[Vision2020] At the Garland: Adult film festival Hump! aims to promote sex positivity

[Tom Hansen]

Now, let me see if I have this right . . .

In the state of Washington, it is legal (encouraged in some cities) to light up a bong with your significant other (or “friend with benefits”), same sex or not, at a local adult films festival and let things fall where they may, and the only thing the police are going to do is . . . tell you not to drive.

While in Idaho, students are packing guns to their college classrooms..

Courtesy of today’s (October 8, 2017) Spokesman-Review.

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At the Garland: Adult film festival Hump! aims to promote sex positivity

Many people are reticent to talk about pornography, let alone consume it openly.

The Hump! Film Festival’s mission is to dispel these taboos.

On Friday and Saturday night, the 13th annual festival, which tours 35 American cities, made its first-ever stop in Spokane.

Its host: the Garland Theater.

Its ticket-purchasing demographic: straight, gay and transgender. Young adults and old. Single people and married couples.

Created by Seattle author, media pundit and LGBT activist Dan Savage, Hump! wants to change the way the country sees, shares and creates porn.

“Hump! is more of an educational experience. It’s not erotic pornography,” said executive producer Rob Crocker, who made the trip to Spokane. “It’s a melting pot to see what everyone else is doing.”

Over 200 people attended Hump! on Saturday to take in the festival’s 22 short films, most of which have titles that would not be fit to print in a community newspaper. The films range in length from 30 seconds to five minutes and are directed with an eye toward all sexual orientations.

Most were of the adult-film ilk. Others were much tamer.

By its own description, Hump! is a “cornucopia of body types, shapes, ages, colors, sexualities, genders, kinks and fetishes – all united by a shared spirit of sex positivity.”

Crocker said Hump!, which shows in cities as large as San Francisco and as small as Bend, Oregon, came to Spokane because it was requested by a number of Inland Northwest residents.

“We knew it wasn’t going to sell 100,000 tickets like Garth Brooks,” Crocker said. “But we wanted to come to Spokane.”

Attendee Hank Lunsford was one of the people who came to see Hump! and supports its message.

“This is the type of film that is an element of expression of what most people consider taboo,” Lunsford said. “And it shows that porn is changing in how we consume it, from amateur to live-streaming.”

The Garland Theater, which started serving alcohol to moviegoers in 2013, had to suspend the service for the showing due to a Washington state law that doesn’t allow alcohol consumption during adult movies.

It was the first time the theater had to invoke the rule, which roused the ire of some Hump! viewers.

The theater has also come under fire from some locals, owner Katherine Fritchie said, who aren’t happy she allowed Hump! to be featured at the Garland, one of Spokane’s iconic locales.

On Friday, the theater received some angry phone calls, and a Facebook page “Boycott Garland” was created.

The page was deleted on Saturday.

“Hump! is more an education-based group,” said Fritchie, whose theater has hosted events for churches, political gatherings, weddings and birthday parties. “It’s not a hate-based group. Nothing funny is going on during the viewing of the film

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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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