Dan Savage's HUMP! Porn Film Festival Coming to L.A.

LOS ANGELES—Prominent sex-positive pundit/activist Dan Savage's HUMP! Film Festival has been described as the "Sexiest, Funnest, Most Creative Dirty Movie Fest in the World," and being familiar with Savage's previous works—among them, the It Gets Better website for persecuted gays, MTV's Savage U. educational TV series and his newspaper column Savage Love—we figure that's got to be close to accurate if not entirely so. And It's coming to L.A.'s Downtown Independent Theater. Well, to be fair, HUMP! has already played at the Downtown this past weekend, but since we weren't previously aware of it, we're stoked that it'll be returning this weekend, March 25-26. According to the Downtown Independent's own description, "Since 2005, the HUMP! Film Festival has challenged ordinary people from all over the Pacific Northwest to become temporary, weekend porn stars—by making their very own five-minute dirty movies for a chance to win big cash prizes! And they did not disappoint! The resulting short films run the gamut of sexual styles: straight, gay, lesbian, transgender ... every color in the sexual rainbow ... and some we never knew existed. HUMP! films are funny, thought-provoking, sad, artistic, outrageous, and almost overwhelmingly sexy—because they're real. And they're real because they were created and performed by sex-positive people, just like YOU. That's why we're bringing the very best of HUMP! to your town! See 18 of the hottest HUMP films in action ... they'll make you laugh, squeal, and marvel at the broad (and creative) range of human sexuality. It's the best of HUMP! And you're going to have a blast." Savage, on whose early life the current very funny ABC TV series The Real O'Neals is based (a show which has incensed religio-conservative groups like Family Research Council and American Family Association), recently gave an interview to the Orange County Register, wherein he said, "Hump!'s primary goals are to entertain and titillate; that's first and foremost. Each film at Hump! has to be entertaining and titillating in its own way. There is an educational, I think, and a kind of social justice component to Hump!, but that's ancillary; that's sort of something that is unintentional and happens around the edges but has value. "There's a really cool thing that happens when you watch Hump! with an audience, and that's, at first, you just watch people—watch the audience—and all you see are people kind of thrown back in their chairs because they're watching porn they would never choose to watch themselves, at their home while masturbating in front of their computers, and at first all anyone can see are the differences: 'That's not my punning; that's not the kind of people I'm attracted to; that's not the sex acts I enjoy,' and about a third of the way through, all those same people who at first could only see the differences, who were kind of having the wind knocked out of them by each film, are laughing and clapping and no longer having the wind knocked out of them, not being thrown back in their seats, because really—and it happens with almost every audience—about a third of the way through, all these people who could only see the differences are tapping into the similarities—the things we all share. The punning may be different; the sex acts may be different; the people you think are attractive may be different, but underneath that, all the rest of it is the same. The lust is the same; the desire is the same; the vulnerability is the same; the sense of humor is the same; the desire to be known and seen is the same, and that's really the kind of a wonderful, magical moment at Hump! But it wasn't the intent when we put the festival together; it was just something that kind of happened of its own accord." The HUMP! film festival compilation runs 97 minutes, and reportedly includes such mini-movies as Butthole Lickin', Beethoven’s Stiff and Anal Alley. Tickets for HUMP!'s showing at the Downtown Independent can be purchased here (Friday) and here (Saturday). The show will also be playing at the Long Beach Arts Theater on Thursday, March 24. Tickets can be purchased here.