We are delighted to announce we have just acquired the world sales rights of Virginie Despentes’ documentary feature MUTANTES (PUNK PORN FEMINISM), which took several years to be completed.

Please note the documentary is not recommended for audience under 16 and includes images that may be offending or disturbing to some viewers.

Upcoming international festivals, MUTANTES will be screened at:
- Indie World Film Festival in Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo, 2-23 Sept 2010 (Brazil)
- Montreal Festival of New Cinema, 13-24 Oct 2010 (Montreal)

‘Mutantes’ is a documentary on pro-sex feminism by Virginie Despentes, originally conceived as an audiovisual complement to her book ‘King Kong Theory’.

Unlike the abolitionist feminist movement, the pro-sex feminist movement, which began in the United States during the 1980s, asserts that representations of the body and of pleasure are areas that must be taken over by women and sexual minorities and that pornography must not be subject to control by the patriarchal state. It also calls for the legalisation of sex work; female sex workers, porn actresses, strip teasers and lesbians have begun to speak out and to talk about themselves, generating a new culture that includes articles, books, films, documentaries, music, comics, artistic performances, etc.

Made up of about 20 interviews filmed in the United States, France and Spain, the documentary gives the floor to pro-sex activists and follows the evolution of the movement from the 80s to the present, from its pioneers and its successors to its proactive activists in France and Barcelona. It also reveals previously unknown images directly tied to the subject (excerpts from films produced by activists, updates on their activities, archives of their works, performances and street demonstrations, etc.)

Whether it’s referred to as Pro Sex, Post Porn or queer, the movement is a creative and revolutionary one that calls on us to reflect on what a pornographic image is, what sex work is, what gender is, and what the whole point of feminism is.
Disturbing, provocative and innovative, ‘Mutantes’ aims to play a saving role as it splits from popular discourse, which would have it that sex is best practiced in the bedroom, that women’s dignity depends on their ‘good’ behaviour and passivity, that the only feminist themes to be debated are gender violence and the wearing of headscarves.

‘Mutantes’ allows us to see that activists are already occupying other playing fields, inventing other ways of having sex and of thinking of sexuality and gender.

Interviewees:
NORMA JEAN ALMODOVAR, MARIA BEATTY, LYNNEE BREEDLOVE, CATHERINE BREILLAT, SIOBHAN BROOKS, SONDRA GOODWIN, SCARLOT HARLOT, MARIA LLOPIS, LYDIA LUNCH, POST OP, BEATRIZ PRECIADO, CAROL QUEEN, QUIMERA ROSA, B. RUBY RICH, NINA ROBERTS, CANDIDA ROYALLE, ANNIE SPRINKLE, JACKIE STRANO, MICHELLE TEA, CORALIE TRINH THI, BETONY VERNON, DEL LAGRACE VOLCANO, LINDA WILLIAMS, MADISON YOUNG, ITZIAR ZIGA

Watch an excerpt of the film:

ABOUT VIRGINIE DESPENTES

Publishes Rape me (aka Fuck me) in 1993 and turns it into a film seven years later, co-directed by Coralie Trinh Thi and released in cinemas.
Receives in 1998 the Prix de Flore -a French award given to young promising authors- for her third novel entitled Pretty Things.
Translates Poppy Z. Brite, Dee Dee Ramone and Lydia Lunch.
Occasionally works as a journalist for French music and culture magazines Rock’n'Folk and Technikart.
Directs in 2009 Mutantes, Punk Porn Feminism, her first documentary film.
Is currently filming a cinematic version of her fifth novel, Bye Bye Blondie, featuring Béatrice Dalle, Emmanuelle Béart and Pascal Greggory.

Bibliography
1993 Baise-moi/ Rape me
1995 Les Chiennes savantes
1998 Les Jolies Choses
1999 Mordre au travers
2001 Trois Etoiles (with Nora Hamdi)
2002 Teen Spirit
2004 Bye bye Blondie
2006 King Kong Théorie / King Kong Theory

Filmography
1993 Rape me (by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi)
2001 Pretty Things (directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, featuring Marion Cotillard, Stomy Bugsy and Patrick Bruel)
2007 Teen Spirit (directed by Olivier De Plas, featuring Vincent Elbaz, Elodie Bouchez and Daisie Broom)
2009 Mutantes (Punk Porn Feminism)