Cannes Film Directors Take The Porn Out Of Sex

I read an interesting article from Reuters yesterday. Apparently a few artsie film directors are challenging the value of mainstream porn by using graphic (antiseptic?) sexual images in their cinematic efforts. Let's just let them speak for themselves.

"There are kids who have seen pornography from a very early age, before they are gonna ever have sex," says Larry Clark, director of a compilation of explicit sex stories called 'Destricted'. "(Many people) are looking at pornography and they are thinking that this is the way to have sex."

John Cameron Mitchell believes pornography is the manifestation of repressed sexuality in our society. His film, 'Shortbus', depicts untrained actors fucking and masturbating in front of the camera in order to demystify the sex act. One scene features three gay men getting it on while singing 'The Star Spangled Banner'.

"I really believe our country needs to take a look at that stuff," Mitchell said. "You crush something, it pops up somewhere else, it comes back to haunt you."

Danish director Anders Morgenthaler uses the medium of animation to express his dark view of pornography. 'Princess' is the story of a priest who vows to destroy his dead porn star sister's movie collection while raising her disturbed 5 year old daughter.

"I decided to make a film about porn influence in society because I saw porn seeking its way into everything, into clothes or toys," Morgenthaler told Reuters. "There is a 'porn way' of selling things because it sells very well. I got very angry at the role of porn."

Valid points to be sure.

We do not choose our passions, we can only choose how we act on the things that move us deeply. I don't believe that pornography is necessarily a negative influence. In fact, a lot of pornography, in the form of books, films, poetry and photographs, can enrich and give depth to the human sexual experience. That's the whole point of PornTribe.

Still, there's no question that this country's fascination with porn and sex has all the qualities of obsession. But doesn't obsession have something valuable to teach us about ourselves?

In his book, The Soul of Sex, Thomas Moore illustrates this point beautifully.

"We display outrageously and obsessively that which we do not fully possess or have deeply at our disposal. If we are displaying sex with unseemly exaggeration and preoccupation, then we have not found the heart of sex and made it a fully integrated part of individual and social life."

I believe that pornography can be a part of that process of integration. If we look at porn as a tool, or even as just a wonderful plaything, we might be able to better understand ourselves as sexual beings. I wonder if the Cannes directors used their talents to excite and inspire the whole human sexual imagination, rather than attempt to sterilize it, we wouldn't be much better off.

Free your sex, free yourself.