The long-running porn festival HUMP! Fest (organized by Chicago Reader sex columnist Dan Savage) made its way to the Music Box last weekend after being canceled last year.
Crammed into the theater, kinksters, queers, and film buffs once again had a rip-roaring raunchy time while fisting, needle play, and clown sex was unveiled onscreen through genres of comedy, horror, and animation.
What makes HUMP—which kicked off its 17th year—so thrilling is, of course, watching porn on the big screen, but it’s also the crowd’s whoops and hollers throughout the screening. No one sits silently in this theater. When Dan Savage pops up on the screen, the crowd cheers. When he looks at the screen and says, “No jerking off!” the crowd laughs. When the first film—ASMR art performance piece 1,000 Years—begins, the crowd whispers and then shouts, “Damn!” and, “Impressive!” as the actor pulls—excruciatingly slowly—a long plastic material from their vagina. They then ball it up and stuff it into their mouth as the gagging sounds vibrate through the theater. So, it begins.
HUMP’s decision to begin the screening with 1,000 Years is a serious, experimental display, as the rest of the hour-and-a-half journey includes much lighter, laughable content. What surprised me about the festival is the constant humor in each film. Sex is, after all, hilarious. But some took it to new lengths.
A piece that has stuck in my mind since leaving the Lakeview theater is Circus Birth, a playful and surreal film directed by Rachel Britton (who has a solo show at the Leather Archives until June 2022) and her partner J. Boese. The Grand Rapids photographer sets the scene playing a clown having sex with another clown, tying them down with restraints (aka balloons). Suddenly, a boner appears. A long orange balloon erratically emerges from the clown’s pants as Britton begins to give the balloon a blow (er, balloon) job. The film has no dialogue, only wonky deranged carnival music that is met with squeaks during each hump and act of penetration. Eventually, the climax happens, and glitter explodes all over Britton’s chest in a final act of buffoonery.
But not all films were surreal like Britton’s. L’Ingrediente Principale, a film written, directed, and produced by Isis & Haley, incorporates shots of food in between moments of cunnilingus paired with dripping honey and fisting paired with chopping garlic. One of the last scenes includes bodily fluid being flung onto the wall. A shot of spaghetti thrown onto the wall mimics the same action.
In an age where we can typically turn on porn from our phones, watching experimental erotica on a big screen is reminiscent of adult film theaters in the 60s and 70s. However, unlike mainstream porn throughout history, HUMP! eradicates heteronormativity that highlights thin, white bodies and gives viewers a chance to see real, honest sex.
When TransTrent, an adult content creator and avid gamer, was riding in a car, he had the idea to create a POV daddy-kink porn that spoke directly to the nonspecific gender audience. He’s fairly new to filmmaking and started making adult content toward the end of 2020 with his production partner. “We started making adult content with the desire to make high-quality but realistic porn. I wanted to create adult films that felt authentic, like you’re right there with me.” TransTrent’s film, Daddy’s T-Dick, was not his first film, but it was the first film that he shared with such a large audience. “It’s important to me because it is the first time I called myself ‘daddy’ in an adult film,” he said.
Daddy’s T-Dick is shot from a POV perspective, with Trent using a fleshlight and speaking directly to the object. Towards the end of the short, the camera pans to his face and upper body.
“When I started, there weren’t many masculine-presenting transmen with boobs in adult films, and while it took me a while to share that part of myself online, it was a huge reason why I started,” he said. “The support I received when I did share my chest was immense, kind, and loving. It changed the way I interact with my body, no longer a dirty secret to hide, but rather something to embrace. This is why I wanted to include my chest in my HUMP! submission and you do get to see my boobs in Daddy’s T-Dick.” And that’s the magic of HUMP!. All body types are celebrated onscreen, up close, and personal.
After all of the “oohs” and “ahhs,” viewers filed out of the theater. Thirst, horniness, and a readiness to unabashedly clown around walked back onto the streets of Chicago after almost two hours of riveting porn. While not everything at HUMP! is someone’s cup of tea, you’ll be sure to find at least one thing that scratches your itch.
If you missed this year’s HUMP!, the films can be streamed online.
