Dan Savage's 11th Annual HUMP Film Fest on international tour, in Chicago this weekend
Mon. April 4, 2016 10:17 AM by Anthony Morgano
HUMP! Film Festival brings sexy and sex-positive amateur porn to Chicago
Chicago, IL -
Dan Savage wants to change the way America sees porn. He also wants to help Americans see some porn -- some actually good porn.
Only the often snarky, always sex-positive voice behind famed sex advice column Savage Love could birth a film festival simply by asking his readers to send in homemade dirty movies. This weekend, check out the 11th installment of HUMP!, Savage's touring film festival showcasing some of the funniest, hottest and most creative amateur porn you've ever seen.
Submissions come from across the country and hours of fleshy footage are screened to choose a final batch of films not for their production quality or perfectly waxed and toned stars, but for their ability to intrigue and titillate and even make audiences laugh. Performers and filmmakers alike are protected with the strictest anonymity and from that comes authentic amateur explorations of human sexuality.
"Growing up in middle-class, ticky-tacky, American white suburbia, I was fed the same heaping spoonful of bulls*** that many like me have been fed – that porn is just wrong, shameful, and dirty," Jenna, whose film "Level Up" won Best in Show this year, told ChicagoPride.com. "Mainstream porn has tainted the beauty of sex, and one of the many things I love about HUMP! is that it's taking the beauty of sex back; it's telling the world that filmed sex isn't just for this arbitrary ideal that the media deems worthy. It's for everyone. We're humans and we're sexual, and that's okay."
This year's festival features 22 under-five-minute films that span the breadth of human sexuality. They feature cis and trans performers of the gay, straight, bi, queer and pan persuasions. There are group orgies, cuckolds, and one-on-one screwing, porn with a plot and even some without sex, and it seems that this year that kink is king.
"We bill HUMP! as an amateur porn festival, but it's more than that," Savage, who will be hosting the festival's Chicago stop in person, says in the event's release. "It's rare for people to watch porn that takes them outside their comfort zones— it's rare for people to watch porn that, if they were home alone in front of the computer, they wouldn't choose to click on and watch."
"At HUMP! straight people watch gay porn, vanilla people watch kinky porn, gay people watch lesbian porn," he continued. " And people laugh, they gasp, sometimes they cover their eyes. But at the end of every film people clap and cheer. It's moving and wonderful and newcomers don't expect it. The whole festival is a celebration of sexual diversity."
The films are not only sexy, but creative. There's a parody of an old fashioned sex ed video (with a lot more flesh) and another of a Katy Perry song (with vaginal fisting and a trampoline orgy). There are beautifully shot videos of sex set to music, with or without a plot to accompany it, and films with no sex at all, like one where a man shows off his collection of semen, supposedly gained by writing into celebrities (Hillary Clinton's cum makes an appearance). Films like "Two Boys and Some Rope" and "Kinks In The Castle" explore fetishes while exhibiting some truly hot sex and there's even a film noir tale told through penis puppetry. In one film a man masterbates outside as we hear the all-too-familiar contents of his Grindr conversations and in another transmen talk about what it's like receiving blowjobs after transitioning.
Jenna and her team's film, "Level Up," parodies old-school Nintendo games, following a female Link and her fairy guide as they fight the patriarchy in its many forms and finally f*** the patriarchy in a hot five person pansexual orgy featuring some truly stunning performers. This is the second film the videographer and sex enthusiast has created for HUMP! and she and her team is thrilled to bring a queer, feminist porn to the big screen, contributing to HUMP! and Savage's quest for sexual revolution.
"One of the reasons we have created – and continue to create – films for HUMP! is because of the desire to be part of that revolution, this amazing movement toward sexual liberation," she said. "Plus, we wanted to make the kind of porn we'd like to watch! Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of films out there that include things like pansexuality, politics, humor, and mixed-gender, bisexual group sex. And though the porn industry is growing with more homemade 'amateur' videos, the more we can contribute to the portrayal of porn actors as 'normal' people – beautiful people who are beautiful without bleached hair and bleached assholes – the better. Beautiful people who enjoy sex because it feels good, and it's fun. Novel concept, right?"
The HUMP! Film festival comes to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue, Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12 with showtimes at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Savage hosts both screenings and is also hosting a special live edition of his sex advice podcast Savage Love Live at the Music Box on Thursday. For more information and to purchase tickets check out https://gopride.com/Zc9o.
Only the often snarky, always sex-positive voice behind famed sex advice column Savage Love could birth a film festival simply by asking his readers to send in homemade dirty movies. This weekend, check out the 11th installment of HUMP!, Savage's touring film festival showcasing some of the funniest, hottest and most creative amateur porn you've ever seen.
Submissions come from across the country and hours of fleshy footage are screened to choose a final batch of films not for their production quality or perfectly waxed and toned stars, but for their ability to intrigue and titillate and even make audiences laugh. Performers and filmmakers alike are protected with the strictest anonymity and from that comes authentic amateur explorations of human sexuality.
"Growing up in middle-class, ticky-tacky, American white suburbia, I was fed the same heaping spoonful of bulls*** that many like me have been fed – that porn is just wrong, shameful, and dirty," Jenna, whose film "Level Up" won Best in Show this year, told ChicagoPride.com. "Mainstream porn has tainted the beauty of sex, and one of the many things I love about HUMP! is that it's taking the beauty of sex back; it's telling the world that filmed sex isn't just for this arbitrary ideal that the media deems worthy. It's for everyone. We're humans and we're sexual, and that's okay."
This year's festival features 22 under-five-minute films that span the breadth of human sexuality. They feature cis and trans performers of the gay, straight, bi, queer and pan persuasions. There are group orgies, cuckolds, and one-on-one screwing, porn with a plot and even some without sex, and it seems that this year that kink is king.
"We bill HUMP! as an amateur porn festival, but it's more than that," Savage, who will be hosting the festival's Chicago stop in person, says in the event's release. "It's rare for people to watch porn that takes them outside their comfort zones— it's rare for people to watch porn that, if they were home alone in front of the computer, they wouldn't choose to click on and watch."
"At HUMP! straight people watch gay porn, vanilla people watch kinky porn, gay people watch lesbian porn," he continued. " And people laugh, they gasp, sometimes they cover their eyes. But at the end of every film people clap and cheer. It's moving and wonderful and newcomers don't expect it. The whole festival is a celebration of sexual diversity."
The films are not only sexy, but creative. There's a parody of an old fashioned sex ed video (with a lot more flesh) and another of a Katy Perry song (with vaginal fisting and a trampoline orgy). There are beautifully shot videos of sex set to music, with or without a plot to accompany it, and films with no sex at all, like one where a man shows off his collection of semen, supposedly gained by writing into celebrities (Hillary Clinton's cum makes an appearance). Films like "Two Boys and Some Rope" and "Kinks In The Castle" explore fetishes while exhibiting some truly hot sex and there's even a film noir tale told through penis puppetry. In one film a man masterbates outside as we hear the all-too-familiar contents of his Grindr conversations and in another transmen talk about what it's like receiving blowjobs after transitioning.
Jenna and her team's film, "Level Up," parodies old-school Nintendo games, following a female Link and her fairy guide as they fight the patriarchy in its many forms and finally f*** the patriarchy in a hot five person pansexual orgy featuring some truly stunning performers. This is the second film the videographer and sex enthusiast has created for HUMP! and she and her team is thrilled to bring a queer, feminist porn to the big screen, contributing to HUMP! and Savage's quest for sexual revolution.
"One of the reasons we have created – and continue to create – films for HUMP! is because of the desire to be part of that revolution, this amazing movement toward sexual liberation," she said. "Plus, we wanted to make the kind of porn we'd like to watch! Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of films out there that include things like pansexuality, politics, humor, and mixed-gender, bisexual group sex. And though the porn industry is growing with more homemade 'amateur' videos, the more we can contribute to the portrayal of porn actors as 'normal' people – beautiful people who are beautiful without bleached hair and bleached assholes – the better. Beautiful people who enjoy sex because it feels good, and it's fun. Novel concept, right?"
The HUMP! Film festival comes to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue, Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12 with showtimes at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Savage hosts both screenings and is also hosting a special live edition of his sex advice podcast Savage Love Live at the Music Box on Thursday. For more information and to purchase tickets check out https://gopride.com/Zc9o.