'Shortbus' sex bonanza a slap to Bush, Cannes director says

'Shortbus' sex bonanza a slap to Bush, Cannes director says
May 20 4:24 PM US/Eastern
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A US film featuring actors performing real sex is a "call to arms" against President George W. Bush, the director told journalists at the Cannes film festival.

"Shortbus," an explicit, largely improvised arthouse flick that includes a rendition of the American national anthem during a gay sex scene, is a direct provocation, director John Cameron Mitchell admitted.



"It's a little bit of a cri de coeur to us, a little bit of a call to arms" against the prevailing conservatism, he told a media conference, adding that his country was living in "the era of Bush, which is about clamping down, being scared."

The 43-year-old, whose previous work was "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," about a transsexual rock singer, said the film was his own small act of defiance against Bush.

"If you can't do elections you might as well do erections," he said.


Although the first half of the film is filled with sex, including orgies and masturbation, the act itself is not meant to be erotic but rather to challenge the audience and make it confront issues such as loneliness, the illusion of self-sufficiency and other seemingly unrelated problems, Mitchell said.

One scene likely to create controversy in the United States and some other countries shows a gay threesome in which one participant joyfully bellows "The Star Spangled Banner."

The actor with the singing voice, PJ Deboy, said he did the scene to show that he was as American as anyone, despite resistance to gays in parts of the country, including Washington.

"I thought to myself: 'Can I do it...?' And I decided I could, because it is a patriotic act.... There's nothing un-American about gay sex and there's nothing unpatriotic about it," he said.


He also joked that "I am now touring and singing every country's national anthem," and called for volunteers to assist.

Mitchell pointed out that the movie, filmed in New York City, also made pointed references to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Near the end of the movie, the lights flicker out as they did during a blackout that briefly occurred in 2003, provoking fears of a terrorist attack -- and then relief and a sense of togetherness that is likened to an orgasm.

"This film is in the shadow of 9/11, but it shows we're still alive, y'know?" the director said.

"Sex is not that interesting unless it's put into an artistic context, or you're having it yourself," Mitchell said.

"And sometimes not even then," added a cross-dressing actor called Justin Bond who played himself in the movie.