A studio in Tarzana on a chilly spring night. Inside the lobby, there's a guy yelling on his phone. Beyond, a small crowd has gathered over sandwiches and drinks. It's an L.A. preview before the CineKink 2010 tour of the award-winning Anti-Samaritan Hotline, a short film billed as a comedy about death, despair, suicide and sado-masochism.
Anti-Samaritan Hotline poster, photo by Brandon Vasquez, poster by Amy Ralph
The 40 or so people gathered are a mixture of friends, film enthusiasts and kinksters. I meet the director, A. Tad Chamberlain, whom I'd connected with through Fetlife, the social network for kinksters. He's a friendly, smiling creative -- just the kind of guy you'd imagine being able to pull off getting a film about suicide through the CineKink gatekeepers, who are notorious for turning away films that deal with such subject matter.
Films dealing with BDSM rarely strike a proper balance, they either approach it with too much caution, or they sensationalize it to the point it is simply a caricature of itself. Chamberlain is no stranger to kink, and his familiarity is what carries the film. A masterwork of show, don't tell, the Anti-Samaritan Hotline approach to BDSM culture and human failure and despair is so human, it's not just accessible, but irresistible.
After the film, we asked Chamberlain a few questions.
NakedCity: You have specified the film was inspired by the song A.S.H. by your brother's band Cavedoll, which features the call the protagonist ends up making that leads to his decision to end his life. This call mentions a kinky sex game -- how did you go from sex game to BDSM?
A. Tad Chamberlain: In the dialog found in the original song (which is very close to the final scripted dialog in the film), the hotline operator suggests that the caller turn his suicide into a "kind of kinky sex game" by hanging himself while wearing a fur coat, stockings, and a garter belt with an orange stuffed in the mouth. You may recall David Carradine's accidental hanging death last year, which was the result of auto-erotic asphyxiation (a particular type of BDSM fetish). To go from hanging in conjunction with a "kinky sex game," to building a story in which BDSM plays a significant role, was not a giant leap to make.
Incidentally, to go off on a bit of a tangent, David Carradine's death occurred exactly two weeks after we shot the hanging suicide scene in "Anti-Samaritan Hotline," which holds some eerie similarities to Carradine's death. Many of us on the cast and crew were rather weirded out by the uncanny coincidence at the time that it happened.
Calling A.S.H., photo by Brandon Trost.
NC: Your film treats BDSM with incredible realism and humanity, and this shows a certain level familiarity with the community. Are you involved in BDSM yourself?
ATC: I like to say that I am a mainstream filmmaker with a penchant for kink. It certainly helps to do your research and have some familiarity with your subject matter! I'll leave it at that for now.
NC: You won the Creative Vision in a Short Film award at CineKink 2010 for Anti-Samaritan Hotline. Has there been any backlash or criticism of the film?
ATC: No harsh backlash or criticism yet. The CineKink organizers referred to "Anti-Samaritan Hotline," in conversation with me, as "the difficult film" and told me they had a difficult time programming it as part of "the kinky film festival" because it does present some ambiguities and difficult-to-digest treatments of both BDSM and suicide. They even have an unofficial "no suicides" policy, in reference to the films they program. However, they felt the writing, filmmaking, and performances were strong enough to give their audiences a chance to see it and decide for themselves. I anticipated facing some difficult questions from audiences about the film's message, but haven't yet had anybody corner me and make me squirm.
