Saturday, May 15, 7:30pm, at 911 Media Arts Center: |
Cinema Au Naturel: Early nudist exploitation films to contemporary naturist films
Evening will include a lecture by Mark Storey, author of Cinema Au Naturel, followed by a screening of Max Nosseck's Garden of Eden (1954), the best known film of its genre. Chasing the Sun (2003), a recent naturist short, will also be shown. Garden of Eden showing at 911, two images from promotional booklet, and film description below appear courtesy of Something Weird Video (somethingweird.com)
Garden of Eden
A Film by Max Nosseck, 1954, Color. With Jamie O’Hara, Mickey Knox, R.G. Armstrong, Karen Sue Trent
Here's the Gone With the Wind of nudist movies! The Director and co-screenwriter is MAX NOSSECK, a respectable Hollywood "B" movie helmer with several respected film noirs to his credit, notably the Lawrence Tierney toughies, Dillinger and The Hoodlum ... but also family movies like Black Beauty and The Return of Rin Tin Tin!
It's downright strange seeing a nudist camp film starring familiar Hollywood faces - like Sam Peckipah regular R.G. Armstrong and movie/TV heavy ARCH JOHNSON. Far heavier with plot than virtually any other example in the genre, the film features a gorgeous leading lady (JAMIE O'HARA), a hunky hero (MICKEY KNOX), lush everglades photography, an elaborate romantic dream sequence ... and it's still every bit as dumb as you would expect any self-respecting nudist movie to be!
Jay Randolph Latimore (Armstrong) is a hardbitten old grouch (supposedly wealthy but the cheesiest set in the flick is his "mansion") who drives his lovely widowed daughter-in-law (O'Hara) and painfully cute moppet granddaughter out of the house, and into the open arms of the Garden of Eden nudist camp. Latimore tries to have his daughter-in-law found an unfit mother. Do you think he'll succeed?
Northwest Premiere! Chasing the Sun
A Film by Edin Velez, 2003, Beta SP, 18 mins. Script by Mark Storey. Additional videography by Michael Cooney and Peter Walsh.
The Naturist Education Foundation produced Chasing the Sun to introduce community leaders to naturists and their values. More and more people are requesting a clothing-optional beach close to home. Naturists thus need contemporary tools to help legislators and business leaders understand why naturist settings on public lands can serve local and regional interests.
Directed and filmed by acclaimed videographer and educator Edin Velez, Chasing the Sun: An Introduction to Naturism is an 18-minute video made with non-naturist community leaders in mind. Without trying to convince anyone to try naturism themselves, Chasing the Sun uses Velez's exquisite camerawork, national polls, interviews with naturists and non-naturist civic leaders, and simple, straightforward reasoning to make the case that a clothing-optional beach or park would be a valuable addition to most any community.
Some of the video footage for Chasing the Sun comes from Velez's Skinny-Dipper series of videos, produced for The Naturist Society in the 1980s. Velez selected video segments that accurately represented sites and naturists as found in the 2000s, and added new footage he and Kelly Anderson collected at the 2002 TNS Eastern Naturist Gathering held at Eastover Resort in Lennox, Massachusetts.
Storey wrote the script in early 2002, and Velez edited the video that same year and into early 2003. The Naturist Education Foundation released Chasing the Sun for distribution in July 2003.
Still video frame of Mark Storey
More images from Chasing the Sun
Lee Baxandall (above) formed The Naturist Society (TNS) in 1980 as a membership organization devoted to promoting and preserving naturist freedoms on appropriate public lands.
The growth of clothing-optional recreation in the U.S. is on the rise. In 1983 a national Gallup Poll showed 73% of American adults believed nude bathing should be allowed at beaches accepted for that purpose. A 2000 national Roper Poll found that the number had risen to 80%.
The same polls found that the percentage of American adults who had skinny-dipped or who had sunbathed nude had risen from 15% to 25%. Fully one quarter of the American adult population has practiced nude recreation.
Clothing-free recreation is becoming as established in the United States as it is in Europe. The 2000 Roper Poll shows this in unbiased terms. Local naturists wish to be seen for who they are: part of the local community and deserving of the same considerations accorded everyone else. Naturists have a choice as to where they will relax and spend their money. Naturist parks and beaches with appropriate signage can be an economic boon for local communities and a valuable public resource for those citizens yearning for a more natural experience.
