboration on a previous film project in which I wrote the script and we ended up co-directing the piece. When we discussed producing a project of our own, all we could talk about was the crazy Insex studio. We wanted to do a narrative, but didn’t have any money, so we chose to do a documentary. We’ve barely scratched the surface.
Anna Lorentzon: We would always end up laughing about all the crazy things that had been going on at Insex. We finally realized that Insex was our project. I had worked for Insex as a producer, and Barb had been at the Insex studio enough times to see the potential.
What was the hardest thing about shooting this film?
Barbara: Getting Insex staff, models, and members to give any interviews at all. Bondage and SM is an extremely misunderstood and taboo activity. When you add pornography involvement on top of that, you’re way out on the edge, or maybe further.
Anna: We really wanted to get (Insex founder) PD freaking out on camera, the way he was pretty much every day. Since he is a performer, and a control freak, he would not let that happen. As soon as a camera was pointed at him, he turned into professor mode, calm and reflective. Some of the more truthful quotes from PD came out when we were just sitting by his computer talking, camera pointed away, not recording sound.
If you could change one thing about the film or the filmmaking process, what would it be?
Anna: Getting more people to talk more clearly about the end, and PD freaking out on camera.
Barbara: I would change the aftermath, the marketing and selling of the film. It’s too much to expect creative individuals to be intensely creative in their work, and at the same time learn to pitch, market, promote, understand the legal ramifications, and fund it. As we can see in Hollywood cinema, a market-driven platform ends up diluting creative work, if not slicing it to bits.
What did you learn in the process of making this film?
Anna: That if you continue to work and don't give up, eventually you will finish.
Barbara: Coming at this project as a novelist first and then a screenwriter, I learned quite a lot about working with audio-visual elements, especially in the editing process.
What is your greatest fear when taking on a new project?
Anna: Not being able to complete it.
Barbara: Entering the unknown world of a new piece is always daunting. You want to believe you’re up to the creative task, but you never really know until the end. Taking on a film project, as opposed to writing, is much harder because you depend on collaboration with others to make the vision into reality, and that is a minefield.
Answer the following, if you will. My favourite doc of all time is...
Barbara: NIGHT AND FOG.
Anna: CRUMB.
The doc I'm embarrassed to admit I still have never seen is...
Barbara: THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK.
Anna: Having a young child, I'm happy for anything I'm able to see.
The person living or dead I would most like to work with is…
Anna: Alex Norden.
Barbara: Hard to choose just one. Jane Campion or Catherine Breillat.
The film at Hot Docs I really want to see is…
Barbara: AKA ANA.
Anna: P-STAR RISING.
If I weren't a documentary filmmaker, I would be…
Anna: Building a house without filming it.
Barbara: As I am – a writer. I find that I work and play well alone.
http://www.hotdocs.ca/index.php/daily/q_a_graphic_sexual_horror/
Angie Driscoll interviews Barbara Bell and Anna Lorentzon
