Bound for Pleasure (2004) / Transfigured Nights (2007)

Along with being know as a master transgressor with a particular knack for horror with films like Angel Mine (1978), Death Warmed Up (1984) and Wound (2010), New Zealand based provocateur David Blyth is also a celebrated documentarian. Blyth's first work in the documentary field was the highly personal Our Oldest Soldier (2002), centered around his grandfather, WWI veteran Lawrence 'Curly' Blyth,  who was part of the liberation of the French town of Le Quesnoy in 1918 and was later awarded a French Legion of Honor. The story of the liberation was the subject of another Blyth documentary, French Connection (2011) and Blyth's telling of his grandfathers story later branched out into a series of ongoing interviews with New Zealand war vets entitled Memories of Service. In 2004 and 2007, Blyth once again returned to the documentary field, albeit with radically different subject matter. Fetishism has always played a part in several of Blyth's films going all the way back to his debut feature Angel Mine and various forms of kink would re-appear in Death Warmed Up via mesh nurses masks, Hot Blooded (1997) was described by Blyth as a "dominatrix road movie"  and Wound is loaded with memorable and unsettling fetishistic imagery. With both Bound for Pleasure and Transfigured Nights which followed four years later, Blyth takes a look into the world of Kiwi kink with fascinating and at times terrifying results.

With Bound for Pleasure, Blyth shines a light on the world of the professional dominatrix, focusing on several madame's and mistresses in New Zealand. Each dominatrix profiled brings their own unique way of viewing their chosen profession, each offering their insights on a variety of topics related to the field of professional domination be it what they themselves get out of it, how “polite” society might view them and most interestingly, what they feel drives their mostly male clientele to keep coming back. Along the way, Blyth introduces some of the ladies most loyal costumers who's views on their own personal kinks are equally as interesting. Naturally given the subject matter the film is quite frank and Blyth never shies away when it comes to actually filming the mistresses showcasing their talents and for a documentary the film is often incredibly stylish given the theatricality of some of the S&M scenarios. Blyth's attitude towards his subjects throughout the film is entirely objective, only making himself known one time to ask a question to a man living with his mistresses to willingly be humiliated. At times the film can even be rather funny with the no holds barred attitudes of all the people interviewed and there are moments that are surprisingly emotional, for example the story of an older gentleman entering into a fully submissive relationship with his mistresses near the end of the film, the attitudes of both parties involved making for an incredibly sweet, Story of O-esque romance with the genders flipped.

Transfigured Nights, while still rooted in the fetishism, is something else entirely. Instead of focusing on a multiple kinks, Blyth takes a deep dive into the online world of “masking”, wherein men act out various fantasy scenarios in front of a webcam audience wearing rubber or latex masks and some even donning full body latex or rubber suits. Featuring testimonials from several masking aficionados, all wearing their masks and costumes of choice, it's an utterly fascinating and bewildering look into one of the strangest areas of the fetish world. Stylistically, the film is unique as everything is presented entirely via grainy webcam footage making the film feel far more personal and oftentimes very uncomfortable. Much like Bound for Pleasure, Blyth is once again entirely objective, letting the maskers speak for themselves in explaining what draws them to the webcam and again, like in the previous film some can be quite comedic, like the story of a man's mother-in-law discovering her love for rubber or the last interview with one “Miss Piggy”, who's mask of choice is, naturally, a pig mask, who's jovial the entire time. It's the wordless segments in-between the interviews that take the film into pure nightmare territory, such as an individual slowly wrapping themselves in layers of plastic or the “Lady of the Mask” as the person is credited as, removing one mask after another only to reveal more grotesque masks, all scored to a soundtrack of unsettling drones, somewhat reminiscent of Angelo Badalamenti's main theme to Mulholland Drive (2001).

While being interviewed at the Fantasia Film Festival in 2008, Blyth explained the connection he feels with dominatrix's saying “I've always sort of had an affinity with the dominatrix's, we seem to understand each other. I understand very clearly the kind of role play, performance, transformational therapy that they're involved in and of course I guess I came to them in a way where I wasn't going for the cliché, the stereotype because they're just like the women next door it's just that they have a very different, you know, career curve...” Blyth also explained how Yahoo served as one of the origins of Transfigured Nights stating “Basically Transfigured Nights came out of when the Yahoo user groups were still the wild west” and how he himself even got involved in the world of masking in order to fully understand the community. Blyth admitted “It took a number of years to actually move down into this very unique little boutique that I found and one just had to go very gently with it and be patient.” Blyth essentially made the entire film himself which required buying multiple hard drives and gaining ultimate trust with the participants despite the anonymity of the masks. Despite the niche subject matter, both films offer a compelling look into some pretty curious proclivities and would serve as an important stepping stone for Wound, Blyth's return to narrative features.