Vivid Entertainment's alternative arm, Vivid-Alt, will be included in the Silver Lake Film Festival's "Alt Porn" showcase on May 5 in Los Angeles. The festival will feature selections from various alt porn features, chosen by the filmmakers themselves, along with in-person appearances by the directors and performers.
The 120-minute showcase will feature excerpts from director Vena Virago's Silverlake Scenesters and Eastside Story, Octavio Winkytiki's The Rebelle Rousers and Man's Ruin, and company head Eon Mckai's Girls Lie. The program also includes the X-rated work of directors Ron Royster (Alternative Wolrdz Atlanta, Atomic Vixens), Benny Profane (Barbed Wire Kiss, Stagger Lee) and Joe Gallant (The Skin Trade, Ave X).
"It's a really interesting trend in film festivals, that they're starting to take notice of alt porn," Vivid-Alt head, Eon McKai, told AVN.com. "I remember being at the first porn film festival in Berlin [in January] and thinking this was the coolest thing ever...and all of a sudden, when we get back, Silver Lake Film Festival is ready to do a showcase."
The festival calls the alt porn movement "one of the fastest growing genres in XXX film…incorporating elements of performance art and avant-garde film techniques with depictions of hardcore sexual encounters. No silicone implants, no soft-focus mood lighting, no body paint to hide blemishes…just straight-out sex scenes shot in Eastside lofts and studios and set to underground dance music."
"The Silver Lake Film Festival is a very respectable festival," continued McKai, "and so it's really exciting to be recognized. It also proves that there's a sort of legitimacy to what we're doing. A lot of people question why we put so much work into something that they feel is just porn…but this puts a stamp of approval, in some ways, on what we've been doing. It's a great honor.
"A lot of the alt. internet stuff was about the way the girls looked, now that it's getting released out there on video, we're using a lot of new techniques in the way it's being shot…we're doing it for a new generation."
Now in its seventh year, the Silver Lake Film Festival is Los Angeles' leading independent-alternative film and arts event. The festival, which is shown over seventeen venues, will feature eighteen feature films, nine documentaries and more than 100 short films this year.
The May 5 alt-porn showcase will screen at 11:45 p.m. at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre (1822 North Vermont Ave.) The showing is open to everyone, 18 and over. To purchase tickets, click here.
