HUMP! is an annual film festival that began in Seattle, and as the name unabashedly suggests, it’s all about porn.
Curated by sex-advice pundit and gay activist Dan Savage, the October festival showcases home-movie erotica, amateur sex cinema, and locally produced pornography, with entries made specifically for the festival. The films are watched, rated, and awards are given. On the last day of HUMP!, Dan Savage ceremoniously destroys all the films submitted.
But unlike how it may seem, this festival isn’t about titillation. “It’s more of a porn-themed celebration of diversity, sexual interests, gender — everything. And it’s really a blast,” says Savage. In the beginning, people were quite sceptical about people’s reaction to the festival, but once the idea was put forth, submissions started pouring in, and tickets were sold out. Since then, it has been a roaring success, and has travelled to Portland, Minneapolis and even Baltimore.
(Image via: citypages.com)
From James Bond parodies to “a vagina playing the french horn, vegetable fantasies (featuring grape costumes), and some good, old-fashioned unicorn sex”, nothing is too much or too little for this festival. The sex positive, friendly atmosphere welcomes all. Dan Savage takes pride in this fact.
“For the first five or six films — when you’ve got cis-gendered people watching trans porn, gay guys watching lesbian porn, vanilla people watching some really hardcore kinky porn — everybody is sort of thrown back in their seats. Then, about halfway through, the entire audience is cheering and clapping. At first, all they can see is what’s different: ‘I’m straight, not gay. I’m vanilla, not kinky. I’m cis-gendered, not trans, or not attracted to trans bodies.’ Then people begin to see what’s exactly the same: desire, lust, love, humor, vulnerability, passion. All of that is more important than the thin layer of difference on the surface.”
(Image via: thestranger.com)
The idea of watching porn in public may sound extremely weird at first, but in a strange way, it does work to bring people together. With HUMP! hitting more and more cities every year, it may be on its way to revolutionise the way Americans address sex in public.
Take a look at this video of the 2013 Portland edition: