KINK.com is the largest producer of online BDSM porn movies in the USA and was started by Peter Ackworth, a fellow Brit, from his Dorm Room at school in 1997. Based in an enormous defunct Armory Building in San Francisco with many of the original facilities untouched as they make prefect sets for a lot of the perverse activity that now fills the building.
Kink produce movies for the 30 odd different sites they now operate and they cover the whole Bondage and Sado Masochism spectrum from slave training, rope bondage, femdom, gay public Sex, bondage gangbang, female domination, submissive women, lesbian bondage, shemales, naked wrestling, pissing, and sex machines etc etc. And in this no holds barred documentary you get to witness several of the extreme films being made …. I hope the participants were acting in part at least because what they allowed their bodies to be subjected too looked awfully painful from where I was sitting.
Filmmaker Christina Voros set out to go behind the mystique of the industry and as she is being shown around the building there is a hilarious scene where she cannot make herself heard above the din coming from the other end of the floor … Peter Ackworth explains there is an orgy underway …. not something you hear every day. She interviews several of the directors who, with the odd exception, are very matter of fact about their work and how they want to simply be the best in their genre. Occasional one will try to intellectualise what they are about, but when they tried to align this to an art form, they get twisted up in more knots than the models on set.
There is also something rather wholesome about the big family atmosphere that permeates throughout the whole company …. and is rather fascinating to watch the directors and management have their monthly meeting to discuss their success. Why they ask have the ratings for ‘Divine Bitches’ soared whilst ‘Electo Sluts’ is on the decline? Why indeed, but evidently there are fashions and trends that must be watched even in the sex industry.
The fly on the wall approached worked well and Ms Voros allowed us to witness it all without narration and more importantly, without judgement. Was it shocking? In parts, yes but not the graphic sex but more the aggressive bondage parts in particular. Did I learn anything? Well, yes …. thanks to a Dominatrix I know how to stand on an erect penis in stiletto heels without causing any pain. Was it entertaining? To an extent, but it is essentially one big Advertorial for the Kink sites, which lessens its impact and certainly its importance as a general essay on the S + M industry. Would I recommend it? Certainly if you want to be reminded how boring your own sex life really is. The trouble is, I cannot see it coming to a big ….. or a small …. screen you in the near future.
One of my favorite anecdotes was when one of the models had just finished a very intensive hardcore slave/submission movie and dressed in his white terry robe he walked into the main office and was politely asked how his scene had gone. He replied very matter-of-fact ‘I got fucked good’. And there you have it.
P.S. The movie was produced by James Franco … now I’m wondering which of the Kink sites is his favorite.
★★★★★★★
Labels: 2013, documentary, gay, sex, Sundance