(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Downtown Asbury Park will be the site of the first annual Asbury Park Erotic Film Festival this weekend (August 5-7). Erotic films from around the world throughout the decades will be screened at the Showroom (707 Cookman Avenue) while a variety of events will take place throughout the downtown centered on the theme "A Celebration of the Senses." The festival is presented by the Showroom Cinema and Parlor Gallery.
Here's a look at what is happening on Sunday, the closing day of the festival. We also have previews of FRIDAY and SATURDAY, as well as a look at the FESTIVAL EVENTS AROUND TOWN. Each day features several films running simultaneously.
1:00pm Shortbus
Drama/Comedy; Rated NR; 101M, 2006.
A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic-sexual milieu converge at an underground salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
1:30pm Black & White & Sex
Drama; Rated NR; 92M, Australia, 2012.
Producer John Winter (Rabbit-Proof Fence) makes his directorial debut with this unconventional film-within-a-film about a sex worker (played by eight different actresses) who reveals disarming truths about the oldest profession.
Prostitute. Hooker. Sex Worker. Whore. Candid and seductive, Angie is determined to set the record straight about sex. As she reveals herself, layer-by-layer, she also exposes the man who is interviewing her. Sometimes provocative and confronting, sometimes tender, poignant and sexy, Black & White & Sex takes you behind the scenes and into Angies very special world. There's a question here for every man and an answer for every woman. Anyone who pays is welcome – but leave your expectations at the door sex is never black and white.
2:00pm Secretary
Drama/Comedy; Rated R; 104M, 2002.
A powerful and unique love story that toys with our expectations of love, sexuality and intimacy. Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a young woman with a history of severe emotional problems, is released into the care of her overbearing parents following a stay at a mental institution. She finds work as a secretary for a rigid and demanding attorney, E. Edward Grey (James Spader), and starts dating the kind but dull Peter (Jeremy Davies). However, Lee soon realizes she's turned on by Grey's stern demeanor, and begins a sadomasochistic relationship with him.
4:00pm Getting Go: The Go Doc Project
Drama; Rated NR; 100M, 2013.
A young man (Tanner Cohen) who's obsessed with a hunky go-go dancer (Matthew Camp) decides to make a film about New York City's nightlife so that he can meet the object of his affection. A shy but smitten college boy pursues a NY go-go boy through the pretext of making a documentary film about him, with the guys knowing each other only as "Doc" and "Go."
4:15pm Crash
Drama; Rated NC-17; 100M, 1997.
The immediate subject matter of Crash is the strange lure of the auto collision, provoking as it does the human fascination with death and the tendency to eroticize danger. Most motorists will slow down to stare at the scene of a collision; they may feel their pulses quickening and become exquisitely aware of the fragility of their own bodies. The characters of Crash carry this awareness a step further, cherishing and nurturing it. For them, a car collision is a sexual turn-on, and a jolting life-force they come to crave.
6:00pm Ellen Stagg: A Career In Erotic Photography (live event)
Ellen Stagg is one of the most well-known American nude photographers. Stagg has also shot a 13 minute short, "Scrapbooking" starring Charlotte Stokely and Anthony Sneed. "Boy meets girl, girl loves to Scrapbook." Dark comedy about the perils of modern dating. During Stagg's talk she will demonstrate her Lomokinos and talk about her career and then show "Scrapbooking" with a Q&A after the film.
6:15pm Taxi-Zum-Klo
Comedy; Rated NR; 92M, German, 1980.
This very frank German film is a study of the life of gay elementary school teacher Frank Ripploh. The teacher's multitude of sexual adventures are thoroughly and explicitly detailed. Those willing to tough it out will be in for a remarkable experience, laced with wit, humor, and poignancy.
‘Taxi Zum Klo' is a true story, full of humour, tenderness, passion, longing, sex, erotica and pain. A story that is as colorful and varied, as common and exciting as the life and scene in which it portrays: the gay and leather community of 1970's Berlin. ‘Taxi Zum Klo' is authentic and honest, a film that does not have to take anything into consideration.
6:30pm Pleasure or Pain
Drama; Rated NR; 99M, South Korea, 2013.
A wealthy real estate developer takes a young woman from an everyday mundane life and shows her a world of decadence and debauchery that pushes her sexual limits to the brink.
For more information on the festival, visit www.aperoticfilmfestival.com
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