A new post from Margot after a loooong, long time.

13 years! I must congratulate Ralphus and all those responsible for this forum for the great job they are doing and to all those who day after day visit this place, post, comment, make it a living, breathing thing. So…

Big hugs to all on the 13th anniversary of GIMP!.

Time flies. we’re suddenly in the middle of April and we’re running fast into MAY! and I haven’t yet come to terms with the new year. It wasn’t that long ago that Vero came to work on the new production, Dead But Dreaming, and now she’s back in her French routine.

And it wasn’t that long ago that Amy was being celebrated in New York with her first film, Sirwiñakuy … and it wasn’t that long ago that Maleficarum was censored… but all of that is now in the recent past, along with the festivities of the New Year, Alacitas, Carnival and so on.

Incidentally. Amy and Jac had plans for a carnival story a while ago, they took some pictures, shot a bit of footage and then decided they won’t do it… that was two or three years ago, way, way in the past. Time flies.

Amy told you the news already, but I’m here to expand a bit. We had a proposal by one theatre, run by the city, to show Maleficarum in August of this year, but while we were discussing this possibility we got news that a multiplex wanted it in May. Soon after a second multiplex joined and this one has theaters in three cities. So, all of a sudden Maleficarum is a hot item that everyone seems to want… except the Cinemateca, of course, who had a shot at exclusivity but blew it.

We’re now preparing to premiere Maleficarum in 3 cities, four screens, on May 10th. We’ll have a avant premiere on the 9th on the first multiplex.

We’re expecting a lot of attacks from the critics who didn’t like Sirwiñakuy and from half of the audience. It’s a hard film to watch, of course, and I can’t blame them. It’s exciting, nevertheless. Sometimes we even wonder if it’s wise to release the film to a general audience… with a premiere with guests from the cultural community, etc, etc. But our actors are pretty excited about this and they all know it’s a hard film. So, in three weeks from now Maleficarum will be on the huge screen. shocking audiences, making the critics torn their hair off their heads. Yes. Great.

The present is busy as always, We completed the first part of our production scheduled for Dead But Dreaming. We stopped producing to concentrate on the release of Maleficarum, we have new sets to prepare, new props, new costumes, new gadgets for further suffering and so on. It all takes time. I might have mentioned before that Dead But Dreaming is a two part movie, maybe even three. So we completed the shooting for the first part… We have the movie in the can! The final day of shooting coincided with our cinematographer’s birthday, so we had a double celebration that began on Friday 13th and it ended on Saturday 14th in the evening.

There were lots of guests on the 14th for a BBQ party and we found out that a lot of people are very interested in working with us. Jac was mobbed by musicians and actors who wanted to be part of our exciting world. Dead But Dreaming is an excellent movie, in my modest view. The night of the party Jac showed the first 30 minutes of the film, without a sound mix, without music, without FX, just the raw cut from the beginning of the film. It was great viewing. The cast and crew present broke in applause at the end of the screening. Exciting. We’re looking forward to work on the second movie, Dead But Dreaming II.

The great thing about this new movie … or movies, is that although they have a lot of GIMP, they are more accessible to larger audiences and they have the one appeal that is universal in the history of movie making: Vampires. Some outside places began to take notice and started discussing the film and showing pictures.

Some people in FB scream out: When is it coming out, don’t make us suffer so much!. Expectations are high for this new film.

We released Amy’s directorial debut, Sirwiñakuy to the world. It’s available in our DVD and VOD stores with subtitles in three languages: English, German and Spanish. So, you’ll have the opportunity to see Amy’s work, the film that made critics here tear their hair off in despair. It’s a romantic movie, not a Gimpy movie, but it’s worth seeing it. A beautiful review that came from the presentation at the CineKink in New Yorks describes it thus:

Sirwiñakuy, by Amy Hesketh, an oddball modern take on an Aymara practice of “trail marriage” in which a bride is essentially kidnapped and “tested” by a prospective husband, was beautiful in a classic French film way—long silences, awkward moments, wan heroine and all. A truer S&M love story, along the same lines as Secretary, but with a much more artistic flair. —

Miss Lagsalot Whak Magazine

Superficial feminists and followers of the church of political correctness will probably dislike this film for its supposed patriarchal undercurrents and for showing the woman in a victim role – and of course couldn’t be further from the truth, as Sirwiñakuy isn’t at all about gender policies but a very empathetic portrayal of a master/slave relationship that also shows the weaknesses of the master-role as well as the sources of empowerment of the slave character. And it’s all captured in extremely moody and powerful images by first-time director Amy Hesketh, who manages to make this a film of high erotic tension, even if (or rather because) the sexy bits never become self serving. And Veronica Paintoux brings just the right mix of vulnerability and sexual power to her role to make it hers from frame one.
Absolutely recommended!

One couple from Denmark got the movie and were som impressed that they had to write to Amy in these terms:

Forgive me for intruding in your mailbox. I am hoping this will be well received.
On the odd click I found ‘Sirwiñakuy’ last night and decided to purchase and download it. My purpose was for my wife and I to take it in – in bed – as a pleasant conclusion to a 17 hour drive from Austria to Denmark. I feared I might fall asleep at some time during the 111 minutes. That never happened.

Here’s a quote from the sparing conversation we had while totally enjoying your movie:
Her: This is an A movie. Not a B!
Me: I agree. It’s an A+. …. I never said it was a B, I just said it was low budget.
Her: … fantastic ….

We were particularly taken by the intricate expressivity of Veronica Paintoux, particularly the facial expressions, signaling the struggle of temptation, urge and reservation.
It takes an excellent director, a great actress and a good eye behind the camera to bring this out in such detail. Come to think of it, another director who has that ability is our own (ie. Danish) Susanne Bier, who recently returned from Hollywood with an Oscar. The movie also reminded us of Lars von Trier’s work with dogma movies.

As I said: We were completely taken by the story, the acting, the directing … and we will definitely watch your movie anew and find new facets on every occasion – just as we have with the classic ‘Story of O’.
Best regards and very best wishes

There’s more but it would make this post very, very long. The fact is that Amy has reached an audience with this movie, one that is growing and, interestingly enough, is mostly female. Lots of ladies are buying the movie. A review appeared in a blog from Denmark, in Danish, and lot’s of Danish folks are getting the movie. Some check our store out of curiosity and VOILA, discover a new world and promptly get Maleficarum.

Another release in the works is the highly anticipated film Le Marquis de la Croix. I say highly anticipated because we find that a lot of people ask for it by e mail and our stats show that it is the most searched for title in our blogs. It’s very close to be completed. Now that we are taking some time away from producing another masterpiece, we’ll be able to complete this new movie by none other than Amy herself, who turns Jac into a sadistic Marquéz and Mila into his terrified, tortured victim.

We released The Via Crucis of Camille – Crux 8. The 8th episode of Camille’s and JJ exploration of a crucifixion. Camille was going to be in Jac’s new film, but she was with child, her beautiful and very healthy baby girl was born in April. Camille, the star of Martyr, might be coming to be in the vampire saga if the third part comes to pass. By the looks of the first part, it appears we’l l have enough of a demand to come back for thirds.

The Via Crucis of Camille – Crux 8 is a very personal, very intimated, two people work. At the risk of being repetitious, The Via Crucis of Camille series was never intended as movies to be released. JJ and Camille were just working on a scenario for a movie, one that JJ was very keen on making. In that movie his heroine suffers the martyrdom of the cross. The intention of making those videos was to simply experiment the many ways in which that scene could be shot and performed. In other words, the mechanics of a crucifixion. By the time they made the 8th little movie, JJ felt that it was looking very good, specially since there was no one working the camera, or the set, or the make up. or the lights. No crew, not at all. It was just him and Camille and first a VHS camera and then the big analog camera JJ used for the TV miniseries and some docs.

It was around that time that JJ thought of the possibility of making a movie to sell. That was the seed that was planted and made Red Feline on the Cross a reality. You can see a trailer of The Via Crucis of Camille – Crux 8 here.

This link will take you to the store where you can buy the DVD or download the movie:

https://movies.redfeline.com/The-Via-Crucis-of-Camille-Crux-8/p/12962

Our Red Feline trailers were taken off YouTube, they were in a private channel, not open to the general public. You could only reach them with our links. Someone in one of the forums we often post doesn’t like us, so, that someone reported our trailers and YouTube closed our channel. It’s very, very sad that people in the community go against the very people who provide the content that you all like. Shame on that creep.

We’re working on making the trailers in our servers more universal so we can embbed them again. So, in the meantime, enjoy the trailers in our sites.

The following trailer of Maleficarum is showing at theaters here, both, inside and outside the theater, in the halls, food courts, etc. The theaters are part of gigantic malls.

A comment on comments. I read a discussion, or a comment, about Secretary, a film that I like very, very much. Amy likes it too. Sirwiñakuy was compared with that film in a review. I understand some people don’t like movies where a romantic S&M relationship is developed. It happens and it happens more often than people think. I can even say that we, as people, those here, in the World of Red Feline, have developed such relationships… There’s more to them that the simplistic view that women who get into that are looking for a “father” figure. There’s something very beautiful in a relationship such as the one in Sirwiñakuy and women can truly appreciated that and not for the reasons I read about.

This site is about GIMP, I know, but I believe that most people here would appreciate a relationship where two consensual adults can play out their fantasies, like we often do. Right? Just a thought.