American Swing
Directors: Jon Hart & Matthew Kauufman
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Duration: 81 minutes
Print Source: Magnolia Pictures
Web: www.magpictures.com
Back in the seventies, before gentrification, before crack, before AIDS, and after the sexual revolution, New York City was wide open. Forget the celebrities at Studio 54, the real place to be was Plato’s Retreat. A club for swingers complete with a dance floor, a pool, a mattress room, and anti-chambers for those who wanted their liaisons to be more discreet. American Swing tells the story of Plato’s Retreat, its founder Larry Levenson and the people who called the club home. Ordinary folk who spent their nights having sex with a gleefully free abandon previously unheard of in the modern world. Using a mix of rare archival footage and revealing and personal interviews with club regulars and employees the film offers a portrait of the club and the happy swinging couples who spent their nights partying there.
A warm, compassionate and lively documentary, which allows the subjects the space to talk about their lives. Many of the interviewees have a sense of wonder as the often aging swingers enthuse about an experience of sexual freedom that now seems so far away.
Australian Premiere