Dan Savage’s amateur indie porn festival is coming to Philly’s Fringe

The HUMP! Film Festival, an annual tour of adult films made by novices featuring a full range of human sexuality, is coming to the FringeArts Theater later this month. Curated by syndicated sex advice columnist Dan Savage, this year’s 22 short films tell stories of queer space cadets cruising the galaxy, Mr. Potato Head’s sexual yearnings, and Ronald McDonald finding his doppelgänger. Think amateur porn meets performance art.

Savage, creator of the Savage Love column and podcast, has become an influential voice in national conversations around sex and love over the past three decades. He’s often credited with popularizing non-monogamy and bringing queer sexual cultures around kink and desire into the mainstream. (He coined the acronym “G.G.G.,” or “good, giving, and game,” to describe the qualities people should strive for in bed.) In 2005, he founded HUMP! as a way to “disrupt the way America sees, makes, and shares porn.”

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The film series, which has been touring Philly each year since 2014, is made by people who mostly aren’t in the porn industry but want to join. Savage describes it as “a porn festival for people who don’t like porn.” The graphic shorts feature people of all body sizes, ages, races, and genders, and include a range of kinks. Filmmakers this year were encouraged to incorporate clothespins, leg warmers, and dirty martinis into their narratives. The resulting films are definitely not safe for work, but they are lively and creative.

“We’re just looking for interesting, compelling films that show us a slice of humanity that we haven’t seen before, or a take on gender or sexuality that we haven’t seen before that’s fun and edifying,” Savage told the Vermont alt-weekly Seven Days in 2019. This year, Savage said, the festival received more submissions than ever, making it difficult to whittle down the final count.

With a 95-minute runtime, the collection will have two showings at the FringeArts Theater on April 15, at 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Online screenings are also available. During the screenings, no cellphones are allowed; audience members will be able to vote afterward in categories like “Best Sex” and “Best Humor.”

Paid advertising for HUMP! on Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook is currently banned, said a HUMP! spokesperson. In past years and in other cities around the country, HUMP! screenings have been canceled because of the explicit content. But Savage said the screenings have also been joyful celebrations of sexual expression.

“Even if they’re seeing something crazy that isn’t for them,” he told Seven Days, “everyone is cheering for every film.”

The 2023 HUMP! Film Festival will host screenings in Philadelphia on April 15 at 6:30 and 9 p.m. For ages 21+. Tickets $25. FringeArts, 140 N. Christopher Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, humpfilmfest.com.