Filmmaker Focus #3 - The Hot, The Bold The Foxy

Its time for another Filmmaker Focus! This week we hear form Mayssan, a Lebanese woman who loves her bicycle, movies and encouraging mirth in Montreal.

I wasn't actively planning on doing a smut for this year until a week before I shot the movie. I heard that Julia and Skylar were making a movie for Bike Smut and looking for actors/resses, I was real down for that. "A western? Wow! That's the theme? I love westerns!" I have wanting to make one for years, and a little voice in my head has been saying: "You can't make a western without a horse!"

This came like a dream! the bicycle would replace the horse in a romantic, yet realistic way! I damned myself for not thinking about it by myself and set my mind on doing a smutty western. It was two weeks before the deadline. I specially like spaghetti westerns, what i like about them is that
they are over stylized and aware of it, yet they remain raw and grungy. My first instinct was to do the Good the Bad and the Ugly, the dual scene, for purely stylistic reasons... but before I decided on that idea I thought about parodying another Leone western :  For a Fistful of Dildos (the last scene again). The good, the bad and the ugly just kind came together faster so I went for it. But I swore to do the sequel. The costumes all come from my wardrobe, except for the hats. Hence the disco theme (I am a DiscoBoy). We thought that disco and spaghetti would go well together

. The whip is my personal whip i used when I trained horseback riding back in Lebanon and i made the flogger out of inner tubes of course.

I wasn't yet decided on which one of the westerns to make when i started talking to Francis about wanting to make a smut. Francis was super excited and wanted to help. We brainstormed. They say, "My friend Simon from Germany is coming into town next week, you should meet him"…"he's a videographer" "does he have a camera?" "yes" "would you let him shoot?" "yes"

I stormed back home, this is my opportunity, I can't let it slip, I feel it the ideas starting to form inside my chest… the actress, the camera… my head turns, I need a location… my phone rings, it's Jamie. Jamie is the only other person that I know that would be up to anything, anytime for the fun or the art of it. She has a voice lesson in Toronto, she says she thought she'd take the opportunity to come visit me in Montreal (8 hours away, go figure!), would that be a good time? if you wanna be in a smut it would! Sure!
The next couple of days I spent riding, visualizing a movie in my head. I am looking for sand and horizon.
Nothing!
At home Marguarita who's heard me ask about a location at Right to Move, a community bike shop, writes to tell me that next to her house in Laval is some vacant land, with sand! Did I hear Sand? There are pictures, with real sand... Simon gets from the plane to the park, and a pleasure to meet him, conversation flows until we are both exhausted and over-laughed. This is gonna be a blast!

With Jamie and Simon, we go to the park the next day, and try out some shots. I make out with my bike, hmmm! How sexy it is close to my body. I let my bike top me, it lays there on top of me, cold, dirty. I am horny, it makes me laugh!

On the day of the shooting, we were first to arrive at the location…. But not so long after, 6 kids aged around 12 came armed with guns and paint come to their usual spot. They suspect from our costumes that we are getting smutty and hang around. Getting the kids to leave the set was the most challenging part of making the film. They sure cleared the area but kept sneaking as much as they could to the action, while firing guns and yelling dirty things

Kieran is sure that the story of the smut will live on forever in a town like Laval, that these kids will proudly tell their grandsons who in turn would tell it to their grandsons, the legacy of the proud smut witnesses.

We liked this idea and sang a song as we walked out of the woods, the song goes like this "ta ta ttata ta ta making porn in Canadian forest in what i do in my free time… ta tat a tata ta…
When people tell me it is not porn, i say it is true it is not.. and I ain't proud of that or anything… It just isn't a porn yet for me. It's a tease, it's hot, it's bike-centric but it doesn't turn you on the way a porn does. It's an intro to a porn. it needs a sequel to be porn. 

Making this smut changed my life in many ways. I am a filmmaker and I love sexuality but i had never put the two together, despite thinking about it. Now it seems like a priority for me, I see the need for it and I want to do as many smutty film as often and as possible. Bike-centric or not…

Flood the net with conscious porn. Get smart people into porn. I owe this to Bike Smut…. and the funnest week of my spring.

I tell anyone who thinks they wanna make a smut to go ahead and do it. I wanna see it.

Many things I would have done differently. 

I am really annoyed that Jamie didn't show her tits, she would have, we just shot her once and didn't get to shoot her again. There was a lot of things missing.

I would have made it one song shorter too, and/or would have thought a funnier or sexier twist at the end. 

But it's made... and that's what counts.

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Whoa! Thanks Mayssan! This was so delightful. Thanks for sharing your voice, body and ideas. They are all quite fabulous. We couldn't agree more, encouraging everyone to make their own conscious pornography would do a lot to changing the way we think and deal with sex.

Own your own sex! Own your own transportation!

This isnt over! we still have one more rad Montreal bikesexual filmmaker that we will hear from Thursday, Oct 17th! Get ready!!