Nothing is real, but everything matters! This June, Northwest Film Forum is proud to present four films that explore the almost-always blurry boundary between fantasy, desire, and reality when it comes to our deepest (and sometimes darkest) sexual fantasies. Together, these four films present different approaches to representing queer sexuality on film in all its libidinal possibilities. From modern found-footage compilations of vintage gay pornography to depersonalized docs on kinky sex, this program breaks down the walls between what we want and what we can have in hopes of creating a world of pure, unfiltered pleasure.

In TAKE ONE (presented in its uncut theatrical version!), the singular Wakefield Poole interviews people about their ultimate sexual fantasies to dig at what makes them so hot, yet so unattainable. Thankfully, he then gives his subjects the chance to fix that and allows them to experience those fantasies on camera for all to see. Culminating in a viewing of these fantasies by his subjects à la Chronicle of A Summer, Take One is a fantastic snapshot of men’s imagined and enacted desire in the age of gay liberation.

KAMIKAZE HEARTS is this series’ themes distilled and concentrated into one single film. Real sex carried out in otherwise fantastical scenarios underpins the tense and explosive relationship between two lebsian porn stars in 80s San Francisco. Rather than shying away from this conflict of representation, director Juliet Bashore leans into it even harder to create one of the most compelling films about sex work’s “real life” impact and how we navigate our most complex relationships.

Elizabeth Purchell’s ASK ANY BUDDY is a kaleidoscopic found-footage film detailing a day in the life of a gay man in the 70s as told through “All Male Films.” An encyclopedia of adult cinema in and of itself, Ask Any Buddy is another, multi-faceted, portrait of gay life in the 70s as it was being documented on camera for all (or at least those in the good theaters) to see.

Finally, BOTTOM is “a horror film or a guidebook, depending on who you are” that will kick off your Pride weekend with a bang (or a few hundred). Chronicling the sexual exploits of an anonymous cum dump in his quest to take as many loads as possible, Bottom is an unflinching, confrontational, and unfiltered look at transgressive sex and all of its danger, excitement, and fluids.

Program curated by Cole Wilder.