INSEX is one of the most hardcore S&M sites on the web, with over 30,000 international subscribers. This doc takes you behind the scenes where founder, PD, cuffs the girls, spanks them, makes them bleed, simulates drowning them, twists their tits until they turn blue, buggers them with sticks, mummifies them with PVC and hangs them from the ceiling, pulls their nostrils back and pours hot sauce on their vaginas. Sounds fun, eh? The film documents interviews from a variety of the girls who work for PD and discuss their experiences, from being empowering to feeling like rape. Throughout the story, the FBI investigates PD and compares his work to that of serial rapists and murderers. At times Graphic Sexual Horror is visually beautiful and at other times it will make you feel like vomiting; certainly a film that evokes discussion surrounding sexual mores and the role of women in this particular genre of the sex industry. You will also question whether PD is just a kinky guy or a complete threat to society.
How were you first introduced to Insex and what was your initial reaction?
I started working for PD as a photographer, and was very shocked photoshopping images on my first day. But after the first shoot, I realized that it was just that, a shoot, not non-consensual torture.
What prompted you to make a documentary about Insex?
Barb and I wanted to do a project together and as she had been at the Insex studio several times she saw the potential. After completing the film I realized that I needed to process my experiences of working there.
Do you think what PD is doing is dangerous?
Except for the tank, the sets were tested and everything rehearsed. The physical danger was very much minimized. The psychological danger is about setting your own limits, something we should trust adults to do. Even if they are women.
What common thread did you discover with the women who actively participate in the S&M tapings?
Whether they were doing it for money or the experience, the vast majority were exhibitionists.
Do you find PD’s work to be beautiful or scary?
At the best it was beautiful, like a dance between him and the model.
What did you enjoy most about making this documentary?
How the story, and our perception of the story changed and deepened while editing. We had envisioned something completely different, a light hearted piece showing that these were just regular people in a not so regular work environment, with a lot of bizarre and comical things happening in the midst of the horrific-looking shoots. But the interviews we got were so great, people had processed their experience and matured from it in a way we were not expecting.
What was the most challenging aspect of making this documentary?
Focusing. We could have made a series of 10 episodes, had so much material, so many different aspects we could include.
In the process of Directing Graphic Sexual Horror, did you find yourself more open to sexual experimentation?
No. Actually the opposite.
Do you consider the women involved to be exploited?
Not in any other way then people without money or power are routinely exploited in capitalist societies.
What discourse do you hope Graphic Sexual Horror will provoke amongst audiences?
That everybody who has to work for money is always making a choice: What am I willing to do for this amount of money? Whether the industry is bondage porn or corporate fashion, (as an audience member at Slamdance remarked on the similarities.) And that the answer to why something is shocking or revolting lies within yourself.
