ASS Studios (Art Star Scene Studios)
In 2011, Sell began a collaboration with artist Rev Jen Miller, after he directed the promotional video for her novel 'Elf Girl!', released through Simon and Schuster. The video premiered on Artnet TV in February 2012. The two have since launched their own film production company entitled ASS Studios which produces exploitation films & music videos featuring a variety of Art Stars and performers such as Faceboy. The company became infamous due to an incident at their official launch party in which audience members were attacked by performers with stun guns.
In February 2012, Sell announced the launch of the 'Assdance Film Festival', an event which caters to films that have been previously rejected by other festivals. The festival received much notoriety when actress Janeane Garofalo, upon giving an award for 'Best Overacting Female' during the closing night ceremony, was unexpectedly kissed on the mouth by an audience member who rushed onto the stage.
He currently presents the films of ASS Studios during Faceboyz Folliez, a monthly event curated by frequent collaborator Faceboy.
The company has received much attention from various celebrity fans including musician Moby who stated:
"I've worked with Oliver Stone and Michael Mann and Paul Haggis and Danny Boyle, but I've never experienced greater depths of genius than what I've encountered with the borderline homeless degenerates at ASS."
In order to best describe the genre and style of these films, Sell has often referred to them as being 'Sex-o-Tronic' or 'Grimehouse'. While comparisons to other exploitation and grindhouse films have been made, Sell has stated that by rarely depicting graphic violence or nudity within the films of ASS Studios, they share more similarity to cartoons than any other genre.
Their films were released worldwide on DVD in May 2012. Controversy soon followed the release when Amazon decided to ban the DVD from their catalogue, claiming it contained 'objectionable' material. Sell appealed their decision, claiming the work is "PG-13 Material at best" and not meant to be misunderstood as pornography.As of August 4th, 2012, Amazon has agreed to reinstate the title into their catalogue.
In January of 2013, the studio announced that writer Jonathan Ames had signed on as Executive Producer to their upcoming feature-length horror film, 'Satan, Hold My Hand'. Written by studio co-founder Reverend Jen, the film will be directed by Sell and released in Spring of 2013.The film is set to star Reverend Jen, Faceboy, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Prichard and many other ASS Studios' regulars and will be shot on Hi8.
Read more about this topic: Courtney Fathom Sell
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