Kamikaze Hearts

Alternately distressing, instructive, contestable and fascinating, director Juliet Bashore's quasi-documentary plunge into the 1980s porn industry takes an unsparing look at issues of misogyny, abuse and exploitation via the story of two women - the naive newcomer Tigr and her partner, the magnetic, imperious porn veteran Sharon Mitchell - caught in a toxic romance. By turns mesmerizing and unsettling, Kamikaze Hearts is both a fascinating record of pre-gentrification San Francisco's X-rated underground and an intense, searing love story. The film offers a disturbing glimpse of the modification of bodies, feelings and lives.

This gorgeous new restoration includes tons of special features, including a documentary on the making of the film and its enduring legacy, featuring actors Sharon Mitchell and Howie Gordon, author and critic Susie Bright, sexologist Annie Sprinkle, artist Beth Stephens and director Juliet Bashore. There is also an audio commentary by Bashore, Mitchell and Gordon along with performance artist Shelly Mars, Bashore's 1990 short film Crash, the original trailer and the brand-new restoration trailer.