PinkLabel.TV’s PORN CLUB is like a book club for porn nerds. For each edition, we offer a selection of titles in our new adult film review series in efforts to encourage discussion about porn as an indie film genre, reviewing of classic and contemporary titles available on our streaming network. Topics span technical aspects of how a movie was made, directorial influences, perceived social or historical impact, and other aspects of interest to the reviewer.

We’ve covered Radley Metzger, Wakefield Poole, Fatale Media, and Peter Berlin, and the works of Shine Louise Houston, as well as a look at filming threesomes, touch and ASMR. Now, we celebrate May is Masturbation Month with films exploring self pleasure. This month, for PornClub:

RITUAL WAVES

A film centered in ritualistic practices of healing through sexual agency, Ritual Waves claims for a space of introspection and celebration through autoeroticism, with water as an element of strength, depth, and resilience through fluidity.

Ritual Waves has been primarily conceived as an exercise of healing through affirmation. This is especially important from the perspective of a queer person of color, because we often lack the spaces for doing so. We usually exist in environments often devised and under scrutiny of a white heteropatriarchal gaze that places limited value to bodies of colour only by virtue of their productivity.

PORN CLUB Reviews

“Birth (or rebirth) is an unusual reference to see in porn, but here the connection works — it’s beautiful, celebratory, conveying the urgency and struggle and pleasure in imagining, conceiving and creating life. Bembe’s contortions and gasping don’t feel dangerous, but erotic — it’s the struggle that lead her to orgasm. After which she is sated and soothed, floating in the water as the soundtrack strips back to a single, deep heartbeat. It’s a comforting end to a sublime, sensual film.”

— R.T. Collins

“Ritual Waves is the type of film that encourages you to experience yourself, all of yourself. The anticipation of pleasure can lead one to hold their mouth agape, saliva escaping with reckless abandon. Those moments when you stop caring about where it all goes, the spit, cum, all of it. Those moments, feelings are celebrated (not depicted) in Ritual Waves. Ritual Waves takes the viewer to that headspace in the first 60 seconds! As the film continues, Lina Bembe’s hands play the role of their lover, exploring and appreciating their body. Watching their fingertips search, press, and pleasure until a golden gratitude is shown upon Lina’s face. If you look closely, you can catch a fleeting glimpse of a clenched jaw fueled by the tension from below.”

— Jet Noir

Baby Your Frozen

Sexuality is increasingly lived through virtual formats. “Baby youre frozen” is a intensely personal and explicit look at the relationship between virtuality and intimacy; how virtual means facilitate connections of the heart and sex across great distances and time zones, but hinders feelings of closeness through digital obstacles. A raw and real portrayal of coping strategies for long-distance love in the 21st century where Skype sex is the best we get, but making love to a screen never satisfies the need for in-person physical intimacy with all of our senses.

PORN CLUB Reviews

“Another aspect that I really enjoyed about this film was its cinematography. The film switches between POV and intentional amateur set up shots. This is where the film’s indie or experimental flavor comes in, where cameras are set up as if they were documenting their calls and interactions. The opening scene really captures this as the camera is set up behind Sadie’s bed, showing her making her way to her bed and opening up her laptop. The point of which the video is recorded later shifts to her smartphone as she’s recording her call with her partner. One of my favorite parts is when Sadie positions herself against her camera screen and KAy sticks his tongue out, imitating oral sex.”

— Shaun

PORN CLUB is an adult film review series presented by PinkLabel.TV. Tune in next month for our next set of reviews, spanning classics to contemporary.