Obscenity of Censorship + Interview: Travis Mathews by Trace William Cowen
A sickeningly successful heteronormative dictatorship...
“Dicks are out. Balls are out. People are paddling each other on the ass. There are bruises. There are fucking welts. Sucking. Fucking. Armpits. Balls. Assholes. Everything is out, dude.” –Val Lauren
One of the overarching questions of Interior. Leather Bar. – a question repeatedly posed in various incarnations like a pounding but welcomed pop refrain – is, “What is the true intention of censorship?” The answer, as poetically proposed here and tragically realized in our daily headline news feeds, is oppression – specifically, in this case, sexual oppression.
For example, one might recall Evan Rachel Wood’s brave, forthright Twitter takedown of the MPAA following their decision to force director Fredrik Bond to remove footage of Shia LaBeouf performing oral sex on her from his film The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman in order to secure an R rating, avoiding the purported commercial death sentence that is “NC-17.” Wood’s tweets, pasted in their entirety below, point to both an obvious double standard and a sickeningly successful heteronormative dictatorship bubbling beneath the actions of the MPAA.
“After seeing the new cut of Charlie Countryman, I would like to share my disappointment with the MPAA, who thought it was necessary to censor a woman’s sexuality once again. The scene where the two main characters make ‘love’ was altered because someone felt that seeing a man give a woman oral sex made people ‘uncomfortable,’ but the scenes in which people are murdered by having their heads blown off remained intact and unaltered.
This is a symptom of a society that wants to shame women and put them down for enjoying sex, especially when (gasp) the man isn’t getting off as well! It’s hard for me to believe that had the roles been reversed it still would have been cut or had the female character been raped it would have been cut. It’s time for people to grow up. Accept that women are sexual beings. Accept that some men like pleasuring women. Accept that women don’t have to just be fucked and say thank you. We are allowed and entitled to enjoy ourselves. It’s time we put our foot down.” – @EvanRachelWood
The Charlie Countryman incident, though, is merely a publicized version of what is actually an exponentially repeated offense. As mentioned above, the “heteronormative dictatorship” present in the MPAA (and, often, in censorship at large) seeks only to promote, fund, and ultimately allow images of sexuality that – intentionally or not – provide a mirror to the individual sexualities of each “heteronormative dictator.” In other words, the MPAA seeks only to condone and “allow” (not dismiss with the dreaded NC-17) images of sexuality wherein a heterosexual male is receiving pleasure from a woman in a purely heterosexual way. Never mind the fact that we don’t, of course, live on a planet with 7 billion strictly heterosexual men clamoring for grade-school-locker-room-fantasy style sexual encounters. In the eyes of the MPAA (and like-minded organizations), however, the non-heterosexual among us exist only as fodder for jokes and cautionary tales.
When was the last time you witnessed a homosexual character in a “major” film whose sole purpose in the story wasn’t just to serve as a lazy “sprinkling of edge” from a formulaic screenwriter? Or worse, when was the last time you noticed a homosexual character whose sole conflict in the story wasn’t the process of “coming out?” The poisonous, back-handed compliments present in such roles are more dangerous and undermining than many even care to realize. Their very existence (repeated or otherwise) points to a larger problem – censorship by omission.
In a strikingly fresh and unique way, Interior. Leather Bar. approaches this daunting issue by pulling the controversy of the Al Pacino film Cruising (1980; director: William Friedkin) into the 21s century. Employing the highly effective docufiction format, co-directors Travis Mathews and James Franco document the process of attempting to “recreate” the 40 minutes of MPAA-sliced footage from Cruising. Hired as the Al Pacino in their recreation, Val Lauren shines in his role as (a version of) himself – debating his participation in the project, his feelings toward explicitly homosexual sex scenes (and sex scenes, in general), and ultimately, the intentions of the filmmakers, specifically Franco. At one point in the film, at the insistent behest of Lauren, Franco provides some brief but notable insight into his reasons for joining Mathews on the investigative journey that is Interior. Leather Bar.
“I don’t like the fact that I feel I’ve been brought up to think a certain way. I don’t like thinking that. I don’t like realizing that my mind has been twisted by the way that the world has been set up around me. And what that is is straight, normative kind of behavior. And it’s fucking been installed into my brain.” – James Franco
The film, described by LA Times as “intriguing and discomforting in equal measure,” uses its brief running time (roughly an hour) to both depict and inspire a much needed public dialogue on the presence of the frighteningly powerful heteronormative dictatorship that is the MPAA. Furthermore, it successfully points to the inherent problem of censorship at large. Its secondary effects, intended or not, are almost always just glorified versions of oppression.
After watching Interior. Leather Bar., I reached out to co-director Travis Mathews via e-mail to discuss Interior. Leather Bar., censorship, and inspiration.
NAILED Magazine: I was very, very taken with Interior. Leather Bar. Van Zant’s trio of adjectives describing the film (“Complicated. Strange. Avant-garde.”) were quite apt, though I’d add “hyper-real” to that list. What I mean by “hyper-real” is that, though the film is (I believe) written to sort of careen in and out of fact and fiction, it actually presents a more confrontationally and beautifully honest portrait of its subject matter than many “true” documentaries could muster. I was particularly fascinated with Val Lauren’s character. Was Val the choice for this, from the beginning? Walk us through his involvement, if you could.
TRAVIS MATHEWS: I had written an outline for the film and showed it to James who immediately thought of Val. They really are old friends and had recently worked together on James’ film, SAL, about Sal Mineo’s last 24 hours before he was murdered. I thought that Val looked like some version of Pacino and that’s what we are aiming for. More importantly, and interestingly for me, he had some strong reservations about the part and the film, reservations that were already written into the script before he came on board. It was perfect.
NAILED: One of the greatest revelations in Interior. Leather Bar. rests in the very act the film is “documenting,” the attempt to recreate the lost footage from Cruising. The recreation, itself, appears to affect Franco and Lauren just as deeply as it might have affected them (or the era’s equivalent) during the original Cruising shoot. The difference, it seems, is that now such a project prompts an enlightening conversation, where as then (in the original Cruising) it simply prompts censorship. Do you feel that censorship has lost a great deal of its power in the last, say, 10 to 20 years? Also, more specifically, do you feel that Franco’s notion of “hating what he’s been brainwashed into believing is normal” is a notion shared by many in his/our generation? I believe that it is.
MATHEWS: The MPAA is as hypocritical as it’s ever been both in terms of sexuality and gay sexuality versus violence, e.g. Darren Stein’s recent teen film, GBF, landed an R-rating for what can only be explained as its unapologetic gayness. There’s nothing sexual or graphic about that movie. And yet, it’s fine to show people getting heads chopped off in a lot of PG-13 films. I do think that the Internet has made the policing of films, as the MPAA does, less important. Most people will find a way – legal or otherwise – to see the content that appeals to them. But generally speaking, I don’t know that there are too many Hollywood actors at James’s level or of his generation who feel as strongly about this as he does. I think most people are too preoccupied with protecting and promoting their “brand” to care all that much.
NAILED: Personally, what do you feel is American cinema’s greatest shortcoming in 2014? Interior. Leather Bar. casts quite the light on the reality that, as mentioned previously, though cinema has “come a long way” since Cruising, it still hasn’t quite come far enough. What needs to happen next? Which doors need knocking down?
MATHEWS: The big I and little I “Industry” is in such transition that there’s something of a wild wild west mentality that is as disorienting as it is exciting. The methods of making, screening and distributing films are completely in flux and that’s as much its shortcoming – at the moment –as it is cause for cautious optimism.
NAILED: Name one film, song, or other work of art which lit the fuse for you as a child and inspired you to pursue the life you now lead.
MATHEWS: I’ll name a few so I don’t feel the pressure of just one!
“My Own Private Idaho” – GVS; “Christina’s World” – Andrew Wyeth; the first Suede album; “Don’t Look Now” – Nicholas Roeg
NAILED: Name one film, song, or other work of art which has re-lit that fuse or found/lit another fuse entirely as an adult. Do you often find inspiration in your contemporaries?
MATHEWS: “Stranger by the Lake”
There’s a lot of great work being made right now. But a lot of the inspiration I find is in how my contemporaries maneuver some of the crazier elements of this business with a lot of grace and curiosity. People are much kinder and generous than I ever imagined.
NAILED: And, finally – the signature “NAILED Magazine” final question…When was the last time you NAILED it?
MATHEWS: I was in Sao Paulo for Thanksgiving where I made a huge – and hugely successful – Thanksgiving dinner with a lot of improvised ingredients for a bunch of Brazilians who had never celebrated it before. The secret, as is with most delicious things, is butter.
Travis Mathews is an award-winning filmmaker whose movies focus on gay men and intimacy. Informed with a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a background in documentary, Travis takes a thoughtful and naturalistic approach to filmmaking while maintaining a sense of humor in his movies. His work includes the acclaimed documentary series In Their Room, the features I Want Your Love, and Interior. Leather Bar. For more information, please visit his official website here.
