FILTH! Reel One

Placing together queer history and queer presence in Cinema, we ask you to enter and expand the annals of Queer Film. With this series we showcase queer erotica past and present, centralizing queer desire to remind us of our histories. From vintage arthouse pornos, 90 backroom home movies, 00s web boom, we contextualize queer desire through multiple lenses. As we fight for physical queer spaces today and find ourselves equipped with cameras/computers in our pockets and generations of underseen queer history at our disposal, where do we go?


*This* is our proposal to you, but let us warn you… it’s FILTHY!

CONTENT WARNING: This event is 18+ and includes themes of: sexual liberation, intimacy, the Universe, fucking, and the nature within us all. This sometimes, but does not always, include visual or audio material that could be labeled "pornographic".
At present the FILTH! Series consists of 4 programming blocks with run time ~60-75 minutes. We have shown Reel 1 in Chicago, Austin, and New York City. Additional iterations have shown in Milwaukee, with a more direct community approach through matinee events, workshops, and open floor community conversation. The following information is specific to Reel 1, additional reels can be screened after a first event. This reel is also available on VHS via VXPX.
We work directly with the artists, who have agreed to share their work for a percentage share at each new venue the program screens. These films are interspliced with archival clips from The Vault.
This addition featured a special live score organ perfomance by Noah Smith.

FILTH! Reel 1 Current Films:

Hole Theory - Mahx Capacity (they/them) |AORTA films|

“The hole is not the entry nor the exit--it is the infinite interior, the space which cannot be Seen, only Felt.”
Hole expert Ashely Paige (she/her) and expert hole Corey More (they/them) star in this visceral meditation on the gloriousness of holes. With interdimensional illustrations by Oona Taper and sound design by Paleo Pony aka Jonah Rosenberg, Hole Theory explores the cosmic unknowability of that which engulfs. “Holes are the original time travel. You come out more yourself than you were when you entered: rearranged, holy, new. Holes make you whole.” Trust us. We know holes.

Crawl With Me - Nixie Mae (he/him) |Berlin|

A short film shot with Ian Munro and Luke Davis in the abandoned logging forest of Ballybawn, Ireland.

IS THIS LIBERATION? - M.O. Guzman (they/them) |Milwaukee|

A conversation about lusting after Jesus. A desperate cry to the Holy Mother. Songs about God and destroying the world. Drug induced erotic fantasies of Mothman. Is this the way? Is that the light?

Fantasy + - sweatmother (he/they) |London|

fantasy+ examines humans natural animalistic tendencies

The Multiverse in a Mouthfuck - Jorge The Obscene (he/him) |Chile|

Enter the multiverse deep within yourself, this film touches on so many properties of humanity making it not only a mouthfuck but a mindfuck as well. Join Jorge the Obscene in a club as Jorge is struck by a stream of thoughts drawing him closer to a stranger. Jorge finds himself deepthroating this stranger as all these thoughts race through his mind—“Find our own truth”,“Will it”—prompting Jorge to question the very standards we are taught to believe uphold sex and sexuality.

Clips from The Vault:

Spliced between these contemporary films, we showcase segments of works of decades past that create a throughline of queerness, self expression, and media over decades. The clips are curated to match thematically to the current works.
If you would like to know more about exhibited clips please reach out to SeenMovingImage@gmail.com

Rot Skin Voyeur- Autojektor

celluloid becomes flesh//
the emulsion decays//
the body performs unknowingly//
but we still watch//
skin and acetate become one//
they fuck// they rot//

While the rest of the program can be brought home with you (for the first time!) on VHS tapes by VXPX, Noah Smith's organ live score film is a one time opportunity.