San Francisco- From www.77square.com- Back in the 1970s, any film projectionist new to the trade was sent to the most undesirable place to work in the movie business: a porno house. In Madison, that meant showing “Debbie Does Dallas” and “Bodacious Ta-Tas” at the Eastwood (now the Barrymore Theatre) or the Orpheum’s Stage Door.
Watching porn in a movie theater next to strangers seems archaic and positively repellent now that we have the Internet.
San Francisco-based sex shop Good Vibrations is seeking to challenge that stigma by sponsoring an amateur Erotic Film Festival, which stops in Madison Tuesday at the Majestic Theatre.
Originally a citywide event started in 2006 in San Francisco, the Good Vibrations-judged short film competition and festival went national in 2008. Entries come from around the world, and Good Vibrations hopes to tour internationally.
The current festival lineup, dubbed “IXFF2 Second Coming,” culls the best 10 erotic shorts from the past four years of Good Vibrations’ competition. It’s not all hardcore porn, “erotic” in a traditional sense or even explicit. One short is of a man doing a stand-up comedy bit about his discovery of masturbation, and another is a minute-long film of a couple kissing.
“Depending on where you’re coming from, it might not sound like a great idea to sit in a roomful of strangers and watch people getting it on. But when you expand the possibilities for what erotic cinema is, it can be a lot more interesting and compelling,” said Camilla Lombard, events and promotions coordinator for Good Vibrations.
“Our mission is to expand people’s understanding of what’s sexy and what’s erotic and celebrate the broad rainbow of what’s available in the human experience.”
The festival doesn’t use the word porn in its title “because we don’t want people to be turned off or disappointed. What you pay for and what you get is a sampling of lots of different flavors of sexy.”
The festival offers an alternative to mainstream porn, which in recent years has evolved into an accepted part of pop culture. Adult film star Sasha Grey is starring in acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh’s new mainstream movie, “The Girlfriend Experience,” which would have been an unthinkable crossover a decade ago.
“On one hand, porn can be a useful tool for a lot of people and a totally legitimate and artistic and satisfying form of expression,” said Lombard. But “mainstream porn tends to have an agenda and tends to, like most things in mainstream popular culture, do one thing and do it to death.”
The independent shorts at the festival, in comparison, “work on a different level. There’s a sense of authenticity. There’s a different perspective that’s being offered, that’s inherently more interesting.”
Dr. Carol Queen, Good Vibrations’ “Chief Cultural Officer,” will be on hand to lead a discussion.
“She’ll be covering the evolution of blue films, and how porn has evolved into what it is today and how important it is to have an alternative to mainstream porn,” said Lombard.
Should that propel the evening in too academic a direction, Madison’s burlesque troupe Foxy Veronica’s Peach Pies will reel it back into lighthearted territory with a bawdy performance.
As she’s traveled around the country touring with the festival, Lombard has noticed that audiences often react to the sexuality of the films with laughter. The humorous films tend to be even funnier for the audiences.
“It’s a real novelty for people to sit in a legitimate venue and watch erotic cinema. Sometimes it gets really, really hot and heavy, and obviously there’s a thrill to that, but there’s also lots of nervous tension,” she said.
“What I’ve noticed from the crowd is that people are more alert and present than they would be at a feature film.”
IF YOU GO
What: IXFF2 Second Coming Erotic Film Festival, with Dr. Carol Queen and Foxy Veronica’s Peach Pies
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: The Majestic Theatre, 115 King St.
Tickets: $10 at the door or at majesticmadison.com. For ages 18 and over only