FOURPLAY: What's it all about?

New to the blog? Want to know more general info about FOURPLAY? Check-out the first blog entry. Also, this blog is now ADULTS ONLY, so if you are a kiddie under the age of 18, go bye bye now!

FOURPLAY review roundup!

Check out these great reviews for the FOURPLAY dvd and get a copy for yourself today from TLA.  Or watch now instantly streaming for only $3.99!!! - Kyle

Austin American Statesman
Fourplay will likely ruffle the feathers of more conservative audiences, but Kyle Henry’s movie offers a unique and bold look at the complications of desire, the need for connection and the joys and perils of sexual intimacy. The director shows amazing dexterity in shifting between silly and serious tones. Henry and his writers have created a cast of sympathetic characters who find the courage to be vulnerable in a world not always willing to offer an embrace. "Fourplay" is crass, unapologetic, imaginative, challenging and, ultimately, comforting.

Outlook Columbus
"Fourplay is highly recommended for those with a liberal comfort zone, and for anyone who may be looking to challenge their prudish sensibilities and appreciate something a little naughty or out of the ordinary."

DVD Verdict
Let's face it, Fourplay was never going to out to the multi-plexes of America, but I'm glad it's now being granted a life beyond the festival circuit. AOK's DVD presentation is a wonderful concert of anamorphic widescreen image and Dolby Digital stereo sound. There's an optional commentary track from director Kyle Henry, joined by principal players (both on and offscreen) throughout the film's length. Additional bonus features include a "making of" featurette focusing on the mini-epic "Tampa," a blog interview with Chloë (responsible for costuming, hair and makeup for the Aliya character in "San Francisco), and a number of different trailers for the film.

New Magazine
Sex is a fantastical, magical and celebrated force in Kyle Henry’s series of short films, Fourplay ... Like a queer Tales from the Crypt, Fourplay delves into four dark corners of the sexual spectrum treating otherwise hardcore fetish and eroticism with intimacy and a good dose of non-patronizing humor. 

Austin Chronicle
The sexual orientations of the films range from homosexual to heterosexual to bestial to imaginary. The content is more erotic and suggestive than lewd and graphic, although there’s no mistaking the fact that sexual transgression is the subject at hand. The shorts build in emotional depth to the concluding segment, “San Francisco,” which provides the film’s heartrending climax.

FOURPLAY see it now on VOD/DVD via TLA!!!

At long last, anyone, anywhere in North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) can see FOURPLAY via TLA releasing.  Click here to get some FOURPLAY today, and remember, adults only and NSFW!!!

Then read this blog post on The Film Collaborative's site on how we found distribution for our NC-17 equivalent film.

FOURPLAY: New website + North American tour!

Excited to share FOURPLAY's new web-site, check it out here.  And if you want to find out North American screening dates/times, check out the screenings page here.  We'll be on tour from Feb 7th through early April, see ya around the block America! - Kyle

4PLAY: Early 2013 Int'l Fest Round-Up...

FOURPLAY is coming to an international film fest near you as we continue our world tour in early 2013.  Dates include (see hyperlinks for more info):

Tucson Out In The Desert Film Fest - Sun, Jan 27th @ 8:25PM

Kingston Reel Out Film Fest - Sat, Feb 2nd @ 11PM

Canadian Premiere

Melbourne Queer Film Fest - Mar 12th - 23d @ TBD

Australian Premiere

FOURPLAY: Intimacy vs eroticism...

There is a reason why FOURPLAY's tagline is "four short tales of sexual intimacy" and not "sexual eroticism." I have been counseled at times to change the tag line to imply that the film is erotic or even pornographic, but I think the distinction between eroticism and intimacy is key to understanding what the film is up to. 

For me, sexuality and sexual expression is a form of communication.  Intimacy is the height and paragon of a kind of sexual communication that is democratic as it allows a form a empathy to permeate the union.  Eroticism is more of a one way street, where the viewer or participant "gets off" in a transactional relationship to sexual expression that is akin to buying a cheeseburger.  Eroticism in film is an extension of the voyeurism that is at work on the most base level when watching a film.  But films that are cathartic, that have the ability to pierce our consciousness and resonate beyond the transaction of watching them during their running time, work by getting us inside the head of either the characters in the film or the filmmaker's consciousness and potentially lead to a new understanding of the world around us.  This was the goal with each of the four shorts that comprise FOURPLAY, and whether we failed or succeeded you can be the judge.

Below is an interesting article by Gail Dines, author of Pornography: How Pronography Has Hijacked our Sexuality, from the Leftist muckracking publication Counterpunch about the proliferation of pornographic imagery and the potential impact this proliferation is having on communication and society.  We'd welcome your thoughts!

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/07/pornography-and-gender-politics-within-neoliberalism

- Kyle Henry, Director FOURPLAY

FOURPLAY: Fall '12 Fest Round Up...

A round-up of when/where you can see FOURPLAY this fall:

Oct 4th - Atlanta, GA -  Thur @ 9:40PM at the Landmarks' Midtown Art Cinema as part of Out on Film.  Tix info here.

Oct 5th - Austin, TX - Fri @ 8:45PM at the Paramount Theater as part of aGLIFF.  Tix info here.

Oct 13th - New Orleans, LA - Sat @ 9:30PM at the New Orleans Film Fest.  More info here.

and FOURPLAY: TAMPA will screen twice in Copenhangen, Denmark at MIX Copenhagen

Oct 20th @ 7PM + 27th @ 9:30PM on the "Kiss Kiss, Gang Bang" program.  More info here.

4PLAY: SKOKIE - Jessica Hedrick Interview PT 02

Another installment of my interview with the screenwriter of FOURPLAY: SKOKIE, Jessica Hedrick.  Read part one here.  And exciting news about where you can see FOURPLAY this fall at festivals around the world shortly! - Kyle

I think SKOKIE deals with a central theme in FOURPLAY, which is the unalloyed, cringe-inducing vulnerability at the center of our desire to be loved and recognized.

The film zeroes in on this vulnerability with a kind of quiet insistence, and unapologetically cheers for the characters on their odd journeys.

I loved the critic who pointed out how FOURPLAY echoes the undiluted humanism and storytelling of films from the 1970s.  I love the innocence of this movie.  It is plainspoken and direct about its priorities, dedicated to our all too human hearts in a way that I have not seen since my own 70s childhood.

FOURPLAY: Outfest 2012 news round-up...

Thanks LA and Outfest for treating FOURPLAY with such amazing kindness!  Here's links to good reviews and interviews:

Hammer To Nail - Outfest Round-Up
Hammer To Nail - Interview with director Kyle Henry and actor Paul Soileau
LA I'm Yours - Interview with Kyle


And a link to the best pan ever!  It contains the pull-quote we've always dreamed of ... "Fourplay should be banned!"  Wow!


Next stop, our Mexico premiere at the Guanajuato Int'l Film Festival's crazy Midnight Madness section late this Saturday (7/21) night after midnight (1AM).  So technically is early Sunday morning.  Check out festival link here for tix info or to pass onto friends in Guanajuato or San Miguel Allende.


 

FOURPLAY: This Sunday (7/15) @ Outfest!

A great review in Hammer to Nail's Outfest preview post, stating "No one is making films like Kyle Henry’s Fourplay these days. Its sunny, hyperreal tone and very American characters thrust into unabashedly sexual situations are reminiscent of the youth-oriented comedies of the post-hippie, pre-AIDS late-‘70s and early ‘80s—think Eating Raoul and Kentucky Fried Movie, or the TV show Soap."  Wow, Soap, we love that show!  

Plus an extensive interview with director Kyle Henry on the blog Los Angeles, I'm Yours carry us into FOURPLAY's Outfest premiere this Sunday, July 15th at 9:30PM at the Directors Guild of America theater in Los Angeles.  Get your tixs and more info here and come join the cast and crew from 7:30 - 8PM for a pre-screening reception in the atrium of the DGA.