One of the most anticipated amateur porn film festivals is making its way to Philadelphia later this month.
Dan Savage’s sex-positive “HUMP! Tour” will screen 6, 8:15 and 10:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St.
“HUMP!” films are submitted by ordinary people, not professional adult-film actors, and include straight and LGBT participants in a diverse array of sexual styles and preferences.
Some films are humorous, others artistic, thought-provoking or outrageous — but all 18 of the 5-minute films are what Savage calls “humanizing, sex-positive portrayals of sex, versus dehumanizing commercial pornography.”
Here are a few descriptions from the “HUMP!” website: “‘The Grocer’: The triumph of cinematic kink has forever changed how several thousand humans view grapes and carrots; ‘Rube’: A book called ‘Rube,’ plus a handful of lube, triggers a chain reaction you won’t believe; ‘The Glory Hole’: This heartwarming new porno classic dazzled audiences more than any other film.”
Savage said the festival started as a joke with a coworker at The Stranger.
“I thought it would be funny to announce to the office that we were doing an amateur-porn contest,” Savage said. “It took a while for our publisher to agree. They thought no one would submit films.”
But Savage ended up receiving plenty of submissions. After booking a theater, the next question was if anyone would actually show up to watch it, he said.
“The theater was filled that first year, and the audience loved it,” Savage said.
Fast-forward 10 years and the 2015 “HUMP!” festival continues to amass viewers. Savage has made a few changes to the submission guidelines over the past decade to ensure the most impressive lineup.
“Originally, the films were 12 minutes long,” Savage said. “But we found that to be kind of tedious, so we shortened them to five minutes. We also keep an eye towards diversity and delight when we select the films; the festival is for everyone, not just gay or straight people.”
Yet as much as Savage curates “HUMP!” to be inclusive, both in terms of the film selection and the audience it draws, he said it normally draws a mostly straight crowd. But ironically, the overwhelming favorites each year are typically hardcore gay films with humorous twists.
“There seems to be a gravitational pull towards films that make them laugh,” he said.
Savage also observed that the audience’s reaction changes as the festival progresses.
“People are initially thrown back because they see something and think, I would never watch that or do that, but about halfway through the festival everyone begins to tap into the commonalities — pleasure, joy and humor — of the films, despite their differences in taste or preference.”
Savage curates “HUMP!” and writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex-advice column “Savage Love” and the podcast “Savage Lovecast.” He is also the creator of the “It Gets Better” project, an international antibullying campaign for students.
For more information or to purchase “HUMP!” tour tickets, visit humptour.strangertickets.com.