Porn, Torture and Torture Porn: “Graphic Sexual Horror,” Interview with co-director Anna Lorentzon

Originally published at SpoutBlog:

Porn, Torture and Torture Porn: GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR, Interview with co-director Anna Lorentzon

Watching “Graphic Sexual Horror,” Anna Lorentzon and Barbara Bell’s nonfiction look behind the rise and fall of heavy BDSM porn site Insex.com, the first thought that came to my mind was from my film critic’s perspective: “How’s this gonna play in Peoria?” And the second thought was inevitably from my submissive’s perspective: “Is this gonna give my lifestyle a bad name?”

There is no pat answer to either question, which is why I was so thrilled that co-director Lorentzon found time to let me pick her brain prior to the film’s East Coast premiere at this year’s CineKink Film Festival, on Friday, February 27th at 11:10 pm at Anthology Film Archives. (Full disclosure: “Un Piede di Roman Polanski,” an homage to Roman Polanski’s foot fetish by myself and Roxanne Kapitsa, will screen the following evening as part of the festival’s “Twisted Knickers” shorts program at 6:45 pm. Stop on by!)

But as I finally sat down to discuss the doc with director Lorentzon, who worked as a producer at Insex.com from 1999 until the site was strong-armed by Homeland Security into closing, I found I didn’t have any questions for her – merely some very strong reactions that I hoped she could shed some light on. So it actually took me by surprise to discover that the issues I was struggling with as an audience member were the same issues that prompted the filmmakers to make the film, and ones that they still struggle with to this day. Frustratingly, there are no answers to the ethical questions “torture porn” raises – only a Pandora’s Box of more questions. So I guess the best one can do is approximate that struggle in image and word.

Lauren Wissot: “The reality of how something is made doesn’t necessarily correlate with what it looks like,” the model Lorelei says in the film. Watching “Graphic Sexual Horror” I thought of Errol Morris’ doc “Standard Operating Procedure,” and its whole premise that those infamous Abu Ghraib photos pave the way for more questions than they answer. For people not in the BDSM scene site founder PD’s artwork and the Insex scenes look like snuff films, pure and simple, but to someone like me who’s been involved in that world for 14 years they look like standard operating procedure for a heavy sub session.

Anna Lorentzon: It’s only because they see something sexual that someone might see Insex.com as real, as snuff. But obviously everything we did there was staged, and all the girls gave their consent to participate. It’s interesting that people don’t worry about the women in horror films getting tortured because they know it’s fake – yet they’re disturbed by Insex.com faking torture?

LW: Yeah, even though producers obviously hire pretty young things to get axed in horror films for the sexual titillation! I think Insex.com exposes this uncomfortable truth, which is another reason it might disturb people. But the site is really more like pro wrestling – where yes, it’s staged, and yes, the bruises are real.

AL: Yes.

LW: Also, one of my favorite parts of your film is the “screen test” footage, only in this case potential models tell the camera, “I’ve been instructed to use the name yx,” (which simultaneously has sci-fi and losing one’s identity to slavery overtones) or are asked (for legal purposes, I assume), “Are you O.K. with bruises and rope burns?” rather than recount any personal history. What stood out for me was the one crucial question that should have been asked but wasn’t, “Are you O.K. with someone hijacking your head?” For that’s really what these girls were consenting to. The irony is that a lot of these women viewed Insex as an alternative to stripping or “porn.” But this is fucking – they’re getting mind-fucked!

AL: Yes, but I think that in most situations in life you don’t know what you’re getting into. There was one guy in the audience at Slamdance who compared it to the corporate world he was a part of. Firms don’t tell you when they hire you that you’re going to be working sixteen-hour days, what you have to do to get that bonus. No company does that. They’ll push you to your limit as well – the only difference maybe is that the corporate world does it over an extended period of time. The girls at Insex worked short intense shifts, a day, or a week at a time.

LW: Yes, but at least for me the fact that PD repeatedly hired models that were neither lifestyle nor professional subs struck me as completely unethical. Participating in a heavy session requires training and skills that few of these women seemed to possess. PD never properly screened potential employees in the first place. But I guess the fact that both PD and the girls got greedy, got so corrupted by the money flowing in that they did things they otherwise never would have done, is also a great analogy for our current economic crisis.

AL: But greed also forces people to have to make a decision about what they’ll consent to – and hopefully to grow from that decision.

LW: I think the other big mistake PD made was in not realizing that his artistic passion had become a business. It’s the same thing that happens to a lot of lifestyle doms who transition to pro; they don’t understand that what they do with their personal slaves is not always translatable to “for hire” gigs. Isn’t this often the case, though, with unstable artists who don’t have a clue once money becomes involved? I mean, look at Mickey Rourke!

AL: But I think PD’s greatest problem is that he’s a control freak.

LW: (laughing) Well, yeah, he’s a master!

AL: Right. But he’s not a businessman – he’s an artist. If he could have given up that control and hired someone to manage Insex he wouldn’t have been under the stress that caused him to make all the bad decisions. We did those interviews with PD after Insex had closed and he was a lot calmer, a lot more able to admit his failings. His openness and ability to reflect surprised me.

LW: One of my favorite quotes is when PD calls that “glassy eyed” euphoric state some of the models reach the “money shot,” for he’s absolutely right. Though Insex specializes in torture porn it’s different from both snuff films and hetero and gay male porn in that it’s female climax-centric. No men are having orgasms onscreen. Also, the whole artistic collaboration between master and slave, PD and especially the model Lorelei, one of the few true subs interviewed, captures the essence of BDSM play. The women at Insex may be hogtied and caned but they aren’t disrespected.

AL: Yes, it’s all about the woman. Which is also why, as one guy in the film says, he couldn’t get his girlfriend to do a lot of things in the bedroom, but once the camera was turned on at Insex she’d do almost anything. It’s the issue of the spotlight – pride – wanting to impress the audience.

LW: But it’s also really refreshing that you got PD to talk about his serial killer fascination on camera, for some of the best BDSM players are the ones with the darkest fantasies, who allow themselves to explore in a safe environment rather than keeping desire down and exploding – and as a result, raping and murdering pretty young things picked up in a bar.

AL: Yes, and we even used to hear from a lot of members saying that Insex provided an outlet, that now they didn’t feel the need to transfer those fantasies to real life. And with the models I can’t think of even one girl who was psychologically harmed as a result of working for the site.

LW: If they were psychologically disturbed they were probably that way before they got to Insex. Speaking of real life, Metal Man also brings up a great point when he says that where he’s from in Eastern Europe they torture people who don’t want to be tortured, and “Here we torture people who want to be tortured – and we pay them. We’re the criminals?” The fact that Homeland Security harassed Insex, that the credit card companies now control our content, is the real pornography – every bit as disturbing as the corruption by money endemic in the sex industry.

AL: Well, governments like to keep their monopoly on torture.

LW: (laughing) Well said!