DARRYL’S HARD LIQUOR AND PORN FILM FESTIVAL Saturday (November 17) at the Projection Booth East. hardliquorandporn.com. Rating: NNN
Begun as a private party by filmmaker and special effects wizard Darryl Gold, Darryl’s Hard Liquor And Porn Film Festival is still going strong 11 years later. Judging from a sample of this year’s couple of dozen amusing shorts about sex (note: there’s nothing hardcore), it shows no sign of lagging.
One of the highlights is Tram, Michaela Pavlátová’s wordless animated film about a lonely, bosomy streetcar operator who obviously gets off on her ride, playfully caressing the vehicle’s levers and knobs while fantasizing about the anonymous men on board.
Various interruptions – including one very funny cat on the road – interrupt her carnal musings, which climax in a hilarious scene involving her ticket box and a tram full of phalluses, all scored to the finale of Carnival Of The Animals. The animation is lively, the sound evocative and the denouement actually touching.
Another fine entry is Jack Tew’s One Night Stand, in which a young woman wakes up and tries to locate her clothes in her pickup’s messy bedroom without waking him up. It’s a simple premise, but it’s beautifully acted and executed.
Finally, Olivier Bonenfant’s Certified Organic sends up people’s obsession with all things fair trade and organic by applying these labels to a sexual encounter between a prostitute and a very picky john.
If you need to pee and can’t wait for the program’s after-party, take a washroom break during Freudian Ship, a sloppy, one-note look at Semen Freud and Karl Hung’s (get it?) sexual shenanigans aboard a 1909 ocean liner.
