PRIVATE PRACTICES: THE STORY OF A SEX SURROGATE (1985)
Produced & Directed by Kirby Dick
Released by Zeitgeist Films
USA. 75 min. Not Rated
Special Features: Commentary by Kirby Dick. Optional English subtitles. New interview with Maureen Sullivan Ward

When you don’t know how to drive, you learn how from a family member, a friend, or a certified driving instructor. Maureen Sullivan is a driving instructor for sex, and she’s as close to certification as possible in her field. Filmed in 1983, Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated, Derrida) recorded Sullivan’s sessions with two clients who began their treatment for their severe sexual fears and inhibitions.

“Kipper,” an attractive, virginal 25-year-old student, can’t speak to a woman without blustering in anxiety, and “John,” a divorced, middle-aged teacher, believes his ex-wife left him because of sexual inadequacy. Both men were referred to Sullivan through their therapists—their sessions are also bared before Dick’s camera. (In one of several honest moments about the filmmakers’ presence, Kipper makes clear that his treatment was slashed in price in exchange for being filmed; the lack of privacy was a distraction, but made Sullivan’s expensive care affordable.)

Sullivan’s services, by the way, include sex, as well as tenderness, caressing, cajoling, gradual intimacy, and often spontaneous, genuine emotion. What these two men have in common is not psychosis but “hangs up” (as Sullivan phrases it) that paralyzes their ability to express desire without fear. Their therapists realized this doesn’t need medication, but that an introduction to healthy sexual interaction was easier than asking Kipper and John to seek validation on their own.

But the film’s focus on sexual suffering also includes Sullivan. Her family history, her own sessions with a therapist, and exchanges with an off-screen interviewer become integral to Dick’s point. Sullivan answers the question of why she’s not in a relationship by saying she’s still learning about herself, and that she becomes needy and invisible in relationships. “I have so much to learn that I have to practice 10 times a week,” she says, referring to her work, but hints of neglect and rebellion surface in these conversations.

Though interviews with Sullivan tend to needle the sex surrogate into confessional corners, Dick’s film is otherwise presented without judgment. That’s a boon. But this was only Dick’s second documentary, and the amateur editing shows. A brief runtime of 75 minutes makes the film seem short, but not when conversations run longer than they need, and a quarter of the scenes are comprised of close-ups of faces in intimate moments. While out of the ordinary, the film feels like the result of a young filmmaker who shot months of footage and a finished product seemed like a logical conclusion, regardless of quality. Zachary Jones
January 27, 2009