Shortbus

:"For other uses, see Short Bus (disambiguation)."Infobox Film
name = Shortbus


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = John Cameron Mitchell
producer = John Cameron Mitchell
writer = John Cameron Mitchell
starring = Sook-Yin Lee
Paul Dawson
PJ DeBoy
Peter Stickles
Jay Brannan
music = Yo La Tengo
distributor = THINKFilm
release = October 13, 2006
runtime = 101 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget = $2,000,000
gross = $5,227,666
website = http://www.shortbusthemovie.com
amg_id = 1:350395
imdb_id = 0367027

"Shortbus" is a 2006 comedy-drama film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, writer/director/star of the play and film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch".

The plot revolves around a sexually diverse ensemble of emotionally challenged people trying desperately to connect in bohemian New York City. The characters converge on a weekly Brooklyn artistic/sexual salon loosely inspired by various underground NYC gatherings that took place in the early 2000s. According to Mitchell, the film attempts to "employ sex in new cinematic ways", and it includes a variety of explicit scenes of sexuality.

It was released in North America in October 2006 by THINKFilm after premiering in May at the Cannes Film Festival, and it played in over 25 countries, winning multiple awards at the Athens, Zurich, and Gijon Film Festivals. Howard Gertler and Tim Perell received an Independent Spirit Award as Producers of the Year. The film was released to DVD in North America on March 13, 2007. The DVD features a comprehensive documentary, "Gifted and Challenged: the Making of "Shortbus" (Director/Producer M. Sean Kaminsky), the vérité-style "How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer", a number of deleted scenes (including a dropped subplot about a character who is the Bush twins' personal assistant), as well as a filmmaker/cast audio commentary.

Plot

The movie is set in contemporary New York City and revolves around Sofia (played by Canadian singer and radio/TV personality Sook-Yin Lee), a married woman and couples counselor/sex therapist who has herself never achieved an orgasm. She comes into contact with a couple: former child star Jamie (PJ DeBoy) and James (Paul Dawson). The soft-spoken James, a former prostitute, is the film's other main character. At the outset, James suggests to his boyfriend that they open up their relationship to sex with others.

During their first consultation, Sofia snaps, slaps Jamie and apologetically reveals her "pre-orgasmic" status. The couple suggests she attend a weekly social/artistic/sexual salon in Brooklyn called "Shortbus", which is hosted by drag performance artist Justin Bond (playing himself). Bond is well-known in the alternative cabaret world as Kiki of Kiki & Herb. Sofia slowly opens up to new experiences; this includes a friendship with a dominatrix who goes by the name Severin (Lindsay Beamish), which was the name of the masochist protagonist of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's classic novel "Venus in Furs". Sofia's inability to achieve orgasm begins to cause conflict with her husband Rob (Raphael Barker). Rob begins attending Shortbus with Sofia.

James and Jamie meet a young ex-model and aspiring singer named Ceth (pronounced "Seth", and portrayed by singer-songwriter Jay Brannan) and the three begin a sexual relationship. Meanwhile James and Jamie's life is being closely watched by their across-the-street neighbor Caleb (Peter Stickles). Caleb fears the inclusion of Ceth in James and Jamie's relationship might break them up and thus destroy his ability to live vicariously through them, so he attends Shortbus, where he confronts Ceth.Sofia begins to go daily to a spa with a sensory deprivation tank to meet with Severin, and the two begin to have intense conversations. Severin begins to help Sofia loosen up sexually; Sofia helps Severin achieve a deeper human connection than she had experienced before. One evening at Shortbus, Severin discusses with Sofia the idea of giving up sex work to pursue her dream of being an artist. The two then have an unplanned sexual experience, and once again Sofia is left unsatisfied.

Throughout the film we see James making a film about himself and his relationship. It turns out to be a suicide note. He attempts to take his own life and is rescued by his stalker Caleb, who calls for help but is too embarrassed to wait with James for the help to arrive. He writes his phone number and email address on James' face while he is unconscious. When James wakes in the hospital, he calls Caleb. James goes to Caleb's home to be consoled, but does not contact Jamie or Ceth, neither of whom can understand why he wouldn't call them or come home.

There follows an interlocking trio of scenes showing connections between the characters' emotional problems and their sexual lives.

# At Caleb's house, he and James have sex, and James allows Caleb to penetrate him, something he has never allowed anyone to do before. Afterward, in a dramatic revelation, James is seen in the window of Caleb's apartment by Jamie, who realizes in that moment that James is alive and okay.
# Rob and Severin have a paid encounter where Rob asks to be beaten, something he couldn't ask Sofia to do. As this progresses, Severin loses control and Rob tries to comfort her.
# Sofia seems to have a dream of struggling through an overgrown, wild forested area to a gentle seashore where she tries to achieve orgasm again. On failing, she screams, and in the real world the lights go off across the city, seemingly caused by the simultaneous and collective frustration of the characters.

The film ends with a song by Justin Bond at Shortbus during the blackout. Sofia arrives and finds Rob with Severin and after acknowledging him sits down by herself. James and Jamie also arrive followed by Ceth and Caleb.

Justin's song starts on a wistful note, but as it progresses it becomes more energetic and positive thanks to the arrival of the Hungry March Band. This is mirrored in the actions and emotions of the actors. Jamie and James make out on the floor, and Ceth and Caleb start to hit it off. Rob seems to find a friend, and Severin progresses from nervous anxiety to happy elation upon the arrival of the band.

While having a threesome with a couple whom she has seen several times before (Nick and Leah, played by Jan Hilmer and Shanti Carson), Sofia finally achieves an orgasm, and the blackout affecting New York ends, as does the film.

Cast

* Sook-Yin Lee as Sofia Lin
* Paul Dawson as James Baysden
* PJ DeBoy as Jamie
* Lindsay Beamish as Severin
* Raphael Barker as Rob
* Jay Brannan as Ceth
* Peter Stickles as Caleb, the Stalker
* Justin Bond as Himself (Mistress of Shortbus)
* Alan Mandell as Tobias, the Mayor
* Adam Hardman as Jesse, the John
* Ray Rivas as Shabbos Goy
* Bitch as Herself / Shortbus House Band
* Daniela Sea as Little Prince
* Shanti Carson and Jan Hilmer as Leah and Nick, "The Beautiful Couple"
* Miriam Shor as Cheryl
* Justin Hagan as Brad
* The Hungry March Band as Themselves
* John Cameron Mitchell (director cameo) as Sextra
* Mary Beth Peil (cameo) as Ann, Our Lady of the Gutter
* Tristan Taormino (cameo) as Orgy Participant
* Jonathan Caouette (cameo) as Man who steals "blondies" off plate in Sex-Not-Bombs Room

Public reaction

Some have branded the film "pornographic". In response, Mitchell says that the dictionary defines porn as "material created and viewed for the primary purpose of sexual arousal," and argues that the sex in "Shortbus" is often purposefully "de-eroticized" to "remove the cloud of arousal to reveal emotions and ideas that might have been obscured by it".

Lee was nearly fired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for which she hosts a radio program "Definitely Not the Opera" because of her participation in several unsimulated sexual scenes in the film. Ultimately, she retained her job as the CBC relented in the face of support for Lee from the public, [cite web|url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=9b153b3a-46b2-424f-aea1-ab780e7cfd4d|title=Sook-Yin Lee's film debut definitely not CBC fare|last=Stone|first=Jay|date=22 May 2006|publisher=The Ottawa Citizen (via Canada.com|accessdate=2006-07-24] as well as from celebrities such as Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Stipe, Moby and Yoko Ono. [cite web|url=http://www.macleans.ca/culture/lifestyle/article.jsp?content=20060605_128191_128191|title=Sook-Yin Lee shocker in Cannes|last=Johnson|first=Brian D.|date=02 June 2006|publisher=Macleans.com|accessdate=2007-04-10]

Production

The film's characters and story were created collaboratively over 2 1/2 years through improvisation workshops with the cast. The audition website elicited half a million hits and 500 audition tape submissions. 40 people were called in for improv auditions and nine actors were cast, all before there was any story in mind. Mitchell wrote the screenplay from the raw material generated by the workshops and rehearsals.

Much of the sex in this movie is unsimulated. Mitchell says:

As indicated in the DVD special features, Lee and Shanti Carson each suggested they be filmed having real orgasms rather than fake them, specifically for the final scene involving Lee and the orgy sequence involving Carson. Mitchell also participated in the latter scene, performing oral sex on a woman for the first time "as a gesture of solidarity". ["How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer" (2007): Shortbus Region 1 DVD release (Th!nk Film)]

The panoramic cityscape interspersed through the film was completely computer-generated and designed by John Bair.

Inspiration

The characters all converge on a weekly underground gathering or salon called Shortbus, inspired by the short yellow schoolbuses for "challenged and gifted" students. The Shortbus salon was loosely based on a series of New York social/artistic/sexual gatherings. One was the monthly "Shortbus Sweaty Teenage Dance Party" organized by Mitchell (circa 2002) as "DJ Dear Tic", his Radical Faerie nickname (Mitchell was influenced by annual Radical Faerie countercultural gatherings in Tennessee and New Orleans). Others influences include the Lusty Loft Parties that took place at a Brooklyn art collective called DUMBA (where the film's salon was actually shot), and the weekly CineSalon film gathering, both of which were organized, in part, by Stephen Kent Jusick who plays Creamy in the film. The still-running underground Rubulad party was also an inspiration.

The character of Tobias — the elderly man who claims to be an ex-Mayor of New York City — played by Alan Mandell, alludes to Mayor Ed Koch, who has long been the subject of rumors about his sexual orientation.

Jokes

There is a plot device involving a vibrating egg with the brand name "In the Realm of the Senses". This is a wink to the explicit 1976 Nagisa Oshima film of the same name in which a man urges his lover to insert a hard-boiled egg in her vagina and "lay it".

Justin Bond's line: "As my dear, departed friend Lotus Weinstock used to say, 'I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity'" refers to a stand-up line from real-life comedian Lotus Weinstock, a Los Angeles-based performer who was Lenny Bruce's last girlfriend. Mitchell was friendly with Weinstock and her daughter, singer-songwriter Lili Haydn, before Weinstock died in 1997.

Hedwig players

Several members of the cast previously worked with Mitchell in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", including:
* Sook-Yin Lee previously played Kwang-Yi, the electric guitarist in Hedwig's original band in Junction City, Kansas.
* Sofia's therapy client "Cheryl" is played by Miriam Shor, who portrayed Yitzhak, Hedwig's back-up singer/lover.
* Alan Mandell, who played the Mayor, appeared as a restaurant customer who receives a "car wash" from Hedwig. Mandell met Mitchell when they performed together wearing radiation burn makeup in a 1987 Los Angeles stage production about Chernobyl. Mandell was a great friend and collaborator of playwright Samuel Beckett and was directed by him in "Waiting For Godot" and "Endgame". They met after Mandell co-founded the San Quentin Prison Drama Workshop in the mid-60s which produced works of Beckett, among other playwrights. Mandell introduced Mitchell to Beckett in Paris in 1988, the year before Beckett died.
* PJ DeBoy appeared as the Hedhead with dreads in the scene where Hedwig recounts her Tommy Gnosis stories atop a big pile of tires.
* Mitchell himself is featured in two shots in the Sex-Not-Bombs Room: the first, kissing a dark-haired man; and the second, performing cunnilingus on a woman sitting on a couch.

Cameos

* Jonathan Caouette, director of "Tarnation", as the man who steals some "blondies" off a plate in the Sex-Not-Bombs Room. Mitchell met him when Caouette auditioned for "Shortbus" and subsequently became executive producer of "Tarnation".
* Mary Beth Peil, best known as Evelyn "Grams" Ryan on "Dawson's Creek", as the woman with her hand down the storm drain (Severin takes a Polaroid of her).
* Singer-songwriter Reginald Vermue (aka Gentleman Reg) has a song on the soundtrack and appears as "The Albino"
* Tristan Taormino, a sex columnist and porn film director/occasional actress, is one of the participants in the orgy sequence. ["How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer" (2007): Shortbus Region 1 DVD release (Th!nk Film)]

Well-known downtown New York performers who provide cameos in the film include:
* Comedian Bradford Scobie (Dr. Donut)
* Singer-songwriter Jasper James, who also appears on the soundtrack, has a cameo as the woman being eaten out by Mitchell (on the couch next to Rob).
* Comedian/bon vivant Murray Hill (on the swing)
* Acrobat-comedians The Wau Wau Sisters (on the trapeze)
* Miss Exotic World 2005 Dirty Martini (doing the strip tease)
* Burlesque star The World-Famous *Bob* (sitting with the Mayor in the Truth-Or-Dare Room)
* Ray Rivas, like his character Shabbos goy, is known for his blood-inclusive brand of extreme performance art which he performed at DUMBA.
* Bitch, of the bands Bitch and Animal and "Bitch and the Exciting Conclusion," plays herself.
* Daniela Sea, queercore musician and former circus juggler of Cypher in the Snow and cast member of "The L Word", also plays herself as Little Prince, her Radical Faerie nickname.
* JD Samson of the band Le Tigre (who actually played their first show in DUMBA) appears in the "Bitch's Bedroom" scene.

oundtrack

The soundtrack was released on Conor Oberst's record label, Team Love. Mitchell directed the music video for Bright Eyes' "First Day of My Life" (which featured "Shortbus" cast members Bitch, Daniela Sea, and Ray Rivas). The soundtrack was released in Europe on V2 with the Anita O'Day song replaced by "What Matters To Me" by Tiebreaker (John LaMonica). In Europe, the film found its largest audiences in France and Italy. (The Italian poster featured a hidden bomb in an artist's rendition of the Sex-Not-Bombs Room.)

;Track listing
# Scott Matthew - "Upside Down"
# Azure Ray - "If You Fall"
# Yo La Tengo - "Wizard’s Sleeve"
# Animal Collective - "Winter’s Love"
# Scott Matthew - "Surgery"
# Lee & Leblanc (with Sook-Yin Lee) - "Beautiful"
# Gentleman Reg - "It’s Not Safe"
# John LaMonica - "Kids"
# Scott Matthew - "Language"
# Jay Brannan - "Soda Shop"
# Anita O'Day - "Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby"
# The Ark - "Kolla Kolla (Nationalteatern Tribute Version)"
# Jasper James and the Jetset - "This House"
# The Ark - "This Piece of Poetry Is Meant To Do Harm"
# The Hidden Cameras - "Boys of Melody"
# Scott Matthew - "Little Bird"
# Justin Bond and the Hungry March Band - "In the End (Long Film Version)"
# Scott Matthew - "In the End (Acoustic)"

References

ee also

* List of mainstream films with unsimulated sex

External links

* [http://www.shortbusthemovie.com Official site]
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