In August 2010 I (Ned) starred in an “adult art feature” written and directed by Vivian Darkbloom and produced by Kink.com. Basically this is feature film with explicit sexual content, but which is focused more on the narrative arc than on arousing the audience. Indietro is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. Here is writer/director Vivian Darkbloom’s synopsis:
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, Anais Nin, and “The Story of O” were among the inspirations for Vivian Darkbloom’s “Indietro”, a story about relationships, misconceptions, and desire. On a chilly winter evening, Honey and Nick, Mr. and Mrs. Suburbia, pay a visit to the mysterious and sprawling home of George and Martha, the king and queen of kink, and their “maid”, Camille. As the night slowly unravels from the wee small hours of morning back to its beginning, we discover the truth about each of the characters, their motivations, and their darkest longings. Indietro takes a back flip into the world of BDSM and sex, pushes conventional boundaries, and takes an intimate look at what lengths people will go to in the pursuit of love, connection, and carnal fulfillment.
Vivian Darkbloom, IndietroMovie.com
Although nearly everyone in the cast (with the exception of William Van Noland) is a porn performer and the entire crew works full time in porn, this movie cannot be called pornography. Although there are some very hot scenes, it is difficult to masturbate to this. If you skip to the sex scenes, you will end up watching about five minutes of this movie. Indietro is what happens when you gather a bunch of really talented, creative pornographers to make an honest to goodness narrative film. I think it turned out brilliantly, and I am proud to have been a part of it.
The cast was awesome to work with, and the bar for acting was impressively high. Lilla Katt stole scenes left and right as Martha, a party woman who is more interested in getting her rocks off than strict D/S. Madison Young quietly held the tension of the film on her shoulders, while Aurora Snow‘s bouncy and believable performance as a kink starved suburban housewife dominated the foreground. Our one non-porn cast member, William Van Noland, absolutely nailed his role as the rich Dom at the center of it all. I was impressed with every performance, and I would be excited to meet any cast member for a drink at any time.
The crew members don’t have such public presences to link to, but I want you all to take note of the cinematography, lighting, sound, set design, and makeup as you watch this film. There are some truly brilliant artists and artisans in the Armory and in the porn industry as a whole. Give them the time and budget to be creative and you can make something beautiful. More people should take that time.
My sex scene with Madison Young was my first paid boy/girl fucking scene with an actual studio. I was nervous – Madison is a good friend of mine now, but at the time I only knew her as one of the biggest names in the SF kinky indie porn scene. On top of these nerves, I was exhausted. I had just gotten back from a month of tough manual labor Haiti, and I still had some stomach issues as my system readjusted to the first world. I was also working full time in research lab and then shooting for six hours a day in the evenings. We finally got around to shooting the sex on the thirteenth day of filming at about 2AM, and we had run out of coffee. I could hardly utter a coherent sentence, and I was being asked to have sex with a huge star, on camera, in character, for the first time ever. To be honest I can’t believe I pulled it off. Madison is a pro and the scene turned out wonderfully (though not very much of it is used in the final cut), and from then on I knew I was cut out to be in porn. If I’m ever worried about whether I will be able to get it up, I think of that day.
Indietro has been making the rounds at alt film festivals, notably winning Best Narrative Feature at Cinekink 2011 (beating out Private’s “Open Invitation”, in which Maggie and I had a hot fucking scene). I encourage you all to check it out.
