A perfect precursor to Pride Month, a new restoration of Juliet Bashore’s landmark of queer cinema, the quasi-documentary Kamikaze Hearts, will open on May 13 and we’re delighted to exclusively premiere the new trailer. Coming from Kino Lorber, with the new 2K restoration courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive, the 1986 film takes a boundary-pushing look at the era’s porn industry. Specifically looking at the relationship between Sharon Mitchell and Tigr, it chronicles their intense love story while simultaneously offering a glimpse into the San Francisco hardcore underground scene of the ’80s.
Per the official synopsis, “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.”
Watch the trailer and poster below.
Kamikaze Hearts opens on May 13.