Female to male transgender porn star Buck Angel headlines “Schwartzwald: The Black Party,” an experimental film based around last year’s Black Party. The movie, which includes dance mixes, is scheduled to play in clubs across the country. The Saint at Large plans to film this year’s Black Party, March 24, for a second film.
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By TRENTON STRAUBE
Friday, March 23, 2007
This weekend marks an 18-hour annual gay pagan dance ritual celebrating the vernal equinox. Most gay nightlifers know it as the Black Party. The rite took root at The Saint, an East Village club of the 1980s. Those lacking the stamina (and leather and lube) required for the occasion now have the opportunity to experience it as a movie. The Saint at Large’s Stephen Pevner explains it all, frame by frame.
Before we talk about the movie version of last year’s Black Party, tell us about this weekend’s event. We know that the main DJs are Michael Marx, Tony Moran and Michael Fierman and that the theme is Holy War.
It’ll feel like a testosterone-infused Nascar rally: fast and furious. The idea is that our country’s holy wars are fought over products, not religious themes. We’ll have a ton of twisted corporate sponsorships. Some are real, some are mock. We’re not [selling out], we’re making an ironic comment on sponsorships. We chose people who are working in the gay fetish industry to bring the best representation of their product.
Last year’s theme was Schwartzwald (the Black Forest). In addition to documenting the actual party and its elaborate theatrics, you filmed a mini movie based on the theme and using the party’s performers. The resulting film is what you’re calling “the movie you can dance to.” What is that, exactly?
We’re going to exhibit the movie in nightclubs. We’re not quite sure what the format would be of a night that features the movie, whether there’s a movie call time or the movie will be embedded in the night.
Like a Black Party, the movie goes through a musical arch. We got Michael Fierman to be music supervisor for the classic mix—it’s got disco, Saint classics, more peaks and valleys. The pace of the movie really changes for dramatic purposes. Mario Lucero, who is a music engineer for Junior Vasquez, helped us a lot at mixing a dance mix [separate from the classic mix]. Mostly the dance mix follows the sound track but has more layers and dubbing and is more complicated.
How have clubs reacted to the idea of playing the film?
People are hungry for this type of concept. We’ve had no problem whatsoever. We’ll see. They haven’t seen the movie yet either. This is coming out of the gay underground, so we’re trying to find suitable venues. We have tour dates for Los Angeles at next week’s leather festival, plus Chicago, Atlanta and London. We had a screening Saturday at Splash. People were captivated, so we’ve achieved the first part of our goal: to make a movie about the Black Party that’s driven by a soundtrack. But to make a movie you can dance to, we need to explore mixing it into an [already-packed] dance floor as opposed to playing it for people who are lounging around in a bar atmosphere.
You’ve produced hit films such as “In the Company of Men.” How would you describe “Schwartzwald”?
Fun, bizarre. Like the Black Party itself, everybody will project onto it what they think it is. A lot of people who are great supporters of the party say they like the movie. But for a lot of people, it’s not their Black Party because it’s not full of hypermasculinized leather guys having sex. It’s a bunch of freaks running around in the woods telling a fairy tale. I like it, but it’s much more Sundance than porn, and for a lot of people, that’s what their Black Party is.
“Schwartzwald: The Black Party” DVDs will be distributed exclusively to this year’s Black Party ticket holders. The event takes place Sat., March 24, at Roseland Ballroom. For info on the party and to view the film’s trailer, visit saintatlarge.com.
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