Mondo Fetiche
Carlos Deth’s “artcore” porno label, Mondo Fetiche, splashed onto the scene in 2018, mingling art and arousal for a burst of color on the screen and in your pants. A spawn of cult titles, horror flicks, and underground art films, Mondo Fetiche is a test for Deth to “see how many ‘nonporn’ ideas [he] can squeeze into a porno while still managing to get the viewer off.” Despite cramming artistic nuance into his films, the pornographer still takes sexual pleasure seriously. His films explore his dark and sinuous subconscious in the process of confronting internalized oppressive forces in the world, including the tyranny of the corporate world. Deth believes that sexualizing our shame not only helps us confront bigger issues, but it also helps us “cum” to terms with them.
What was your journey to becoming a pornographer?
I grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 90’s. I named my company after a video store called “Mondo Macabro.” They rented out cult titles, horror flicks, Ed Wood, Troma, Argento, all that kind of stuff but also art and underground films. In the back of the store they had a porn section called “Mondo Erotico.” So any given weekend I’d come home with movies made by Nick Zedd, Richard Kern and Lydia Lunch, but also porn. I loved the “On The Edge” BDSM series directed by Kym Wilde. Wilde was one of the few female pornographers at the time. Also Andrew Blake’s movies with Zara White. All this is to say that my first experiences of porn were intermingled with a love of film and high and low brow art.
My first experience working in porn was in a Maria Beatty film that was shot at the Chelsea Hotel. I was a film student in Western Mass and took the bus to NYC especially to PA in this film. We’re now in the year 2000 or so. It was an incredible experience to be on this set— there were 4 women running the show, one guy doing the lights and myself. I was still really shy around my sexuality and kink, so it was very powerful to work under a woman who took pride in her erotic fantasies and turned them into beautiful films.
In 2016, after working in mainstream corporate media for many years and hating it, one day I contacted Elise Graves to see if I could model in one of her shoots. I was terrified before doing the shoot; it was not easy for me to confront my fears and perform my fantasies. I also felt too old in my late thirties to be doing this sort of thing. Elise was wonderful though and I was lucky to work with her. She is such a sensitive, caring artist. I also shot with Mona Wales on that trip, who is one of the smartest and selfless performers I have ever worked with— in porn or any other media. Those experiences in San Francisco made me understand porn could be a creative, healthy way of dealing with taboo subjects and the dark corners of my own psyche. I decided to open mondofetiche.com in 2018.
The first thing people notice about your porn is that the costumes and sets are colorful with a vintage aesthetic. Where do you draw inspiration for your film concepts from?
There is a Joseph Campbell quote, if I can be a cheese ball here for a sec, “The very cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are looking for. The damned thing in the cave that was so dreaded has become the center.” Fear eats the soul, like the Fassbinder movie. I guess the films I make come from the fears that have been eating my soul up for years— ideas I’m scared to reveal about myself. As far as formal or aesthetic influences, I’d say a combination of art films, exploitation films, fetish and vintage porn, and more importantly the wonderful performers I’ve worked with. I can make the sets of the films interesting, but at the end of the day, no one watches porn because of sets, or lighting or editing: you have to get the viewer off.
Can you define how your “artcore porn” differs from mainstream porn?
The film Performance Review, starring Tasha Black, has a sort of Jamie Babbit vibe with the use of very colorful sets, retro computers, and a great score by Berlin-based synth master Alpha Boy. On a more personal plane, I was interested in exploring power dynamics in the corporate world. I’ve worked in offices for years, it really does suck the life out of you. Sexualizing or fantasizing oppressive situations has helped me get through them—this has been something “to work on” in therapy and “to work with” in pornography—lol. With Performance Review I was interested in subverting that oppressive office experience. The office becomes a really colorful place, instead of a white guy there’s a black woman in charge. Not at all comparing my experience to a black woman’s, but it seemed like casting was a tool to turning tables and re-imagining what a different world might be like, and relating to that fantasy on an erotic level. You don’t have to think about these themes at all, but all porn films have a subconscious element to them, so why not operate with intention.
There’s a new rise in the genre of feminist pornography dedicated to gender equality both behind the scenes and on camera. Do you consider your porn to be a part of that genre? Why or why not?
This is a delicate topic. Everyone is a “feminist” now— in porn and outside of it. I am skeptic of self-identified “feminist” porn and “queer” porn in general—10 years ago, maybe, but right now it seems like the right buzzword to market your porn to the right audience. I will say this: it is a big responsibility to shoot porn and to shoot women’s bodies and I do not take it lightly. Porn deals with taboo though, so who gets to say what is feminist or ethical and what isn’t? I don’t think there’s a distinct line, it’s complicated. If a woman is a masochist and enjoys that sort of porn who is to say that she shouldn’t? Who is to regulate her taste? A lot of our fantasies come for internalizing oppression and fantasizing is a healthy way of letting go of that. At the same time, does that rationale give men (speaking as one here) carte blanche to inundate the internet with (and profit from) imagery of the crudest violence against women? Is that feminism? We live in difficult time where nuance is generally lost in 280 characters. So I try to do my homework in what I read, what I watch, and who I listen to, but it really is for others to say if there is any value in my work to feminists and women—not for me.
I think though that, as a man, if I frame feminism merely as an accountability standard (which it should be, by all means) there’s also a missed opportunity. I’ve spoken of my personal fear and shame around my own kinks—this shame comes from reactionary patriarchal ideas I grew up with about “what I should and should not be attracted to”. It’s been the female pornographers I had the luck to work with that have helped me think of porn as a way of dealing with the negativity around my own sexuality and letting go of my prejudices. Also feminist texts like Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex” or Laura Kipnis’ “Bound and Gagged” These are works filled with compassion. I feel a debt and gratitude to them as well, and I try to repay the debt by making good work.
You have a casting page on the Mondo Fetiche website for potential performers. What do you look for when casting?
I have to find them attractive, which is of course subjective. But art should be subjective. They have to be comfortable expressing their sexuality and be able to get aroused by being vulnerable and sexual on camera. I do look beyond the mainstream idea of what “hot” is because I personally do not find one type of body/gender expression/age/ethnicity to be attractive. I cast skinny and fat people, old and young, different ethnicities, etc. Everybody is attractive to somebody, but that does not mean I find everybody attractive. No one does. I am not going to cast someone just to make a point to try to sound woke or inclusive— I find that approach condescending both to the performer and to the very idea of inclusion.
What are your future goals for Mondo Fetiche? And how can people support you?
I’d like to keep pushing the line between what porn is and what it is not— see how many “nonporn” ideas I can squeeze into a porno while still managing to get the viewer off. I have been trying to shoot male gay porn—just haven’t been able to pull the trigger yet. Cis with transdudes too. I am dying to shoot femme-led male on male. The intersection of sports and sexuality is something I find super arousing—albeit a tricky area too, because women athletes are constantly sexualized in mainstream media. I would love to shoot athletes who want to express themselves sexually though.
The folx at Dyke Soccer coined the term “Jocksexual”— love that, and I can totally relate to it! I want to shoot differently-abled bodies or folks with limb differences. Porn is a doorway to the unconscious, and I am eager to continue to learn what it will teach me about myself, and about the world I live in. As far as supporting my work, if you like the trailers on @mondofetiche (insta and twitter) consider joining mondofetiche.com for 10 bucks the 1st month and 20 after.
courtesy MONDO FETISHE
interview JANNA JAY
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