Indie director Eileen Yaghoobian on how The Act of Killing inspired her to bring sext fantasies to life
Ever wanted to turn your drunken 3am “hey r u awake what u wearing” sex texts into hyper-mediated video art? Now you can. Independent director Eileen Yaghoobian launched Send Me Your Sexts, a pay-for-film service that adapts user-submitted sexts for online video. For $80, Yaghoobian and a cast of actors will bring your misspelled sex missives to ludicrous, OTT life.
Yaghoobian says she was inspired by her background in theatre and documentary filmmaking, along with the use of reenactments in films like The Act of Killing (yes, the documentary about Indonesian death squads). The two videos made so far toe the line between sheer absurdity and deliberately awkward B-grade porn, revealing a strangely compelling meta-commentary on texting, sex and why human beings are now compelled to send messages like "yea I want ur cum to myself" to each other.
“Sexts are the perfect inspiration: they are current, contemporary, and filled with creativity, tension, real drama and humour" – Eileen Yaghoobian
Dazed spoke to Yaghoobian about the cinematic potentials of sexts and what they reveal about modern love. If you’re interested in commissioning Yaghoobian and her intrepid crew, you can submit your sexts here.
Dazed Digital: What’s so fascinating about sex texts, anyway?
Eileen Yaghoobian: It’s the narrative aspect that interests me most. I like the idea of combining the world of sex with the world of indie. Sexts are really the perfect inspiration – they are current, contemporary, and filled with creativity, tension, real drama and humour. The stories are crazy good – one guy sent 132 sexts in 23 days to a girl he just met... I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.
DD: What’s the best sext submitted so far?
Eileen Yaghoobian: One of my favourites is between a guy and a girl. He says he likes pussy more but he also likes the 'combination of boobs and a dick'. But it's all good for video-making, so submit whatever you like. There is no weird in the world of making sext videos.
DD: So, is this porn or something… weirder?
Eileen Yaghoobian: Nothing wrong with a sexy site that's not porn – including sex in a sexts video doesn't make it unfunny, it’s just sexy-funny. I’m not interested in making porn, but I’m totally open to showing more skin and I want to. I think it will depend on the texts but for sure in the future I will have a section for the R-rated ones – possibly if someone requests it (and pays a little bit more) we can do it! But I just don’t want to show random tits and ass. It has to work with the story.
DD: Have you learned anything about human nature from reading all these sexts?
Eileen Yaghoobian: The 'sexy' words people choose in verbalizing their sexual fantasies are fascinating and say a lot about their character. You can tell a lot about their intent in the text choices people make. The act of verbalising a sexy text message to turn someone on and the back and forth... You can talk sexy when you’re having sex, but to talk sexy in a text to get to the act of sex is something else — it’s wonderful, unexplored territory. Endless fun.
DD: Are you intentionally going for humour with this?
Eileen Yaghoobian: I don’t want to be a colouring sexting book, just literally acting out the sexts, because, you know, been there done that. I definitely want to keep it entertaining, funny and sexy. I want it to be a combo of Saturday Night Live and sexy – a sexy SNL. People sexting are not having sex – you can be buying milk and sexting! So keeping it dramatic, comedic and sexy seems automatic because the humour is there by default.
DD: What's the worst sext you've ever received?
Eileen Yaghoobian: This one is tough because it depends on your point of view. Sometimes the worst is the best! But there was one about those Ben Wa balls... Check in on the site cause I plan on making a video of it.