The NYC Porn Film Festival is happening this weekend in Brooklyn. The wide selection of films to be shown across Saturday and Sunday leave no perversion or persuasion unchecked. There is sure to be something for everyone there, so check out the program here.
I was lucky to talk with one of the film festival’s participants, Reverent Phil of Bike Smut fame. You might remember some years back THE SEX FILES covering the World Naked Bike Ride (see here), well for the past nine years Reverend Phil has been traveling the world showing films, lecturing, leading the good cause of bike traveling, porn and that famous bike ride. He will be presenting on Sunday at the film festival (and in Philly on Friday) and was nice enough to give us time from his busy schedule to discuss bikes, porn and everything in between.
This is the first time in a while you’ve come ‘out east’ right?
Yes, it’s been a few years. Most recently I have been in Amsterdam, Bristol, London, L.A. and Nuremberg, but this weekend we will be in Philly and then Brooklyn.
Do you find certain pockets of the states, the world in fact, more receptive to your films than others?
Well, the more places one travels to the more positives and negatives one might encounter. (Phil laughs). As you can imagine in cities where Christianity is dug in deep, you often find people a bit reluctant to view naughty material. Though, on the east coast of America, we have come up against as many great showings, as one’s that have been challenging.
Interesting. As someone who lives here I always thought we were quite a bit liberal to sexuality, porn, etc.
Well, fortunately I’ve generally found good showings for our films here, but in the east coast specifically it just might be that you have so many options for people to enjoy; it might be a question of supply and demand. There are just so many places to get out, to go enjoy something that entertains you. To be sure the challenges that we’ve encountered, pockets of it though it has been, is not that overall God-fearing ethic you might find in the heart of Texas… but then again, every bit of Dallas was hard, Houston was great and Austin was incredible to us. Go figure.
Who makes up most of your audience, bike riders, porn aficionados?
It’s funny, those two groups sometimes have the hardest time with what we present.
Why, I’d think something called Bike Smut would be a natural for bike riders and porn lovers.
Bike riders often look at what they do as a very vulnerable lifestyle…which it is. Let’s face it, one is easily labeled a bike rider when one comes to work holding a bike helmet and all too often bikers are crowded off the road or worse by motorists. These riders take their riding seriously, almost as something pure from their childhood, and I have found lots do not like the idea of bike riding mixing with pornography.
Porn lovers on the other hand, while you’d think liberal in their mindset, often can’t see how a bike or bike riding could play into the smut they seek. Very often, like bike riders, that have a specific, the-twain-shall-not-meet point of view over what we try to present, and don’t take to us sexualizing inanimate objects like our bikes.
Actually, I find those folks with no ‘dog in the race,’ who like both bike riding and porn both, but are not exactly ardent fans of either, have the best time viewing our films.
You told me you’ve gone from presenting 60 to 70 shows a year down to twenty now, is it a case of you just getting tired, or are economics a factor as well?
Well, yes it is hard to find micro-theaters to show the films in, latch onto something as well put together as the NYC Porn Festival, find people to network with in the community, get the word out. But more than that, I have a home now where I didn’t for so many years. I’d like to spend time now where I live. Before, I could just keep touring with Bike Smut because I was simply living on the road, but I’m not doing that any longer.
So what’s the future for Bike Smut and these programs you take across the world?
All along I have gone with the films to make sure they are shown correctly. To keep the commitment to the people who made them, to make sure they are handled and presented in an adult atmosphere, with discretion and for an open discussion about sexuality.  Doing this though takes a commitment and though I want to see it all continue, I’d like to also find people I can trust to take the reigns from me when I want to, to continue the program in the style we have always presented these films. As of right now, I’m not so sure how to do this, and I do welcome any and all suggestions.
Maybe this east coast jaunt will open up some heretofore unrealized possibilities.
Again check out the NYC Porn Film Festival This Weekend and go on over to the Bike Smut site.
