Kyle Henry

Kyle Henry is filmmaker using Kickstarter to fund his project FOURPLAY, an anthology of shorts including Fourplay: Tampa which is in this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Click here to join the push to complete production on the feature anthology.

So we’re at Sundance, about to screen Fourplay: Tampa, one of the shorts that comprise our anthology of shorts feature FOURPLAY, and suddenly I’m a bit nervous. How will the audience react to this challenging and outrageous short? Each of the shorts in FOURPLAY pushes screen sex to new emotional boundaries, and with Tampa we’re seeing how an “NC-17” slapstick farce about public restroom sex will go over.

GLBT audiences at our Outfest American premiere howled and squealed with laughter, but queer audiences might be more comfortable with the subject matter. I wasn’t able to see the world premiere screening at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. What will straight audiences think, raised as this generation has been with sanitized and promotional advertisements of queer life seen in mass media entertainment? Will they connect and care for our desperate hero, looking for love in all the wrong places? I can only hope they will relate to the experience of humilitating oneself for the chance at connection and/or love, and doing so in a way that’s personal, even if highly unusual.

The second reason I’m nervous is that we’re using this Sundance opportunity to launch one last Kickstarter to fund the feature anthology. FOURPLAY‘s funding thus far has nearly exhausted our intimate circle of supporters, and the project needs to reach a wider level of support that perhaps Sundance exposure can provide. So we’re “working it,” mentioning the Kickstarter in every interview and Q&A. A $10 donation allows you to see Tampa online once the fund drive ends. Call it an mini-advance distribution/fundraising gamble, with Kickstarter offering not only fundraising but the opportunity for us to get part of the product itself to our fans early.

So, here we go. Take a breath, keep drinking water, and remember to keep focused on the mission of making sure people have the opportunity to see a work that will hopefully create a conversation about what stories we can tell each other about sex and sexual expression. We have until Feb 20th to make that a reality. Check out the video below and consider a $10 donation to bring a bit of Sundance to the privacy of you own home for some sexually healing.

P.S.: Well, maybe I don’t have to be too nervous after all! See this great review by Michael Tully in Ted Hope’s HAMMER TO NAIL below. Still, these short are meant to provoke discussion, so totally prepared to engage with potential hostile responses.