Kamikaze Hearts

Alternately distressing, instructive, contestable, and fascinating, Juliet Bashore's quasi-documentary plunge into the 1980s porn industry takes an unsparing look at issues of misogyny, drug abuse, and exploitation via the story of two women-the naive newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon Mitchell - caught in a toxic romance.By turns mesmerizing and unsettling, Kamikaze Hearts is both a fascinating record of pre-gentrification San Francisco's X-rated underground and an intense, searing love story. The film offers a disturbing glimpse of the modification of bodies, feelings, and lives.Presented in a new 2K restoration from the original 16mm A/B camera negatives, Kamikaze Hearts has been restored by Kino Lorber in collaboration with the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.Presented in High DefinitionAudio commentary by director Juliet Bashore, actors Sharon Mitchell, Jon Martin and Howie Gordon, and performance artist Shelly MarsCrash (excerpt): In 1990 Juliet Bashore workshopped a 'fictional' version of Kamikaze Hearts through the American Film Institute. This sketch is one of the outcomes from the AFI project.Interviews (2022, 173 mins): A selection of newly recorded interviews totalling almost three hours with Juliet Bashore, Sharon Mitchell , Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens, Susie Bright, Howie Gordon, Jon MartinOriginal trailer2022 trailerEnglish subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearing (feature only)**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by artist, curator and co-founder of Club des Femmes Sarah Wood