Humpday

The one-line pitch to describe director Lynn Shelton‘s new film “Humpday” could very well drive away the people she hopes will see it - straight men.

The film, which opened July 10 in select cities, follows a pair of heterosexual buds (Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard) who, on a drunken dare, vow to have sex with each other on camera.

“It sounds like it’s going to be some broad Farrelly brothers farce, a goofy, raunchy ride,” Shelton says. “It’s not that. It’s pretty innocuous. There‘s very little nudity, it‘s not particularly offensive and the humor doesn‘t come from slapstick.”

While the new comedy “Bruno” courts every ounce of controversy with its sordid material, “Humpday” tells a delicate story spun from an outrageous plot device.

Ben (Duplass) and Andrew (Leonard) couldn’t be any more different. Ben is married and trying to start a family. Andrew never stays in one place for more than a few weeks. But the two get into a macho game of one-upmanship during a drunken party with bohemian pals, and that sparks the shocking plot.



The story is actually a conduit to other, less gratuitous themes, the director says.

“I’m fascinated and moved by folks trying to connect but having a hard time connecting,” she says.

Those ties can be strained when it involves straight men.

“There’s a built-in awkwardness when they love each other in platonic ways,” she says. “Women have an easier time expressing themselves and that love.”

Nothing in “Humpday” would work according to Shelton’s plan if the situations lacked believable characters.

“I involve the actors early on in the process,” she says. “I can’t really write the plot until I know who the characters are,” she says.

That doesn’t mean “Humpday” proved to be a stream-of-consciousness project.

“I knew what was gonna happen emotionally, what the point of every scene was and what had to take place,” she says.

But she didn’t know the answer to the film’s big question - will Ben and Andrew follow through on their dare?

“We wanted to keep what happens in the hotel room open ended,” she says of shooting that critical scene.

Shelton credits the modern film festival circuit for helping films like "Humpday" become a reality.

She says attending festivals is like “building the scaffolding” of her career.

“I can’t say enough about the regional festival circuit,” says Shelton, whose work has appeared at tiny festivals as well as majors like Sundance and Slamdance.

One of the contacts she made at a film festival became a regular crew member who also helped her design her Web site despite living hundreds of miles away.

She calls the film festival scene “spiritually important” for an indie director like herself.

“We’re working in our own little world … not until you get around other filmmakers do you feel you’re among your people,” says Shelton, who also does a fair share of networking via Facebook.

Those connections could also make or break “Humpday.” The movie’s plot, about two hetero pals who decide to shoot their own gay porn for an artsy film festival, could easily scare off mainstream audiences - even though she hopes some will still give it a try.

“Word of mouth and critical reviews are gonna be increasingly important to the film, to get the solid art house crowd it was made for,” she says.