It’s confusing. I mean, what’s real and what’s fake? It all seems so easy to me in porn. But it doesn’t feel easy to me right now.
Demystifying sex does not seem to be a priority in contemporary art. The more this new generation explores and experiments with the complexities around sexuality, gender, and identity, society is regressing in others. In Louisiana, all public schools, from kindergarten to state-funded universities, are now required to display the Ten Commandments. Yet, in those same schools, how many have adequate sex education? “Intimacy” is not a dirty word and Fuck-a-Fan, though the title may not suggest it, goes deeper beyond naked bodies and lewd language.
The Tribeca selected short, directed by Muriel d’Ansembourg, follows porno star Chloe Cam (Alessa Savage) as she hosts a contest where one lucky fan gets to film a sex scene with her, and Thomas (Joes Brauers), a young twenty-something from Amsterdam, is the winner. These two are starkly different from one another. Chloe, with electric blue hair, is covered in tattoos, wears bedazzled nails, and bursts with sexual energy and spunk. Thomas is meek and unsure of himself, reeling from a recent breakup. During their brief encounter, Fuck-a-Fan deconstructs the mystique around porn while, at the same time, being an instructional guide for men on how to listen and respond to women.
When Thomas arrives to film with Chloe, he is shocked at how fabricated the experience begins. The bedroom is not that; it’s a film set. Chloe and her producer coordinate a sex scene where Chloe and Thomas are stepsiblings because “the family stuff is really popular these days.” Through Thomas’ lens, the audience learns quickly that the performative nature of porn is less about the exchange of pleasure and more about creating the facade that men are good at sex.
Films rarely explore women’s sexual pleasure, even less the sexual pleasure of a sex worker. Thomas’s earnestness clashes against this new world he is dropped in the middle of. It’s right to point out the awkwardness of these concocted situations/scenes for the satisfaction of viewers and not those of the performers. It’s a good thing to experience the other side of the lens with a sensitive and thoughtful touch.
For a moment, we are only concerned about connection, not the viewership of the horny masses. The two hold hands and spoon as if they aren’t on a dank porn soundstage somewhere in London. Just the student, the teacher, and the lesson: pleasure. The audience of Fuck-a-Fan, particularly men, are students too. We learn to be an active participant with our partners, to listen to their needs, and to be unselfish. Though Thomas is our avatar, by the end of the film, we are left with Chloe. The mask of the performer is removed and we are left with the woman. She seems to be mulling over her experience, unsure of what to make of her climax with Thomas. For Chloe, sex is work, not pleasure. Has that changed? As the performer, who is she now? While the film doesn’t provide concrete answers, Fuck-a-Fan is an intriguing portrait of intimacy worth exploring.
Fuck-a-Fan is playing at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Other Articles
[…] was hyper-focused on a specific scenario but didn’t really expand to give us a full view of a sex worker’s landscape. And while Trashtown is a fictional place, the powers that rule it are very real and are mirrored […]