SHORTBUS (2006)
John Cameron Mitchell ran an open casting call, then handed his cast an invitation: be as honest as you can, about everything. What they made together is Shortbus. Follow a constellation of lonely people who all find their way to an underground salon where almost anything goes. Explicitly sexual in ways that still unsettle mainstream cinema, its real subject is something far more vulnerable: the terror and necessity of letting people in. Made with unsimulated frankness (and real sex) and extraordinary tenderness, it remains the rare film that uses the body to talk about the soul.
With introduction by Associate Professor Denton Callander (The Kirby Institute, UNSW), sex research scientist and co-chief investigator on the latest Australian Study of Health and Relationships.
Directed by John Cameron Mitchell, US, 2006, 101 min, R 18+
Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Paul Dawson, Sook-Yin Lee, Raphael Barker, PJ DeBoy
Image: courtesy of Oscilloscope
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
Denton Callander
Denton Callander is scientist who studies sex, sexualities and sexual health. He is a chief investigator of the Australian Study of Health and Relationships, which is the country’s once-a-decade sex survey. Denton leads research in Australasia, Africa, North America and Europe, working with the Kirby Institute at UNSW and Médecins Sans Frontières.
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