a four chambered heart

Religion and power / sex and power. The act of giving up control; devotion and subjugation. Dual states of purity and sin. Sacred and profane. Rituals for transcendence and the undertones of sexual tension that are imbued in repression and reverence.

This is a personal fantasy of mine that I've always wanted to make into a film. Cults and the idea of insular communities built on purity/piety using sex as ritual to touch God relates to a lot of my personal fascinations. This probably started with a lot of my first sexual experiences being at Quaker Youth camp and grinding on some poor teenager on a church pew there. We wanted to make something that felt different to the usual priest/nun porn stereotypes and that rejected the predictable ideas of coercion for joyously surrendering to sexual transcendence.

Shot on a summer night in an attic room in Los Angeles with Amarna and Owen (who borrowed this dog collar from the Kink wardrobe department) - it's probably one of the first and only Four Chambers films where we stay, mostly, fully dressed. I love naked bodies and skin but something about the conceal reveal, tactile layers and tease of clothes is really hot to me and I love fucking with clothes on in my personal life.

Fun fact: buying these communion wafers online got me signed up to some kind of religious mailing list that sends me recommendations for the best new christian audiobooks every 2 weeks. They don't have an unsubscribe button.

>> WATCH THE FILM <<

music: cilt - forgetting

references:
Hans Bellmer, Die Puppe (1936)
Balthus, Thérese Dreaming (1938)

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