Lynn Shelton‘s hit indie film Humpday is out on DVD as of today, but right now, she’s looking Beyond Gay. The short film is being dubbed Humpday‘s “sequel,” featuring a lesbian (Kanako Wynkoop) and a gay man (Julian Mitchell) who are trying to have sex. (Operative word: Trying.)
Of course, just like the straight male buds who attempt to have sex in Humpday, the results are quite hilarious (and not so safe for work).
“I came up with the concept for ‘Beyond Gay’ pretty quickly but shooting it was a little more of a challenge as I was in the midst of production on $5 Cover Seattle, a web series based around the local indie music scene, coming online via MTV.com in January 2010,” Shelton told IndieWire.com. Shelton showed the short as part of the amateur porn festival, HUMP!, which was the inspiration for Humpday.
“Sure, it’s kind of uncomfortable to watch porn with a bunch of strangers but it also felt like this really sweet, really fun celebration of the diversity and complexity of human sexuality,” Shelton said of showing at HUMP! “Everyone laughed their heads off at Beyond Gay, which was awesome and I was completely honored to take home the prize for Funniest porn. I have to say that winning HUMP! also felt like the completion of a weird and beautiful circle.”
It’s probably also worth noting that the lesbian character is played by an out artist/director whose 2008 short, Butthole Lickin’, was at many LGBT film festivals in the last year. I may or may not have been pretty thrilled to have included that term in a blog post at some point in my life.
You can now watch the award-winning short on IndieWire.com. Warning: There is a dildo and lots of awkwardness involved, but (luckily) no nudity.
