Working the Kink Out

"Piss"

Hear those feral cats yowling in the distance? That's the sound of pussy l'amour ratcheting up thanks to the drop in temperature. Everything, it seems, gets all hot and bothered when it's cool, and those frisky kitty squeals are archly echoed – if the coffee shop talk we accidentally/obsessively listen in on every day is any indicator – by an equally hedonistic swelling in Austin's bipedal population. Should you be lacking a partner, a plaything, or a pill, sweet relief (of a sort) can be found at a pair of, um, upcoming, eros-inspired film events courtesy of local monthly freak fest Smut City.

The New York-based CineKink Film Festival saunters into the 29th Street Ballroom on Thursday, Nov. 17, and makes you its bitch with a half-dozen "best of fest" perv-friendly shorts. (Hey, size doesn't matter, right? Right?!) Our favorite short is Bette Bentley and Vincent Peone's "Piss," which renders that most intimate of ancient sexual fetishes just as goofy as it sounds. Also featured in the program is "Love Hotel," Barcelona-based filmmaker Erika Lust's sequel to her 2009 award-winner "Handcuffs"; we probably don't need to elaborate on the smut fun that ensues at said hotel. Suffice it to say that Spanish sexuality remains as uninhibited as a nekkid flamenco dancer on Ecstasy.

Smut City follows up its CineKink one-night stand with an ultrarare screening of M.C. von Hellen's (aka John Lamb) 1974 outing, Sex Freaks, which marries the gooey, acidic imagery of Roger Corman's The Trip to the "educational adult film" (aka "white coaters") format before divorcing itself from reality entirely and getting jizzy with it. So to speak.

"It's better than sex," enthuses Smut City programmer/founder Devon Tincknell. "Basically it's a pseudo-documentary, and what it's saying is that, in the West, we're all sexually repressed and hung up on sex. And it's all done through a series of beautifully shot, incredibly psychedelic vignettes that cover everything from lesbianism to necrophilia to having sex with dolls. I think it's going to be really great to watch it with an audience, especially since Austin audiences are particularly daring. It's a blast."

Best of CineKink 2011 screens Thursday, Nov. 17, 8pm, at 29th Street Ballroom (2906 Fruth). Sex Freaks screens Sunday, Nov. 20, 10:30pm, at New Movement Theater (1819 Rosewood).