John Cameron Mitchell’s buzzworthy second full-length directorial feature, Shortbus (Think Film), is a commentary on the nature of sex in our lives, as well as our sex lives. Authentic and graphic, not erotic, depictions of sex acts are the driving force in the intelligent, and occasionally stimulating, story of Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee), a straight, pre-orgasmic couples counselor married to sexual contortionist Rob (Raphael Barker). Clients James (Paul Dawson) and Jamie (PJ DeBoy), a gay male couple seriously considering opening up their relationship, suggest that she explore her options at Shortbus, the Brooklyn sex-salon hosted by proprietor Justin Bond (Bond). Once there, she encounters an undulating and writhing mob of pleasure seekers in attendance, including Severin (Lindsay Beamish), a dominatrix with more than her share of issues who becomes an emotional and physical confidante for Sofia, twink Ceth (Jay Brannan), and Tobias (Alan Mandell), a former gay mayor of New York working out his feelings of guilt over his inaction during the early days of the AIDS crisis.

With humor and heat, Mitchell gives us a post-9/11 depiction of a metropolis and some of its inhabitants still healing its numerous wounds (watch their responses during the frequent brown-outs) and using sexual expression as one means of repair. Even as hopelessness – in the form of a suicide attempt by James who is rescued by admirer Caleb (Peter Stickles) and Sofia’s continuing inability to achieve orgasm – seems to overcome the characters, they still maintain an outlook bright enough to permit them to all join together for a rousing sing-along.

DVD bonus features include “Gifted & Challenged: The Making of Shortbus,” in which Mitchell talks about wanting to use sex the way he used music in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and features a blow-by-blow (so to speak) portrait of the film’s creation, from 2003 until completion. There are also deleted scenes and the short, “How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer,” which is essentially an extended orgy sequence.

Gay novelist and playwright Jean Genet’s only film, Un Chant d’Amour (Song of Love) (Cult Epics) is newly available in a limited edition double DVD set. The silent, unscripted, black and white homoerotic short film (25 minutes) was initially released in 1950 and was seen by a small audience before it went underground in a flurry of censorship. A poetic and graphic statement on the prison system, isolation and desire, it now has a chance to gain the wider audience that it richly deserves.

Opening with a shot of a prison guard who sees one prisoner trying to pass a bunch of flowers to the prisoner in the next cell through the barred windows of the outside wall, it quickly moves inside to death row. One prisoner dances in his cell, while the other paces. The pacing one knocks on the thick wall in an effort to communicate with the other. He then pokes a straw from his mattress through a hole in the wall and blows smoke through it. As he makes this connection with the other prisoner, the guard’s voyeuristic eye watches them (and other prisoners) through peepholes in the doors. In its short running time, Un Chant d’Amour becomes a ballet behind bars, set off by erotic fantasies and the reality of the cells.

Special DVD features include an introduction by Jonas Mekas, audio commentary by Kenneth Anger (“Fireworks”), as well as two short pieces about Genet himself.”