Margate Smutfest is delighted to partner with Keeno, the monthly film-club founded and led by Jack Goldstein and Dan Levy, for a screening of Wakefield Poole’s Bijou - one of the greatest adult films of all time.
Poole’s second feature, Bijou set a new standard for explicit cinema when it premiered in 1972. Widely acclaimed as one of the finest adult films of the 1970s, it remains a timeless exploration of fantasy and a landmark of avant-garde erotica. The film emerged during the era known as porno chic or the golden age of porn (1969–1984), when sexually explicit films attracted serious attention from mainstream cinemas, critics and audiences.
When construction worker Bill Harrison witnesses a car accident, he pockets the female victim’s purse - and discovers an invitation to a club called Bijou. Inside, he enters a strange, surreal, erotic world where dark fantasies become reality. A fever dream blending the erotic, the phantasmagoric and the divine, Bijou is a psychosexual avant-garde puzzle that evokes underground filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger and James Bidgood, as well as the surreal musical dreamscape of Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
The screening will be accompanied by an introduction to the film, Wakefield Poole and the era of American porno chic.
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Margate SmutFest is a grassroots festival platforming, celebrating and expanding vital conversations around sex and pleasure.
Join us for a weekend of ethical fuckery, exploring sex, pleasure and body politics through a curated international film programme, creative workshops, events, exhibitions and live panels.
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Keeno is a no-borders, non-linear film club that champions lesser-known films and fosters critical discussion around cinema. Like a book club, it brings people together monthly to discuss a carefully curated selection of films.
All proceeds from this screening will be donated to National Ugly Mugs, a UK-wide charity working with sex workers to do research, design and deliver safety tools and to provide support services to people in adult industries.