“Xperimental Eros”: Free Your Mind (And The Boobs Will Follow)

Usually, the only thing that sends us running for the hills more than wonton overuse of the word "eros" is seeing a porn flick described as "experimental". So we have to admit feeling some trepidation when we received a screener copy of Bay Area-based Other Cinema's new "Xperimental Eros"—that is, until we decided to pop it in as video wallpaper during a recent party and found our guests crowding around the television asking us what they were watching and how they could get a copy instead of complimenting us on the tasty rumaki we had spent all afternoon slaving over a hot stove to serve them. Bastards.

Culled from the work of several lesser-known experimental and documentary filmmakers by curator Noel Lawrence (and fresh from well-received screenings at the Cinekink and LA Erotic Film festivals), "Xperimental Eros" is a grab bag of shorts that use found porn footage and sex culture as jumping-off points for all sorts of interesting (and occasionally trippy) cinematic expression.

We were especially taken by "Sneakin' and Peekin'", Tom Palazzolo's 1976 filmic raid on an Indiana nudist camp (which reminded us that women did indeed used to have pubic hair in the days before Brazilians became endemic in the porn world) and by the more agressively experimental works by Mark Street ("Blue Movie"), Naomi Ulman ("Removed"), and Peggy Ahwesh ("The Color Of Love") in which vintage stag reels and grainy Euro smut loops are cut up, reworked, and thrown back together again with various effects that recall the work of avant guard filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Maya Deren. And it's all presented with a short but informative essay by UC Berkeley film studies professor Linda WIlliams and a bonus score by San Francisco's own PornOrchestra. (The emphatic Bay Area-centricity of the project shouldn't come as too much of a surprise; somehow we don't think that most Porn Valley directors are likely to produce a hand-manipulated film stock feature starring two women having sex on top of a dead guy while a string quartet plays in the background. At least not yet.)

So while it might not be the first thing you reach for when you're planning a quiet evening at home with Rosie Palm and her five sisters, "Xperimental Eros" is well worth picking up if you have even a passing interest in the ways that porn can indeed be transformed into Serious Art with the right sort of editing. And at the very least, it's worth having on hand for your next party in case you need to distract your guests from the fact that you ended up burning the rumaki after all.

· "Xperimental Eros" (DVD info @ othercinemadvd.com)