REEL PARTY 2: SHORTBUS (John Cameron Mitchell, 2006, 101 min.)

Reel Party 2: A Queer Film Party for Anyone Who Likes Film & Fun Fun starts at 7:30, screening at 8:00. Tonight’s Film Feature: Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell, 2006, 101 min.) With Live-via-Internet Intro by Shortbus star Peter Stickles (“Caleb, the Stalker”) Plus Drag King Burlesque by Queen City Kings Plus cash bar, plus food for sale from Amy’s Food Truck $8 general, $6 college students/seniors, $5 Hallwalls members. 18 and above only. This special exclusive screening of Shortbus is made possible by special arrangement with and permission from writer-director John Cameron Mitchell and his co-producer Howard Gertler, with special thanks to Daniel Seiders and Peter Stickles. Shortbus is a 2006 American film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, writer (with songwriter Stephen Trask) and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, both the 1998 Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway stage musical and the 2001 film, which Mitchell also directed. The plot of Shortbus revolves around a sexually diverse ensemble of colorful characters trying desperately to connect in New York City. The characters converge in a weekly Brooklyn artistic/sexual salon loosely inspired by various underground NYC gatherings that took place in the early 2000s. According to Mitchell, the film attempts to “employ sex in new cinematic ways because it’s too interesting to leave to porn.” Shortbus notoriously includes a variety of explicit, non-simulated sex scenes. Actor Peter Stickles—who will appear live via "Skype" for a pre-film intro—was cast in Shortbus in 2003 from amongst some 400 actors who submitted audition tapes for the film, which was initially known as “Sex Film Project.” No script had been written prior to casting and the story was built out of improvisational sessions once the cast was in place. The voyeuristic aspect of Caleb’s character grew in part out of Stickles’ own interests at the time. “I was exploring sex clubs at the time and not necessarily participating but watching from afar. I think John [Cameron Mitchell] was attracted to the idea of this whole voyeuristic aspect of the character…How far would you go to touch somebody from afar?” Stickles, along with others in the cast, was nominated for a Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast. REEL Party series organizers: Frits Abell, Harper SE Bishop, & Paul Morgan.