Red Hot Docs: A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

  http://www.sydneyfilmfestival.org/film_details.asp?id=71&fID=404&sID=9

Alright, I admit, the title of the film is a bit bizarre (or perhaps it’s the selling point itself?). But this feature length documentary fromprefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /UKwas included in this years’ Sydney Film Festival and was proven to be a very popular one. I know, I was there. prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

“A Complete History of My Sexual Failures” was also a hit in Sundance, introduced by one of the festival facilitators. I’ve copied the introduction from Sydney Film Festival’s page:

“Dumped by yet another girl after just three weeks, shabby (with no redeeming chic) and hapless thirtysomething Chris Waitt embarks on a mission to determine the 'why' behind his failed love life. Confused by his multitude of ex-girlfriends' decisive lack of interest in being interviewed for his new project, and yearning to reconnect with the only long-term love of his life (who is totally unavailable), he creates a MySpace page to attract new options and soon reveals an embarrassing performance problem. As the quest becomes more urgent, so the slapstick comedy escalates. Documentary-making as personal sex-therapy is hardly a new form, but this riotously funny film is less interested in the darker preoccupations of I Am a Sex Addict or The Good Woman of Bangkok, and more driven by a beguiling hopelessly romantic everydayness.  CS”

Sounds interesting? Well yes. It was even more hysterical when you actually watch it. The audience sort of knew what to expect but the extreme length the director/film Chris Waitt went through was unbelievably painfully comically hilarious. We human being must be a very mean species – how we enjoy laughing at people’s misfortune!  

Chris Waitt was there at the Beginning of the film to introduce his documentary. When he started speaking we knew he had a wicked sense of humour. Perhaps more like the Monty Python type of humour, or perhaps that’s really the only type of British humour I’ve encountered with. (then you count the Black Adder, Fawlty Towesr, Yes Minister…) Anyway in the end of the film he again presented himself there for audience to ask him questions. By that time we already felt that we’ve known Chris, in person, for many many years, after watching all the humiliating things he had gone through in the film. There was not a lot of questions relating to film/documentary making. People are more interested in the aftermath. The audience just loved this likeable loser, and an accidental filmmaker.

Apparently it took a very experienced editor to work on it from 400 hours of footage to form this documentary. No one in the production team, even the filmmaker himself, was sure about how it would turn out. But in the end it all worked out well. Because as it turned out, “A Complete History of My Sexual Failures” was not just about sex, it was about, as corny as it might sound, finding love.