Sexy Q&A: CineKink Film Festival founder Lisa Vandever on sex in cinema

On Sunday Lisa Vandever presented the 2011 CineKink Awards, concluding her 8th annual CineKink Film Festival in New York City (check out a slideshow roundup of the winning films here). Next up? The kinky film festival will be touring throughout the year with at least five stops across the United States (last year's tour stopped in Chicago, DC, Los Angeles, Portland, and Las Vegas; this year's tour dates haven't been announced yet), and, now that the madness of the weekend is past, I caught up with Vandever to learn more about the festival and ask about where it's all headed.

You had quite a program this year, with several longer feature films and dozens of shorts. How are the films selected for CineKink?

The films come to us in a variety of ways. We do a standard call for entries and we’re also registered with Withoutabox, a service that connects filmmakers and festivals. In addition, I spend a lot of time scouring other festivals’ offerings for things that sound like they might work – and get to as many festivals in person as I can.

In terms of selection, I’m first looking at its quality as a film. Does it tell the story well? And I’m also considering its sex-positive content – or lack thereof. We do get a certain percentage of films each year that have NOTHING to do with sex, likely over-eager filmmakers submitting their works scattershot. Once triage is complete, various themes start coming together and then somehow, magically, everything seems to snap into place.

CineKink always has a good mix of bigger films and tiny little indie surprises... Were there any "aha!" moments this year where you knew you'd discovered something really cool?

There were so many this year, it really doesn’t seem right to pinpoint any particular one. I have a real fondness for short films and this year we had so many stellar offerings, with awards going deservedly to a few especially strong contenders like Piss and Cactus. I was excited to offer up both Caged and Indietro as narrative fiction features, each in its own way managing to present explicit sex in a way that adds to rather than detracts from the story – and Kink Crusaders was a lovely celebration of the leather community, which CineKink itself was originally rooted in. One intriguing piece that got overlooked a bit is ‘Run Run It’s Him,’ an autobiographical documentary tracing one young man’s obsession with porn and the effect of that on his relationships over the years.

Reflecting back a bit, how has CineKink grown? Where's it heading?

CineKink NYC will remain the anchor of our annual season and I’d like to see it grow into even more of a destination event. This will be where most of our spectacle will take place. The tour, though, is a nice way to bring the gospel of sex-positivity out into the world and connect with new audiences. Ultimately, with the possibilities of online programming, I want CineKink to be the go-to place when someone is look for some smart and sexy storytelling.

How did you come to be involved with CineKink and what's your personal interest in these kinds of films?

It grew out of my combined passions for film and for kinky sex. I have a background in independent film and, at the time CineKink was founded, I was really hungry for an outlet for my creativity. I’d like to someday make my own films as well, though have been realizing how much personal satisfaction I get out of curating the programs and am feeling very content with that. Beyond my personal interest in, well, kinky sex, I also like creating a space where it’s possible to consider and talk about sexuality in all of its variety.

I'm curious... what's the gender split like in your audiences? Male? Female? Are there any communities that have a really strong representation?

We did our first audience survey this year and it’s pretty evenly split between those identifying as either male or female, with a small percentage noting themselves as ‘other’ or ‘genderqueer.’ We have a good proportion interested in BDSM and fetish, another good chunk interested in swinging and multiple partners. Perhaps most interesting, nearly half identified as either bisexual or pansexual – which says to me that we’re really managing to mix things up!

I've been writing about and thinking about the rise of feminist porn and the steady increase of female participation on both the industry side and consumer side of the sexy films biz... There's certainly been some history of objectification and exploitation with pornographic films, but I'm curious to hear your take on the extent to which women have reclaimed pornography, erotic films, and kinky art?

I’d say that a good half of our CineKink filmmakers are female and they’ve always had a strong showing in our rosters. That said, we represent something of an alternative to both the mainstream film industry and to the adult entertainment industry, just as much of the output of commercial Hollywood is pretty abysmal, so too is that coming out of Chatsworth. We provide an outlet for voices that might otherwise be shut out and, given our venue, it’s been very exciting to see more and more works over the years from female artists who are articulating sexuality for themselves.

What would you most like to see mentioned in a story on CineKink? Is there anything other media covering the festival have gotten wrong or anything they've been missing?

The thing I’d like to see highlighted the most is how accessible and not-at-all scary we are. People tend to see the words ‘sex’ and ‘porn’ and seem to be a bit nervous about checking us out. And once they get here, they’re delighted at how sweet and friendly everyone can be!

Stay tuned: I'll announce the 2011 CineKink Film Festival tour dates as they become available. Visit CineKink.com for information about how to bring the festival to a theater near you, and don''t Miss Sarah Estrella's ongoing Sexy Films reporting! For the latest Sex & Relationships headlines, please subscribe to this column (below) and follow @Sexaminer on Twitter.