Hump! Film Festival | Saturday, March 4
As has been historically described – and thus, legally defined? – by the Supreme Court in the ‘40s, one knows pornography when one sees it. It’s both a completely sex-positive and rational way to approach the world, providing no one is victimized, but it also lends fire to loud hypocrites who would like to shame sexuality.
For nearly 20 years, though, the Hump! Film Festival has been documenting all the myriad ways in which we see porn – when we see it. From the beginning, in 2005, The Stranger sex columnist Dan Savage started Hump! As an outlet for everyday people to express themselves, sexually, without having to post that video on the internet forever: in the early days, Hump! promised to make you a porn star for a weekend, not for life, and publicly burned the sex tapes on stage so that the secret was safe for everyone who attended.
Nowadays, Hump! – and, really, pornography itself – has penetrated firmly enough into the mainstream to allow Hump! to not only take its show on the road, but to do streaming editions during the quarantine periods of COVID. Along the way, though, the festival has maintained its initial promise: to present sex, as offered by real people, in all its kaleidoscopic methods of expression. You’ll get humor, oddball artistry, raw sensuality, and intimate views of relationships that are hard enough to find in mainstream movies these days, let alone porn.
For anyone new to Tacoma who might be a little squeamish watching porn with an audience, think a little bit about the Mecca – a porn theater that existed in downtown Tacoma right up until 2006. Before it closed, I made sure, as a 17-year-old, to come in and check it out. Let me tell you: taking a quick look into the screening room is one of those snapshots that exists in my mind to remind me where Tacoma used to be, and to reflect on where we are now.
HUMP!
All Ages, Doors at 6:30pm, Show at 7:30pm,
ADV $20, DOS $25
ALMA Venue
1322 Fawcett Ave
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