Riding the “Shortbus”

The NY Times profiles John Cameron Mitchell and his sex-comedy-in-progress "Shortbus" (formerly known as "The Sex Film Project"), which has already received a fair amount of attention due to its incorporation of explicit sex scenes. But please don't call it porn: "The purpose of pornography is to arouse, whereas here, he said, 'the priority is the emotional life of the characters.' Sex, said Mr. Mitchell, 'has been cheapened by porn.'" We'd argue that there's less of a divide between "porn" and "indie films with explicit sex" than he might think, but the final result should be interesting - provided he gets the funding to finish.

"A Movie Full of Sex, With Nothing Simulated About It" (NY Times; registration required)
See also: "Naked on the Set" (2003 article by Paul Festa @ Salon)