“Even within the gay community, there is this certain stigma on those who engage in orgies, or those who are highly sexual,” said director Rod Singh of Cinema One Originals 2018 movie “Mamu; And a Mother Too”. “Maybe because it doesn’t have a story. Like when people talk about orgies, all they know is just a group of people having sex.”
This is why, Singh said, he wants to “reclaim that narrative – that there is a story happening in orgies – that just like any other romantic relationships, there is a story happening in (people engaged in) sexual activities. I want to challenge the mindset of those who are sex-negative and communicate a very simple message: Sex is a language.”
Ad this is what Singh intended to do via gay dating app Blued’s new series, OrG! (Come & Play). Blued funded “Mamu; And a Mother Too”; and in return, Singh pledged to produce a series for Blued, thus OrG!
OrG!’s story revolves around a group of gay men engaging in an orgy, as they select their invitees, negotiating their desires and preferences. One of the members of the orgy, a medicine graduate named Ram, is secretly dating Niko, a filmmaker in his mid-20s. His orgy group finds Niko attractive and decides to invite Niko to join the group. As Niko slowly becomes more entwined in the setup, his romance with Ram begins to crumble, leading Ram to resolve that the only way to win Niko back is to tear apart his friendship with his sexual partners.
“Aminin na natin (Let’s admit), while we aspire to be an empowered community, marami pa din talaga yung (many of us remain) backwards. When I say backwards, yung mga (those who are) sex negative. Isa na siguro sa mga issues na ito ang (One of the issues here is) orgy. I’ve read and heard a lot of gay people saying something negative about orgies. And with this series, I want people to re-evaluate their views,” Singh said.
Singh added that perhaps many people look negatively at orgies because “in most cases, alam lang natin na (we just know that) it’s a group of highly sexual individuals having sex kaya ganoon na lang siya ka-stigmatized (which is why it’s extremely stigmatized). Tapos marami din na ina-associate yung (There are also many who associate) orgy with drugs and promiscuity. Sa series na ito, babaliin ko yun (I’ll break those). That orgy can just be a group of friends, with different character sketches, no drugs, it’s safe, and there’s a story.”
For OrG!, there are eight episodes with a running time of five to seven minutes per episode, with the short time considered as “somewhat of a limitation”. But Singh said “I just hope that (the audience) will dig deeper. I am hopeful that at the very least… they will have a new view on orgies kasi may story na siya (because it already has a story).”
In the end, Singh wants people – particularly members of the LGBTQIA community – to recognize that “sex between two people is okay. Sex between three people is okay. Sex between five people is hot,” he laughed.
For the curious, download Blued.