Marta's Sex Tape

Pop-art and pornography collide in Marta’s Sex Tape, a highly-stylized and highly-sexualized piece of performance art from writer/director Antonio Rivero.

Marta (Bread & Roses’ Pilar Padilla) needed a fast loan for art school so she borrowed $10,000 from her deadbeat half-brother Arturo. Now Arturo is back to collect on the loan and Marta’s flat broke (it turns out there’s no money in art). After stumbling across the adult video The Seductress of Monte Cristo VI, Marta decides to put her artistic skills to use by making a sex tape (NOTE: I feel that making a pun about this being the “titular” sex tape is too obvious, so I’ll refrain). Doesn’t Dustin Diamond have a sex tape out now?

Marta and her friend Bruhm try to get a loan from a porn mogul to make the movie, but when that falls through they rally the troops and go it alone. Along the way they meet a handful of strange wannabe porn stars, which is oft to happen when you run an ad in the paper seeking amateur porn stars. Marta puts her heart and soul into the work, but will her vision be too artistic for Mr. John Q. Porngoer?

Rivero’s “pop-art comedy” is a visually stunning film that uses a restrictive color palette, similar to work of pop-artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Wayne Thiebaud. Rivero and cinematographer Federico Teran use broad strokes of blue, purple, pink, black, white, and gold not only to give Marta its pop-art aesthetic, but also to reflect the change in Marta’s character as she grows throughout the film. The first act is primarily comprised of cold blues and black & white footage to mirror Marta’s insecurities – unemployed, unconfident, and unappreciated. After Marta takes the first step to control her destiny, the colors change to energetic pinks and purples, and soon give way to warm golden tones of self-assurance, which stand in stark contrast to the icy imagery laid out in the beginning.

Rivero spent four years assembling Marta, which was filmed in Mexico City, Los Angeles and Albuquerque. With the notable exception of Padilla (who was nominated for an ALMA award in 2002), most of the parts were filled by nonactors who were friends or acquaintances of the director. The part of Marta’s mother was played by Emilia Carbajal, a hotel housekeeper who Rivero met while traveling. Marta’s Sex Tape has already found a following on the internet (the MST MySpace page has nearly 2200 friends) as well as a fair share of critical accolades (the film just recently won the “Best Foreign Film” category at the Miami Underground Film Festival).

Marta’s Sex Tape asks, “Can a sex tape be art?” I supposed that depends on who’s in it. But Marta does what every good piece of art should – it takes risks, challenges the viewer, and poses questions that you’ll spend days discussing.

Even if you’re the kind of person who thinks Debbie Does Dallas could benefit from more nudity, Marta’s Sex Tape may still have you blushing. In case you haven’t guessed, this isn’t a film for the little ones. But if you’ve ever wanted to see what an Andy Warhol-directed adult film might look like, you can’t afford to miss Marta’s Sex Tape.

Marta's Sex Tape is playing on Friday, April 25th at 10:00 p.m. at The Screening Room.

Visit the official site -- http://www.martasextape.com/