Note: this article contains content that some readers may find offensive.
It’s not your average film festival by any means. In fact, referring to it as an adult film fest—even in Long Beach—doesn’t describe the strangeness that is the HUMP! short film festival.
Created and curated by provocateur and writer Dan Savage, HUMP! is in its ninth year after premiering in Seattle and Portland in 2005. Come its second year, nearly 1,400 tickets were sold to 14 shows with people clambering to see one thing: locally made amateur porn.
Forget the silicone, the clear high-heels, the skinny, the gonzo-style-let’s-just-go-straight-to-screwing. HUMP! is about celebrating the odd, the common, and even the downright beautiful aspect of watching strangers have sex on screen. (Be it straight, gay, bi or… none of the above?)
Of course, this isn’t to say you won’t see good ol’ honest hardcore porn (there was a category for Best Hardcore which has now been abandoned). With titles such D&D Orgy and Pie Sluts, along with descriptions such as “A man, a plan, a butt plug” or “E.T. has returned and E.T. is more than his ‘best friend’—wink!” HUMP! is sure to bring out the strangest of sensations in all its viewers.
Even more, the audience acts as the jury, picking and choosing the shorts they felt were the funniest, kinkiest, sexiest, and best in show.
“We bill HUMP! as an amateur porn festival, but it’s more than that,” Savage said. “It’s rare for people to watch porn that takes them outside their comfort zones; it’s rare for people to watch porn that, if they were home alone in front of the computer, they wouldn’t choose to click on and watch.”
As is custom at HUMP!, when the final screening shows, the films are destroyed in an effort to remind viewers that they shared something unique to them and them alone.
Savage goes on to call the festival a “celebration of sexual diversity” where all people—straight, gay, bi, lesbian and everything in between—watch the sex of others with awe, humor, disturbance, or outright curiosity and enjoyment.
HUMP! will be nearly an hour-and-a-half of shorts, with three screenings to show at the Art Theatre on April 12: 5PM, 7PM, and 9PM. Tickets are $20 and are available by clicking here.
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