Sex, Queers, and Videotape: Baltimore hosts Hot Bits Erotic Film Festival
An evening of queer-focused hard- and soft-core erotica -- plus a naked buffet
If you’re thinking of going to the Hot Bits Queer Erotic Film and Arts Festival in Baltimore this weekend — and why wouldn’t you be? — it’s advised you attend with an open mind.
“There’s stuff that you’re gonna see that maybe you’ve never been exposed to,” says Top Shelf, one of six curators for the two-night event. Unlike Dan Savage’s HUMP!, the shorts are all “Queer specific.” The curators whittled down 115 submissions to 35, which will screen on Saturday and Sunday night, in two fully distinct, two-hour programs.
“We were surprised to see such a range of submissions,” says the 37-year-old, who identifies as a “queer femme top.” “Some of it is very experimental and falls under the more erotica realm, and some of it’s very comedic. Then there are pieces that are very contemplative about how we relate to sex and our bodies. There’s hard-core pornography, and soft-core as well.”
An expansion of a similar festival held in Philadelphia, Top Shelf believes that, if all goes well, Hot Hits can expand to additional cities. “We’re hoping to take it to places where the LGBTQ population might not have as much access to this, so we’re not aiming for New York or San Francisco. We’re aiming for Atlanta, Kansas City, New Orleans, and rural places — especially Tennessee.”
In Baltimore, the evening will include live entertainment during intermission and “we’re gonna probably have a naked human body…that people can pay to eat snacks off of.”
Top Shelf feels there is something immensely satisfying to watching erotic films with an audience. “A lot of porn is being consumed online and in the privacy of your own home, so this is an opportunity to share in a collective experience.”
Hot Bits is Saturday, March 31, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 1, at 7 p.m. at the Creative Alliance at The Patterson, 3134 Eastern Ave. in Baltimore. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $13 at the door, or $18 for a festival pass to both nights.
A dance party — Wet Bits — held at Trip’s Place, 1813 North Charles St., follows the Saturday night screening. Call 410-276-1651 or visit creativealliance.org.
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