Zerophilia

Zerophilia
Promotional poster
Directed by	Martin Curland
Written by	Martin Curland
Produced by	Gregory Lanesey Matt Radecki Martin Curland Alan Grossbard Jay Whitney Brown
Starring	Taylor Handley Gina Bellman Kyle Schmid Kelly Le Brock
Cinematography	Graham Futerfas
Music by	Kevin McDaniels Edie Pijpers
Distributed by	TLA Releasing Allumination Filmworks Microangelo Entertainment
Release dates	October 26, 2005 (2005-10-26) (São Paulo) October 13, 2006 (2006-10-13) (United States)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Zerophilia is a 2005 romantic comedy film with speculative-fiction elements directed by Academy of Motion Pictures' Student Academy Award-winning director Martin Curland and produced by Microangelo Entertainment. It is about a young man who discovers that he has a genetic condition which will cause a change of sex following each orgasm.

Plot

"Zerophilia" is a fictional condition that affects an unknown number of people with an extra "Z" chromosome. Following their first full sexual experience, zerophiliacs begin to change sex after experiencing an orgasm. Luke (Taylor Handley), a young man somewhat insecure about his masculinity, begins to exhibit zerophilia following an encounter with a woman (Kelly Le Brock). He meets Michelle (Rebecca Mozo) and experiences partial transformations when they go out together.

He confides with his best friend Keenan (Dustin Seavey) about his partial transformations, who in turn contacts Dr. Sydney Catchadourian (Gina Bellman). Dr. Catchadourian persuades Luke to go through a full transformation. Luke does this by masturbating, becoming female, and subsequently calling herself "Luca". Luca has difficulty achieving an orgasm to change back, even with coaching from Keenan's girlfriend Janine (Alison Folland). However, a visit by Michelle's attractive brother, Max (Kyle Schmid), who flirts with "Luke's cousin", enables her to get sufficiently aroused to complete the transformation back to Luke.

Luke is threatened by his sex transformation, his arousal by an attractive male, and the questions of sexual identity it raises; he seeks help from Sydney. She tells him that a zerophiliac can become "a-morphic" and stop changing sex only by having sex with another zerophiliac... such as herself. He reluctantly agrees to do it, but discovers afterward that she was not telling him the full truth: an a-morphic zerophiliac can still change by having sex with another zerophiliac, and Dr. Catchadourian was using Luke to change herself one last time (into a man), leaving Luca as a woman in the process.

Comic tensions arise from Luke's efforts to keep Michelle at a distance, Max's defensiveness about his sister, Luca's half-hearted resistance to Max's affections, and Luke's confused aggression toward Max. When Michelle discovers that Luke had sex with Dr. Catchadourian, she feels betrayed. Hoping to find Michelle, Luca seeks out Max to profess deep affection for Michelle and remorse for betraying her. Max is touched by the apology, and reveals that he is actually Michelle, also a zerophiliac. They make love repeatedly, changing sex mostly in sync with each other, but occasionally finding themselves the same sex. It ends with the happy couple apparently resolved to their 'condition' and past any questions of their sexual identity.

Cast

• Taylor Handley as Luke
• Dustin Seavey as Keenan
• Alison Folland as Janine
• Kyle Schmid as Max
• Rebecca Mozo as Michelle
• Adam Zolotin as Chad
• Gina Bellman as Dr. Sydney Catchadourian (female)
• Chris Meyer as Jeremy
• Marieh Delfino as Luca
• Kelly Le Brock as Woman in RV
• Rick Stear as Dr. Sydney Catchadourian (male)

Release

The film was released on October 13, 2006, in theaters in North America, and performed poorly at the box office, and received negative reviews from film critics. It was released internationally on cable and DVD in February 2007.

External links

• Official website
• Zerophilia at IMDb
• REVIEW - New York Times (October 13, 2006, The New York Times)
• REVIEW - Variety (November 6, 2006, Variety)
• REVIEW - Slant Magazine (2006, Slant Magazine)