Tuesday, January 31, 2012

4PLAY: Feast of Fun Interview!!!

Prepare yourself for a free-range crazy interview regarding FOURPLAY on the #1 LGBT pod-cast Feast of Fun.  See link below and sign up here using the one-month free trial code GLITTER to listen for free.   

Thanks Marc and Faustos for the good times and fierce chat!  Use code GLITTER to sign up for a one-month free trail run of Feast of Fun to listen to the interview for free.

- Kyle

 http://feastoffun.com/podcast/2012/01/30/fof-1515-a-tearoom-farce/


Saturday, January 28, 2012

4PLAY: Advance copies via Kickstarter ...


Closing in on our $5K FOURPLAY finishing fund Kickstarter goal, which we've extend till Wed, Feb 1st.  

$10 gets ya a streaming link to FOURPLAY: TAMPA
$25 gets ya a DVD of all 4 FOURPLAY shorts and
$45 gets ya all the above plus director Kyle Henry's Sundance/Cannes' screened first feature ROOM.

Curious to see what all the fuss is about?  Then donate today to help get FOURPLAY out to a wider audience!

Friday, January 27, 2012

4PLAY: TAMPA - Sundancing PT 3 ...


More news and great reviews: 

Another great review of FOURPLAY: TAMPA, this time on Smells Like Screen Spirit.  

A bit of a tempest-in-a-teapot re Cynthia Nixon's announcement that she "chooses" to be gay.  I was asked to comment on CNN's HLN at the fest, so here's my 2 cents.  


And finally, a viewer who can't see the forest through the fake penis trees.  A link to our first outraged review on IMDB. If you have counter thoughts, or want to rate the film on IMDB, I humbly ask that you make your views known.

And you too can see FOURPLAY: TAMPA, for only a $10 donation to our feature Kickstarter campaign, check it out here.

We'll have perhaps one more Sundance post after the fest if more news emerges... 
 


Kyle Henry
Director, Fourplay

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

4PLAY: TAMPA - Sundancing PT 2 ...

The 4PLAY: TAMPA crew is heading out of Utah today after what can only be described as a glorious adventure here at Sundance this year.  See links below for some choice press from the festival.  Although we didn't win a jury prize, one of the jurists told me that if they could give a prize to the film with the most cum and jizz on display, we would've won.  Proud, proud, proud!  

Although flattered, I have to say that below all that fluid is a film that really is about so much more than shock and awe.  Comedy is a subtle, subversive art that disarmingly can mask intentions, in TAMPA's case we present shame and body-image issues in the guise of an over-the-top-comedy to make people, especially gay men, confront their own secret shame and have a bit of a laugh at the absurdity of judging worth through the size of one's Johnson.  Will have more press and thoughts in a final wrap-up after the fest ends. - Kyle

Review in Ted Hope's site HAMMER TO NAIL

Huffington Post's Latino Voice's overview





Sunday, January 22, 2012

4PLAY: TAMPA - Sundancing PT 1 ...


 A quick shout from Sundance where we've now had two screenings of FOURPLAY: TAMPA.  Here's a link to a great review in Ted Hope's HAMMER TO NAIL web-site by Michael Tully and below is an interview with screenwriter Carlos Trevino and I on the uber-gay site Queerty.   

Also, a quick story (see photo above) about the near white-out conditions drive up and down the Sundance Institute mountain yesterday for the director's brunch.  One of the buses skidded off the road and hit two cars and another had to have all the filmmakers get in the back of the bus to add more weight to the rear tires so the bus could make it up the hill.  Had strange visions of newspaper headlines announcing "20 Sundance Filmmakers Killed in Tragic Bus Accident!" as we coming down the mountain and I watched the ravine below me which had pretty steep drop into it from the road.  Again, as with every day, glad most of all just to be alive!  -  Kyle

 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

FOURPLAY: Sex saved my life ...


Sex saved my life. And I'm sure if a lot more of us were honest with ourselves we'd admit the same thing.

As a young, angst ridden and alienated young man in my late teens, I was desperate to connect with something, anything. I threw myself into political activism, theater, academics, anything that could absorb me so completely that I could blot out the yawning chasm of need that was the source of so much "activity."

I also happened to be gay and very much in the closet to not only everyone else but most especially to myself. Looking back at some of the photographs from that period, I can't imagine that anyone with half an ounce of gaydar wasn't VERY AWARE of my gayness. I remember one kind theater director once telling me in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's IOLANTHE (does that scream gay, or what!) that if there was anything I ever wanted to talk about with him, his door was always open.

"What could I possibly have to talk to you about?" I protested.

"Um, your sexual identity," he replied.

Yikes! Hammer to the nail! I think I left almost immediately and protested to EVERYONE I knew that the director of the play I was in was trying to "recruit" me and I just wished all those "faggots" would leave me alone!

Too bad I couldn't leave myself alone cause I was with me 24 hours a day! Anyway, long story short, after trying to date a few women then making a VERY drunken and awkward pass at an out queer housemate one night (and denying that it ever took place the next day), I acknowledged the need and went hunting for someone to act on it with.

Luckily, I found my first love, a lieutenant in the Army at the time via a newspaper personal ad. Remember those? Almost immediately, after the first time we were together, I finally was released from the crushing anxiety that had haunted me from late adolescence onward. And it wasn't the act of sex itself that saved me, but the intimacy that it unleashed, the tenderness and feelings of finally belonging and being accepted, really accepted for who I was, naked and stripped of my ego.

Luckily, that partner was up for the responsibility and love that such connection can awaken. We talked, we shared, we dated, and eventually, like so many first loves, we moved on when it became clear that love alone did not make for the foundation of a lasting relationship.

Again, luckily, I've found a longer, lasting relationship with my partner Carlos Trevino, the incredibly talented writer of FOURPLAY: TAMPA, which plays a Sundance this week. Earlier sexual encounters/relationships can help one sort out what one is looking for in a relationship as a whole, and can put sex in its proper place as part of a balanced relationship. It's called experience, and if we deny someone from having these adult experiences, or develop systems that punish them for these experiences (e.g. denying the availability of contraception so sex leads to the spread of disease or the burden of conception), then we actually elevate the importance of sex in our society to a dangerous form of control.

Also, if we only tell each other stories where sex isn't given its proper due in the world at large which we represent, or is used purely as pornographic titillation, or a cudgel to inflict even more pain and fear upon our audiences (e.g the entire oeuvre of filmmaker Lars Von Trier), then we also become part of a system of control that manipulates the powerful force of sexual connection for ill gotten gain.

No, not all sexual encounters and acts are positive. I'm not naive or unaware of the horrible power dynamics involved when sex is used for intimidation, oppression and assault. Consent on the part of all ADULT (as defined by law) parties without any coercion must be given. Besides mystical/religious fervor or drug experiences, sexual union is one of the most powerful experiences one can have to connect one to one's being and existence to others on this planet. As such, it should be seriously studied and considered. And it should be one of the major subjects of our arts and entertainment. Hence my desire to make the FOURPLAY series of shorts.

Do you have any especially moving or life-saving experience that involved sexual connection? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Please consider commenting/responding to this post and I'll print if appropriate. Anonymous postings are fine.

Finally, a reminder that our Kickstarter for the FOURPLAY feature launched. For as little as $10 you can see FOURPLAY: TAMPA, the short playing at Sundance, via a Vimeo link that we'll pass onto donors after the festival.

Kyle Henry
Director - FOURPLAY


Monday, January 16, 2012

4PLAY: TAMPA - Sundance poster...


Our Sundance poster for FOURPLAY: TAMPA designed by the ever talented Carlos TreviƱo, screenwriter and also actor in the film. - Kyle

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

FOURPLAY - Pre-Sundance Kickstarter!!!

Get a sneak peak at FOURPLAY, the feature anthology, by checking out our final Kickstarter video below. And, check out the great perks, like seeing FOURPLAY: TAMPA, which plays at Sundance 2012, in the privacy of your own home via a password protected link or a DVD copy of the feature anthology.

Thanks again everyone for your loving support over the last four years as FOURPLAY has come together and traveled the world! - Kyle



Sunday, January 1, 2012

4PLAY: TAMPA - New Christeene video...

Christeene Vale (aka Paul Soileau) made her "art" film debut this year in FOURPLAY: TAMPA. And, she's storming the internet again with the video to her tune "African Mayonnaise." Check it out and be awed by this smack down of all things narcissistic, pop music, vulture-culture. Happy New Year!



CHRISTEENE "African Mayonnaise" from PJ Raval on Vimeo.