made in secret: the story of the east van porn collective
bildwechsel glasgow presents
made in secret: the story of the east van porn collective
Canada 2004 86mins main feature + extras
at CCA, 16th November, 7pm, free event
“A thought-provoking and genre-bending look behind the scenes of what might be the world’s only underground DIY anarcho-feminist porn collective. It isn’t fact. It isn’t fiction. It isn’t even the typically Canadian ‘somewhere in between.’ It’s something else altogether. And if we could ask one thing of you as you watch our little movie, it would be that you try to create a new category for it in your mind.”
“Made in Secret is an engaging, inspiring and deliciously perplexing labour of love, made over the course of three years by a group of friends who wanted to make a documentary about their local anarcho-feminist porn collective. The only problem was, that collective didn’t exist. And so, in order to make the film, they actually became the anarcho-feminist porn collective that they so passionately wanted to document. So is the resulting film a documentary? A fictional drama? Even the collective doesn’t know anymore. And ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because the movie isn’t about what happened or what didn’t happen—it’s about what’s possible. And the possibilities are huge, transcending the quest for egalitarian porn and touching at very heart of how we engage with others and with the world around us.”
“A little bit of utopia does actually exist in the world.”
Cheryl Eddy, San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Forget for a second that the word “porn” is in the title – it’s the concept of “collective” that makes this doc extraordinary. Ostensibly a fly-on-the-wall look at the cuddly Vancouver creatives who work together to make “sexy movies” – i.e., DIY porn – Made in Secret is more compelling for its depiction of working by consensus instead of by majority rule. It’s fun watching the group members plan and film their latest opus (a “pan-sexual romp” dubbed BikeSexual), and everyone involved belies their cutesy nom de porn (Muffy, Mr. Pants, etc.) by being hyperarticulate. One member explains that the goal is to make “positive propaganda against the negative propaganda in the hegemony of porn.” But when another member creates a stir by suggesting BikeSexual be shown at an alterna-porn festival – which would mark the first time one of their films would be shown to a non-EVPC audience – the ardently fair approach the members take when dealing with conflict illustrates that a little bit of utopia does actually exist in the world.”
www.eastvanporncollective.org