Dominatrix Waitrix
by Trigger Jane
Check out the Dominatrix Waitrix site at http://www.dominatrixwaitrix.com for info on the upcoming play parties....
On Sunday, October 12th I attended the second Pleasure Play Party at Big Wig benefiting the film Dominatrix Waitrix being made by the local independent filmmaker Edith Edit, and a pleasure play party it was. I have to say that with in the past few months I've consistently had my life revamped by different events that I've had the fortune of attending and this one was yet another to add to the "I wish I could do it all over again" list. I walked in with a vague of idea of what to expect, but little did I know that I'd have another side of myself called upon and come screaming out to play.
At this party I got my first lap dance, I know, sad but true. The thing is I'm usually on the giving end of such pleasurable experiences and not on the receiving end, but oh my, how ecstatic I was to receive. Flogging, something that I'd seen done, talked about but never had my turn with, I also got the much desired chance to experience, more than once. This little kitten just couldn't get enough! The entire atmosphere of this situation, this party, sent me home wanting to play and has been driving at my mind ever since. It gave life to a side I knew was creeping around inside me some where, but had never quite found the right environment in which to cut itself free. It screamed of sexuality and sensuality, pleasure, perversion, domination and compulsion and all I wanted was more. It's sent me reeling in the most enticing and intriguing way and I'm slowly writhing around inside waiting for the next time to play.
I was graced with the opportunity to engage with Edith Edit in some Q&A via email about herself and her film, here's the fill...enjoy!
Trigger: What are 3 words you'd use to describe yourself?
Edith: She makes porn?!
Trigger: How long have you been in the film industry?
Edith: I don't feel I've ever been in the film industry, because I have no affiliation with any commercial projects. But I have been part of the independent film/video scene for about ten years. Since 1994, I've been making videos while on staff for several film festivals and non-profits, including Women in the Director's Chair and Reeling: The Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Trigger: Where did your passion for film come from?
Edith: I actually started out as a journalist and thought I could insert my politics into mainstream television and radio news. So naive. My big moment of realization downed in 1994 when I was a tv news intern in Nashville and attempted to "sell" a story to the Special Projects Producer about growing anti-Arab sentiment in the U.S. after the first World Trade Center bombing. When I couldn't pitch enough of a human interest angle, he pointed at the tv monitor which was playing "Oprah" and said "Look! That's what America wants." I quit the next day and decided to make my own independent documentary.
Trigger: Was that your first film?
Edith: Yes. It was a video documentary called "Lucy Barks!" that was nothing like what you'd see on tv. It was about an all-ages punk rock club thriving in Nashville in spite of the dominating country and Christian contemporary music scenes. At that time (1994-96) I was part of a punk and grunge rock scene where all the guys were on stage and all the girls were standing around watching the guys on stage or in the mosh pit. When I started making videos, I felt like I suddenly had a place. The whole community supported me and encouraged me to finish the project. Since then I've made about a dozen short films and videos about pop culture, celebrity, sex, and colonialism, including "Annie Complex" (co-written/directed with KJ Mohr, 2000) and "Video Petition Project" with the Artist Emergency Response Collective.
Trigger: What is the basis of this story?
Edith: Dominatrix Waitrix is a sci-fi musical queer sex romp about power and labor in sex and the service industry. It's the result of over twelve years I spent working as a busgirl, hostess, and waitress in a handful of restaurants.
Trigger: What prompted you to tell this story in this manner?
Edith: The repetition of waiting on dozens and dozens of tables a day became so programmed in my head that I would often have server nightmares. I'd be half asleep and suddenly awaken, realizing I had forgotten someone's coffee or toast or something. It frightened me that such a mindless job could follow me in my sleep. This repetition and choreography of the server drove the imagery for the film - how she saunters from table to table, leaning in and asking "Can I take your order, Sir? Can I take your order, Ma'am?" or briskly bouncing to each table during a brunch shift, pouring coffee in bottomless cups and chanting "Regular or Decaf?" Now, what if that waitress refuses to see herself as a server who must serve, but rather as a mistress who determines when a customer has the right to eat or drink? What happens when she stops seeing herself as a victim stuck in the daily grind, and begins to notice the power she has in her position? What if she stops caring about the tip and replaces that neediness with a sadistic pleasure in making others wait for their privilege to be served by her? For this, she may lose her job. Or, she may suddenly receive tremendous respect and increased gratuity. I think that to be a domintrix is a way of life, refusing to be anyone's servant. But, I also think that there are times when the greatest liberation is to willingly submit to someone who deeply understands your limits and desires. This is the crux of the story.
Trigger: What's been the most best/most interesting part of working Dominatrix Waitrix?
Edith: Learning from the cast and crew. The Director of Cinematography, Mary Billyou, is so professional and way more experienced that I am working on large films. She taught me so much I can't even list it all. Sache and Ms Minax, the co-stars, understood the script and story immediately - really could relate to it. It's strange because even though I wrote it, I didn't fully understand it until I started working with them. I had all these ideas in my head that I knew how to visualize and write down, but I had not live the characters, even though they were all a part of me. Seeing Sache and Minax embody the characters was an amazing experience - it was like stepping outside of yourself and watching someone else perform all your imaginary friends and inner-conversations.
Trigger: What do you want others to get out of Dominatrix Waitrix?
Edith: I want this video to make people think about the way the service industry entitles people to behave as if they have the right to order people around, or to believe that they deserve to be ordered around. And I want them to wonder what it would be like if workers refused to be ordered around. I want them to transfer this into their own fantasies about ordering and being ordered. I want them to think, and then to stop thinking and then, maybe, to think again...and then stop thinking... and then to notice that their pants have gotten wet.
Trigger: What made you go SCi-Fi for this film?
Edith: I'm not a sci-fi expert or fanatic, but I love sci-fi camp. The sound design for Dominatrix Waitrix is heavily influenced by the beeps and gadgety sci-fi aesthetic, and some of the sets and costumes were created under this influence. I especially appreciate how sci-fi, because it takes place in a not-yet-experienced time frame, allows the viewer to throw reality out the window. Yet historically, sci-fi films tend to say more about reality than some documentaries ever could. Think Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" or Chris Marker's "La Jetee." Currently, some of the more interesting and effective political are embraces science-fiction and the fiction of science, such as the cyber-feminist work of SubRosa and Lynne Hershman Leeson. Also, the first zines were sci-fi. Really great science-fiction eschews convention and embraces the unknown, feared, and desired. So, why not make a sci-fi sex video? I'm certainly not the first - "Barbarella" and "Flesh Gordon" are among the myriad of influences for this film, as are "Metropolis" and countless other classics.
Trigger: What was the push for you to go through with this project?
Edith: If i didn't finish this video, all the 50+members of the cast and crew who invested so much of their time would probably dip me in bacon grease and tie me to a tree at the nearest dog park. That wouldn't actually be so bad except I'm a vegetarian.
Trigger: How did you find your cast and crew?
Edith: The cast and crew are my friends and friends of friends. I wouldn't let anyone step on the set unless they knew what the story was about and had perused the website. I uploaded the entire screenplay on line so they could read it and make sure they knew what they were getting involved with. I was asking all these people to work for free and didn't want anyone involved who didn't really want to be there. It paid off. They participated fully and now feel a stake in the project. This video no longer belongs to just me.
Trigger: Did you write the script all on your own?
Edith: I wrote the first draft in a feverish one-week burst of creativity three years ago, sought feedback from my advisors at the Art Institute, namely Gregg Bordowitz ("Fast Trip, Long Drop"; "Habit") and Barbara DeGenevieve (Ssspread.com), made countless revisions, then shelved it for a year and a half. When I was finally brave enough to start shooting, Sache and Ms Minax added a great deal of input and helped me shape the dialogue during our rehearsals and workshops.
Trigger: Is there anything you'd like to throw in about how people can contribute or help sponsor the completion of Dominatrix Waitrix?
Edith: Thank you for asking this question! The video is extremely low-budget by Hollywood's (or Sundance's) standards: $10,000, but that's $10,000 I don't have. If anyone would like to make a donation of any amount (even $10 would help) or sponsor the film, they can do so directly from my Website http://www.dominatrixwaitrix.com. They can also purchase merchandise from the on-line store, attend one of the Pleasure Play Party benefits at Big Wig (second Sundays of every month), or buy the DVD when it's ready in February.
Trigger: Do you have any future projects planned?
Edith: As soon as I finish editing Dominatrix Waitrix, I'm going to start writing a script for a feature narrative film about a suburban nuclear family that faces a crisis when it is publicly discovered that the parents, who are respected community leaders and school teachers, lead an active pan-sexual leather lifestyle.
Trigger: If you personally could get a few things across to women today, what would some of those things be?
Edith: There is on reason why pornography cannot exist for our own pleasure. It's our right and we deserve it. And we can make it ourselves.
Much Love and Thanks to Edith Edit for taking the time to answer all these questions, and also for throwing such tasty party!
Trigger Jane is a 25 year old writer, actress, temptress, perspective go-go dancer and perveyor of sexual inuendos. She currently, however works at a bar and enjoys time being alive. |
