"PORN?! But that's what the internet is for!"
Indeed, that is what the internet is for. But the HUMP! Film Festival isn't about honing in on the online videos that cater to your specific proclivities. It's bigger than that.
Every year HUMP! (helmed by Savage Love columnist Dan Savage) puts out the call to sex-havers everywhere to submit a homegrown, amateur porn film depicting whatever they're into (barring poop, kids, and animals, of course). The result is an incredibly diverse representation of human sexuality in all its straight, gay, trans, kinky, funny, pissy, painful, and pretty forms. (And then it goes away, allowing the filmmakers to go back to their normal lives, thanks to the festival's strict privacy and security policies.)
That diversity is also reflected in HUMP!'s audiences, making for a unique theater experience where you get to peek at proclivities you might not otherwise encounter, while the person sitting next to you might be seeing your everyday kind of sex for the very first time. In a world where fear and ignorance breed hatred, HUMP!'s demystifying inclusivity is on the frontline of deflecting destructive alienation. (You also might surprise yourself by getting turned on by something unexpected.)
- JAMES JEFFREY
