Bishop Black Stars in Bruce LaBruce’s Latest Explicit Art Film ‚The Visitor‘

BERLIN — Acclaimed cult film director and pornographer Bruce LaBruce’s new film “The Visitor,” starring queer alt-porn actor and dancer Bishop Black, premiered Feb. 17 at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale.

“The Visitor” is described as a reimagining of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 Italian classic “Teorema,” but relocated to the U.K.

According to the Festival’s summary of LaBruce’s film, the previous film’s protagonist, only known as “The Visitor,” arrives “at the house of an upper-class family and seduces each family member one after the other. When he suddenly departs, he leaves behind an emptiness for which the rest attempt to compensate in different ways.”

In LaBruce’s reimagining, “The Visitor” (Bishop Black) is a refugee who washes up in a small suitcase on the banks of London’s Thames.

“He is one of several identical-looking men who simultaneously emerge from suitcases in other locations around the city,” the summary explains. “Dressed in the guise of a homeless man, he arrives at the house of an upper-class family and gets to know the maid. When she passes him off as her nephew, the family invites him to also work for them as a live-in servant. The guest makes love with each of the residents of the house one after the other, depicted in explicit sex scenes. Each member of the household experiences a radical sexual and spiritual transformation.”

The film, an A-Political Production, also co-stars Macklin Kowal, Amy Kingsmill, Kurtis Lincoln and Ray Filar, and was written by LaBruce, Alex Babboni and Victor Fraga.

LaBruce has had a noted career as a director in both the arthouse circuit and the adult industry, with 14 feature films to his credit, many including explicit content and some available both in differently-edited “art” and “porn” versions.

Shooting since 1987, LaBruce had his first international hit in 1996 with “Hustler White,” and his 2013 film “Gerontophilia” won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. As XBIZ reported, in 2022 LaBruce was tapped to direct “The Affairs of Lidia,” by Erika Lust’s Lust Cinema, starring Skye Blue.

Bishop Black is alternative adult actor, dancer, singer and performance artist, creating works about gender, sex and queerness, and subverting mainstream representations of Black masculinity.

“The Visitor” will premiere worldwide later in 2024.