Graphic
Sexual Horror
Press Kit
Logline
Graphic
Sexual Horror
The women who took the
whippings, the fountain of money, and the dark mind behind the notorious
bondage porn website, Insex.com – and how the government used the Patriot Act
to shut it all down.
Press
Blurb
Graphic
Sexual Horror
Insex.com, the brainchild of ex-Carnegie Mellon professor and artist, Brent Scott, began broadcasting torture imagery in 1997, long before the recent upsurge in mainstream depictions of so-called “torture-porn.” In 2005, as the Bush administration increased its own market share in real torture, the government used the Patriot Act to block Insex.com’s ability to process credit cards, thus forcing Insex to close its doors. Graphic Sexual Horror chronicles the rise and fall of this subculture phenomenon, wowing crowds at Slamdance, Hot Docs, and FantasiaFest Montreal in 2009. The documentary becomes an inquiry into consent and government intervention, asking hard questions about the role of money and personal responsibility. Graphic Sexual Horror will be available on DVD and through online digital platforms in early 2010.
SHORT
SYNOPSIS
GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR
“If you won’t let me teach your children, then I will corrupt them.”
PD
By the time PD’s controversial bondage website, Insex.com, was shut down by the government through use of the Patriot Act, it had 35,000 members. Graphic Sexual Horror traces PD’s path from early life experiences, his work as an artist and a professor at Carnegie Mellon, the creation of Insex.com, and its eventual demise. Original Insex footage, behind-the-scenes interactions, and interviews with PD, models, members, and staff, reveal the Faustian dilemma of each participant, balancing personal responsibility with the lure of money.
The unique combination of PD’s vision, his talent for spectacle, innovative use of the internet’s interactivity, extravagant props, and PD’s influences (which include Japanese bondage, methods of serial killers, and horror films) all created a heady mix of horrifying sexual imagery. Young women were put through a barrage of bondage, pain, and orgasm. As the membership grew, so did the pressure to perform. The line between consent and non-consent blurred.
Yet as a model sings a moving aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute, stunning Insex footage streams across the screen. Perhaps the creation of art is not defined by content, structure, or medium. We are left with silence. Picture after picture of Insex stills stagger the mind – horrific, fantastical images.
DETAILED
SYNOPSIS
GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR
“If you won’t let me teach your children, then I will corrupt them.”
PD – artist, former Carnegie Mellon professor, and creator of Insex.com
By the time PD’s controversial bondage website, Insex.com, was shut down by the government through use of the Patriot Act, it had 35,000 members. “Who would do something this horrible to women,” asks a female member as she tells of the first time she saw footage from the sexual bondage website. “Because,” she concludes, “I really wanted to be doing those things, but I had a lot of shame-based reactions. Because those are not things that are socially acceptable in any way.”
Graphic Sexual Horror takes a peek behind the terrifying facade of Insex.com, the most notorious of “violent porn” websites, exploring the dark mind of its artistic creator and asking hard questions about personal responsibility. Original Insex footage, behind-the-scenes interactions, and interviews with PD (known as PD on the website), models, members, and staff reveal deep fascinations with bondage and sadomasochism that run parallel, and in fact become irreversibly entwined with the lure of money.
The FBI first visited PD’s home in 1976 after he made an eerie 8 mm movie titled Worm, showing a bound woman with what appears to be ritualized stitching around her mouth and chest. PD surmises that, “This is when I knew my work was somehow weird, like beyond porn.” He traces his obsession with bondage back to a childhood game when he was tied up and had his first orgasm. During his Vietnam tour of duty, PD watched a bondage show in Japan, leading him to seek out Japanese bondage art. So as PD’s career took him from art student to professor, he always incorporated bondage and sado-masochistic themes into his paintings and performance art pieces in New York. When PD left Carnegie Mellon in 1997, Insex.com was born. “And the tickets started coming in,” PD says. “Within 2 weeks, I’d made more money than in a half year of teaching. Within two weeks! It was as if people were just waiting for the site to come up.”
As Insex pictures and video downloads hit the internet in 1997-98, shivers of excitement spread through the burgeoning internet bondage industry. Gritty, grainy pictures with dark themes seem to have sprung from the mind of a serial killer. Yet behind-the-scenes footage of shoots and legal interviews show PD and pretty female models interacting on set with full consent to the “stunts” as PD refers to his content. In interviews, Insex models speak frankly about why they modeled at Insex - an interest in the subject, a way to fight depression, but over and over – the money.
The unique combination of PD’s vision, his talent for spectacle, the extravagant props made by talented New York artisans, and PD’s influences which range from Michelangelo, Baudrillard, Marshall McCluhan, methods of serial killers, modern day horror films, and illustrators such as Georges Pichard, all created a heady mix of horrifying sexual content as young women were put through a barrage of bondage, pain, and orgasm. Safety measures known as “safewords” and “hard limits” gave the models the ultimate ability to end any given situation at any time. Yet in order to get the extreme content for which Insex was quickly becoming famous, PD pushed the models. He wanted what was on camera to be real, not acting. And it comes across in even the shortest of video clips.
As the imagery intensifies, showing the more brutal aspects of sado-masochism, both PD and the models tell of the euphoric high gained from the endorphin rush of pain – which he calls “the money shot.” PD claims he was the first to make female orgasm a focus of the shoots. By 1998, he began to broadcast “Live Feeds,” real-time online BDSM shows in which members interacted with the action through live chats.
PD’s genius for content and his innovative use of the internet had its price. Staff members talk about PD’s volatility and unreasonable expectations. As the membership grew, so did the pressure to perform. Riveting live footage between PD and a young model illustrates his talent for psychological manipulation.
He began having affairs with models and pressuring models to “play after work.” “The financial success of Insex,” he says, “Turned it into a diabolical fright, a nightmare of the worst possible kind.” The line between consent and non-consent blurred. Models speak of how PD could get them to consent to things they never otherwise would have done. And in a powerful interview, one model speaks with rare insight about the night she felt anally raped during a Live Feed. So why did she continue? She cites her desire for money. This was not money that she needed. She spent it carelessly, her Faustian dilemma. And PD speaks of becoming a monster, describing the pressures of thirty-five thousand members and the complications of large sums of money.
Yet as a young model sings a moving aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute, stunning Insex footage streams across the screen. Perhaps the creation of art is not defined by content, structure, or medium. Or as one member says, “A great movie should move you somehow. . .Just the fact that something is classified as pornography shouldn’t make it any different.”
In 2005, the government used the Patriot Act to refuse PD the ability to process credit cards, because, he was told, violent porn sites were known to funnel money to terrorists. And so, Insex crumbled. Snow-filled vistas, empty sets, and cobwebbed props fill the screen. We hear the sound of a forge as the flame slowly dies. Picture after picture of Insex stills fill the screen – horrific, fantastical images.
Graphic Sexual Horror
“Graphic Sexual Horror is sexy and seductive. The images are raw, dirty and poetic.”
New York Press feature by Linnea Covington
“. . .stupefying. . . Graphic Sexual Horror almost dares
you to watch, assaulting eyes from its opening frames. . .”
Linda Bernard, Toronto Star
“Impossible to dismiss or forget. Graphic Sexual Horror exists to rattle the repressed thoughts that rest deep within most of us.”
Arno Kazarian, IMDB
“A journey into the absolute most outer reaches of the BDSM experience, this documentary about the Insex.com website is both repulsive and mesmerizing, often at the same time. As brave a piece of filmmaking as I have ever seen submitted to Slamdance. Imagine a documentary directed by Frances Bacon and you’ll begin to get the idea. See it before the Park City Police Department does.”
Mick Muirfield, Film Programmer Slamdance 2009
“a riveting portrait. . . A must see. Five Stars.”
Mathius Mack Gertz, Filmarcade.net
“"Graphic Sexual Horror" . . . demystif(ies) the
subject's surface shock value …Straightforward assembly is pro.”
Dennis Harvey Variety
Written, Directed, Edited, and Produced by
Anna Lorentzon
and
Barbara Bell
Interviews
(In order of appearance)
Leonore
Lorelei Lee
Star
912
PD
Peter Ackworth
Cyd Black
Barry Goldman
1201
Princess Donna
101
411
Claire Addams
62 (Maya Matthews)
Sgt. Major Derek Victur
KGB
Genevieve
Barbara Nitke
Matt Williams
Jazz
Screenplay Barbara Bell
Cinematography Anna Lorentzon
Executive Producer Sean Meenan
Producer -Post Production Alex Norden
Motion Graphics and VFX Lilka Hara
Map Animation Alex Norden
3-D Equipment Animations M. Yao
Sound Mix Chad Bernhard
Bogus Grip Electric Dave
Special thanks to:
PD
Thanks to the following:
Hans Nyström
NASA
Earth From Above with Glowing Lights
Brett’s Gun Shots shot2
FXHome M41ApulseRifle 03
912
“American Way – WGSH Mix”
written and performed by
“things outside the skin”
“things outside the skin” appear courtesy of Invisible Records, Chicago, IL
“Ach, Ich Fuhl’s”
from
“The Magic Flute”
written by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
performed by
Moonshine
© 2009 NC-17
Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Filmographies and Biographies of Directors and Producers
Anna Lorentzon:
Producer and Director:
Graphic Sexual Horror – 2009
Photographer and videographer, Anna Lorentzon was a producer for Insex, and is currently working on a documentary about building an eco house in Sweden.
Barbara Bell:
Producer and Director:
Graphic Sexual Horror – 2009
Barbara Bell’s acclaimed novel, Stacking in Rivertown, purchased and edited by Michael Korda, editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, was released in 2000, subsequently released in Australia and Israel. “Brutal yet beautiful. . .this disturbing, impressive novel introduces an urgent and powerful new voice.” Publisher’s Weekly
Barbara is currently working on a screenplay for their next feature film.
Executive Producer:
Kung Faux – 2003
Graphic Sexual horror – 2009
Producer:
Make Yourself at Home – 2008
Biography:
New York boxing champion, restaurant entrepreneur, investor, brander, and film producer, Sean Meenan has devoted his life to anything he feels is socially, politically and environmentally significant. In September of 2009, he plans to begin production and direction of his script “Knuckle Game.” www.seanmeenan.com
Alex Norden
Producer:
Graphic Sexual horror – 2009
Biography:
Filmmaker and photographer from New York. His interest is in convergence of web and multi-media high-tech subjects, the collage of contemporary thought centered on so often manifested vectors of human civilization:
Youth-Rebellion-Fear-Control-Empire.
BACKGROUND
ON
THE MAKING OF
GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR
Having worked together on a previous project, Anna and I decided we wanted to create a project of our own. After a few brainstorming sessions in the spring of 2006, we found that we couldn’t talk about much else but our experiences with PD, an artist who was at the very forefront of the burgeoning internet porn industry in 1997 when he created his website, Insex.com. The subject was a gold mine, filled with rich and fascinating material– a wildly eccentric artist broadcasting frightening sexual content, workplace dynamics that blew the mind, characters that were better than fiction, and misuse of US Government power.
“We have everything,” we said to one another, “Sex, violence, and conspiracy. What more can you want?” Yet at the same time we understood that we were entering territory that was more than taboo. In the political climate of 2006 with the Bush administration catering to the religious right, bondage porn was being shut down through use of the Patriot Act. And because of PD’s talents as an artist, his imagery was more visually shocking and horrifically sexual than other websites. It looked real. Thus he drew the attention of the FBI from his early days as an artist to the end of Insex.
As we tried to contact staff members and women that modeled for Insex, we entered a minefield. Who wanted to admit that they worked at a place where young women were paid to be stripped, tied up, whipped, choked, suffocated, penetrated with “dicks on sticks” as the term goes in the industry, and forced to orgasm? How could this affect their present lives? And these questions came back to haunt us as we were in the final months of production, not wanting to “out” anyone. Yet at the same time, knowing that in order to tell this story that we had to use Insex footage that may prove embarrassing. All of the interviews that we managed to get from individuals that used to be members of Insex were all “voice only,” which speaks volumes about the climate of fear in this portion of the population, many of whom occupy white collar and professional positions.
From 1997 to 2005, PD created a mountain of material. At first, it was a nightmare to locate particular clips of footage, but with help from those who used to be members of Insex, we put together a cataloguing system.
We began our editing with the idea of using the “absurd” to move the story forward. Yet as we became fully embroiled in the editing process, we realized we were wrong. That this story was about the “normal” in a situation that the greater culture thinks is abnormal, but in fundamental ways is not. Nearly everyone involved at Insex made decisions influenced by the influx of large amounts of money – something that almost all of us do in every workplace. PD’s version of bondage porn doesn’t have a monopoly on objectification and the effects created when money drives the business. We were working with a modern day Faust – in multiple.
We also discovered that we had become accustomed to viewing the Insex footage. We weren’t always the best judges of how to place Insex footage within the larger piece. Many people that screened our early versions were so horrified by Insex imagery that they checked out in the first five minutes. So we had to parse out the segments of footage, starting with mild, short clips – then move into more difficult material.
One of the prime goals in our structuring and editing of the film was that we did not want to put forward an agenda and take a stand for or against PD and his material. We wanted to paint a balanced and true picture of the whole, rather than swaying the audience toward one position or the other. We want our audience to leave with better questions in their minds than before they saw the movie – questions about something much more important than morality and sex and whether a thing is porn or art. We hope it brings us all to question our motives, our needs as opposed to our desires and fears, how each one of us faces a world that is difficult to navigate, and where money blurs the lines of consent everywhere.
PD
Born and raised on a farm in Maine, PD had a fascination for bondage since he was a child. His influences include Japanese bondage art, Michelangelo’s “Bound Slave,” horror films, illustrators like Georges Pichard, Baudrillard’s Simulacra, Marshall McCluhan, the Gran Guignol, and the acts of “signature” serial killers like Glatman and Gien. PDalways incorporated bondage and sado-masochistic themes into his paintings and performance art pieces in New York. When he left Carnegie Mellon in 1997, Insex.com was born. Hugely successful, Insex.com and PD’s imagery has greatly influenced western bondage from Hollywood portrayals to porn websites. PD was forced to shut Insex down in 2005 through use of the Patriot Act.
Lorelei Lee
Lorelei Lee began working at Insex in 2003 and after one initial conflict with Brent, they went on to create some of the most intense shoots and Live Feeds Insex produced. Lorelei Lee is a writer, undergraduate student, and porn performer. She has studied creative writing at California College of the Arts and San Francisco State University. She has been awarded both a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts youngARTS Scholarship and the Bishop Award for Best Tit-Tortured Model 2005.
Nina (1201)
Nina learned of Insex through her college roommate, 411, who was PD’s girl friend at the time. She modeled for Insex many times in 2002, starring in several extraordinary shoots and Live Feeds, such as Bald and Sanctuary. She now works at in production at Kink.com.
AZ AKA Claire Addams
Claire Addams became AZ at Insex
in 2001, her first experience as a bondage model. She worked at Insex
throughout the years as both model and handler until Insex folded in 2005.
Claire has gone on to become an award winning and internationally acclaimed
extreme bondage model, director, bondage rigger, BDSM educator, fetish model,
and flexi-girl with many other unusual talents as well!
cyd black
An insex member since college and from the inception of Insex, cyd convinced Spacegirl, his bride to be, to model on Insex.com in 2001. Soon after, cyd created a bondage website of his own. In 2003, his dream came true when he was accepted as an apprentice to PD at Insex. After Insex folded, cyd worked with PD to create Hartied.com and Infernalrestraints.com. In late 2005, he left Insex to become webmaster of Devicebondage.com.