Nachtschatten BDSM/Fetish Film Festival

This nine day festival from 20-28 June 2014 “showcases international short and feature films that are speicifically related to BDSM and fetish topics.” REMEDY had four screenings – three of which were sold out – at the festival. Below are a few of the audience comments.

I can’t remember the last time a film had such an impact on me! A real personal and moving story, which I did not expect from the trailer (which gave the impression of a rather bland “documentary”).

(Director’s Note: I do need to do a post about why that trailer is (a) so long and (b) was the only trailer released until November 2014. I rather enjoy the criticism, however, that it made the movie seem like a bland documentary. It’s sort of the best compliment someone making a work of realistic fiction can get.)

For me, it was definitely not about “failure” in the end, but standing up for your own rights and feelings! Impressive!

I really enjoyed this independent film, not only concerning its fresh approach to content and storytelling, but also in its technical realization. This was a really “cinematic” experience and I had the feeling that each and every shot and scene was carefully planned by the director. This is truly a work of passion and art!

I would not have stayed there for long, I would have left after a week the latest. How did she find the endurance and strength and why?

(Director’s Note: Perhaps I should put something about this in the Q&A as I’m not totally sure the reasons I stayed are totally aligned with the reasons Remedy stayed. Also there is an epilogue to the real story about what I did after I stopped actively taking sessions which is not included in the film.)

You could feel her pain, and you could feel her joy. Especially the two scenes where she is treated as a sub in both, but can hardly endure the first session (dance) but really enjoys the other one. That really showed me how big the gap can be and how dangerous as well as fulfilling such job can be.

(Director’s Note: My brother thinks it’s too long too. The way I see it, this could be my only chance to make a film with total creative editorial control. I’ll let the next one be 100 minutes, promise.)

I though there were some scenes that were dragging a bit, especially towards the end, but overall a good film with really solid production values!

The most interesting part for me was how the story was told. You could tell that much thought went into the screenplay, and I particularly liked how the film did not rely on conventional storytelling approaches for either documentaries/interviews or the standard drama cruve we find in each and every blockbuster these days, but rather used these episodic sessions to gradually give us more insights.