ON LOCATION: Ex-Dominatrix producer/director Darren Cavanagh with ex-dominatrix Ira
Ex-Dominatrix documentary: help now to get it released!
Ex-Dominatrix: A True Story marks the commercial feature debut of Darren Cavanagh, a Brit who boasts a long association with the fetish world. It tells the story of the ‘notorious’ European dominatrix whose life was changed forever by a tragic event five years ago. Cavanagh is now using crowdfunding to finance completion and release of the film this autumn. Tony Mitchell tells the story of a project surely worthy of our support
In the year when mainstream cinema audiences have been seduced by 50 Shades of Grey’s fictitious depiction of BDSM, Ex–Dominatrix: A True Story has the potential to be the authentic antidote that kinksters everywhere have been waiting for.
And right now, after investing a large amount of his own money into the project, Darren is hoping that he can convert enough of the perv community’s goodwill into pledges of financial support to enable him to complete his film in time for release this autumn.
Thus a campaign has just begun on crowdfunding website indiegogo.com to raise the final chunk of funding required.
With a 40-day run ending on July 8, and more than £10,000 pledged in its first four days, Ex-Dominatrix is already the top-trending film on Indiegogo and comfortably on course to reach its initial target of £50,000.
This greatly increases the chances that the extended target of £100,000 will also be met within the 40 days, enabling the director and his team to “complete this project in style and make a better quality film for a wider audience”.
As usual with crowdfunding campaigns, a substantial variety of rewards is available to those who pledge financial support.
These range from a personalised thankyou tweet for anyone pledging the minimum of £1, up to a holistic holiday in Goa with the documentary’s subject, an Associate Producer credit on the film and various VIP treats for anyone with a spare £10,000 to put into the project.
In between are lots of other goodies, including pre-release discounts on downloads and DVDs of the movie, a chance to get your name on the credits, early bird tickets for the central London premiere, a bespoke latex outfit from Murray and Vern, a photoshoot with the ex-dom herself by Cavanagh, and an Executive Producer credit.
Tip: if you’re really quick, you can still catch the early bird half-price offer of £100 for a pair of VIP Premiere tickets, which has been extended a couple of days and will now increase to £200 after June 2.
But what is the story that Ex-Dominatrix sets out to tell? Its subject, Ira, was better known in her previous life as Mistress Lucrezia, the internationally famous domina whose world turned upside down in 2010 when a high profile client died on her Antwerp premises.
Darren, who had worked with Ira since 2008 and had become close friends with her, was left feeling compelled to tell her side of the story in the best way he could
For Darren, who had worked with Ira on various photography projects since 2008 and had become close friends with her, the incident left him feeling compelled to tell her side of the story the best way he could — by making a film about it.
It’s the first commercial feature-length film from Cavanagh, who has worked in the marketing side of the film industry for the past 20 years.
The film’s publicity blurb carefully explains that Ira was and is a woman of many talents — artist, model, international performer, mother and yoga instructor among them.
But for most fetish people, her prior reputation as one of Europe’s most extreme dominas will be what draws them into this story.
My own first experience of her, performing as Lucrezia in Amsterdam back in 2006, effortlessly established the
Lucrezia, I had to conclude, was the real deal — a domina who had walked straight out of the pages of an Eric Stanton comic strip into real life.
At later fetish weekends, where she was doing BDSM performances, catwalk or both and I was reporting from the event, we got to know each other better.
I quickly discovered that, fierce and fearless though her public persona might be, she was also charming and gregarious — one of those professionals who clearly expected to put something back into to the community.
Cavanagh promises that in his film, Ira will reveal for the first time what really happened on the fateful day that would end her career as a dominatrix
I was invited to visit her as a house-guest but sadly never managed to take up the offer. A latex designer friend who did — to discuss making outfits for her — came back to London with stories about the house’s ‘facilities’ that he told in wide-eyed amazement.
So it was a great shock, in the summer of 2010, to see this woman I’d come to know and to like splashed all over the news media — and not in a good way.
Darren Cavanagh promises that in his film, Ira will reveal for the first time what really happened on that fateful day, and how this event would end her work as a dominatrix and transform her destiny in ways she could never have imagined.
She is, he adds, “the narrator of her own story”, and the film, shot over the last five years, takes the viewer on an unexpected journey with her throughout Europe to the Indian state of Goa, where she currently lives.
The film begins in 2010 with Ira’s family, close friends, clients and colleagues all saying how unique, amazing, caring and creative a person she is.
These comments are contrasted with the kind of publicity she received as a result of the incident, with newspaper headlines describing her as ‘Europe’s Most Perverted Dominatrix’.
Cavanagh’s 90-minute film then rewinds to the early 1960s in Antwerp and Ira’s early life, before building towards a detailed, nail-biting account of the shocking incident in 2010 that would change everything.
Ira is at the heart of her own story, says the director, and the film intercuts her many extensive interviews with home movie footage, photographs and cool animations of her top ten domination sessions.
Shot in numerous different locations, it includes fly-on-the-wall footage and her own private video diaries, especially recorded for the film.
Her story is juxtaposed with revealing interviews with all of her family, as well as close friends, clients, colleagues and a bunch of other colourful characters whose lives she has touched, transformed or inspired.
It’s a story that Darren Cavanagh, given his friendship with Ira, his long association with the fetish scene and his 20 years as a creative director in film marketing and advertising, is perfectly positioned to present.
He believes the big, cinematic production values of Ex-Dominatrix will surprise people used to fetish documentaries shot for the small screen.
And if that isn’t enough, there’s also the “cracking score” provided by Noko (ex-Apollo 440), another fetish scenester whose movie soundtrack credits range from Lost In Space and Charlie’s Angels to orchestral scores for recent films by French director Eric Vellette.
June 1, 2015
DARREN CAVANAGH: DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
This British-born director, producer, scriptwriter, editor and photographer has worked in mainstream film marketing and advertising for 20 years.
He has been creative director on more than 2,500 major international campaigns for a wide variety of releases including Kill Bill I & II, The Hunger Games and Senna.
Ex-Dominatrix: A True Story is his first full-length documentary for commercial release. But Darren, aka Dazza, has been creative within the fetish world since 1990, when he directed a short documentary called S&M at film school.
A prolific photographer of fetish clubbers and classic erotic glamour for over 20 years with three books of complete works in pre-production, he has been published in Skin Two, Time Out and the erotic photography anthologies Femme and Blondes edited by Michelle Olley.
Darren and Ira collaborated on various photographic projects before the events of 2010 that led him to propose making “a truthful and entertaining” full-length documentary about her outrageous adventures. The tragedy in 2010 became a key driving force behind the making of the film, with Darren feeling compelled to tell Ira’s side of the story.
DANIELLE FAUTRAT: CO-PRODUCER
Journalist by training, independent documentary filmmaker by passion, and producer by vocation, Danielle brings over 20 years of factual television production experience to the table, having worked on global primetime projects for Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5, Nat Geo, and France 2 to name just a few.
Ex-Dominatrix: A True Story is her first collaborative work with Darren Cavanagh.
NOKO: SCORE COMPOSER
A founder member of Apollo 440, Noko needs no introduction in the world of syncs, having recorded the theme tunes to feature films Lost in Space, Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle.
As a member of Apollo he released five albums, and has written music for a raft of trailers, TV shows, promos, adverts and other media including games from the Resident Evil and Gran Turismo series.
More recently Noko composed the orchestral scores for director Eric Vellette’s feature movies Une Affaire d’Etat (State Affairs) and La Proie (The Prey).
SHELLY MANSER CAVANAGH: MAKE-UP/PHOTOGRAPHER/SECOND UNIT DIRECTOR
Shelly is a professional freelance make-up artist working in the TV and fashion industries. With a career that has spanned 20 years so far, she has worked on fashion shows, TV shows, films, commercials, pop promos and red carpet events.
Well known on the film publicity circuit, her celebrity clients include Sir Michael Caine, Daniel Day Lewis, Sienna Miller, Sir Ben Kingsley and many more. She is married to the director Darren Cavanagh and they have collaborated on many professional and personal creative photographic and videos shoot together.
Ex-Dominatrix: A True Story is the first feature-length film they have collaborated on together and Shelly’s make-up and styling work with Ira has proved to be one of the project’s key creative collaborations.
Tags: BDSM Services, Bondage, Documentaries, Dominatrixes, Fundraising, Performers, Personalities
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