The Journey into Confronting Sexuality
The 2018 release of American Kamasutra did not make waves but did generate quiet excitement. Most people noticed its provocative title and curious premise. Directed by Jacky St. James, American Kamasutra sought to combine the power of the sensual aminal narrative with the psychological portrayal of obsession, temptation, and the balancing of the scales between pleasure and danger.
Polished frames and seductive cinematography conceal a deeper and darker story — the story of endurance and artistic survival of the people who made the film. For the filmmakers, American Kamasutra was a project where passion ebbed with the artistry.
Translated from French into Love Story
The film depicts Ashley, a young woman attempting to pick up the pieces of her life following a bad breakup. Suddenly, a charming but controlling Christian dominates her attention. Ashley becomes the center of a passionate whirl and then, her world of sensory pleasure becomes a prison. The possessing power of, and the psychological, destruction of desire become intertwined.
Initially, people thought that American Kamasutra was just a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, but those that took the time to analyze the film saw something different. American Kamasutra takes a more raw, ground, and emotionally dependent perspective. The film does not focus on the erotic games, but on loneliness, and the desire to be noticed. The arch of Ashley’s character, from a naïve lover to a self-aware survivor, and emotionally from a modern relationship, is a direct reflection of the emotional state of those who created the film.
Small Budget, Big Ambitions
Under the impression of silk sheets and candle-lit romance, the crew was operating on a shoestring budget and a limited timeline of three weeks to shoot the whole film. and a small crew. Jacky St. James, who is recognized for her ability to integrate intimacy and narrative in her pieces, frequently needed to adjust her choreography to accommodate the time and spatial limitations that were put in place.
Borrowed Locations. Many scenes that looked like lavish apartment interiors were, in reality, corners of repurposed office spaces dressed up with dim lighting and minimal décor. “We wanted to make the world look expensive even when it wasn’t,” was the claim of one crew member in a later interview.
The main challenge for St. James was to keep it real but not sensationalize it. He was tasked to keep the filming of the sensual scenes story-driven but not gratuitous. This is a line that is much harder to walk than it seems. For the filming of these scenes, which were at the very basic of a story, emotional, safety, trust, and tact of the participants is required, and luck down the line for the completion of the scene, lack of safety and emotional trust would be disastrous.
The Weight of Vulnerability
For Ashlynn Yennie, who had a role in The Human Centipede, this role will serve more as a hinge in her career. For her role as Ashley, it was about finding the balance in the restraint of her character, to show the rawness of her vulnerability but not to succumb to victimhood, to show sensuality but not to be exploited. “It’s easy for people to label a film like this as erotic fluff,” she once said. “But when you strip down emotionally for a role, it stays with you.”
Her singular focus was not about her character’s desire but about the more painful form of affection- one that endures a love so twisted and controlling. Growing numbers of character, Yennie, was said to have tortured herself emotionally for weeks about her character, Ashley, writing in her journal. With the character, she wrote letters, imitating the journaling with the intent of getting correlated to a person who is in a passion, that stops at deception.
Filming intimate scenes wasn’t glamorous either. Yennie and her co-star had to cope with grueling schedules, repeated takes, and the physical exhaustion of keeping emotionally drains, and in character, during the long hours of emotionally heavy sequences. The set atmosphere was professional, but emotionally taxing. Between takes, exhausted and trying to erase the weight of Ashley’s anxiety, Yennie would frequently go outside for some quiet moments before stepping back under the lights.
When the Director Became the Therapist
Jacky St. James wasn’t just the director; to a considerable extent, she was the emotional anchor of the set. She had built her reputation in the industry for guiding actors with sensitivity and empathy through emotionally charged scenes. On American Kamasutra, she frequently operated in the dual roles of filmmaker and counselor. “Directing something erotic means directing trust,” she once said. “You’re not just choreographing movement — you’re choreographing emotion, insecurity, and fear.”
Jacky St. James created a closed set for the most intimate scenes, allowing only essential crew to pass, and insisting on strict confidentiality. Descriptive accounts from several crew members revealed that this approach was not merely a professional measure, but a psychological shield. The actors admitted that such sensitivity dramatically altered their experience, improving discomfort to confidence.
Controversy, Comparisons, and the Burden of a Title
The title of American Kamasutra came with its own storm. Prior to release, the movie attracted negative attention for what some saw as cultural appropriation. Critics claimed it used an Indian philosophical text for Western erotic marketing. The director, however, explained the title was metaphorical, seeking to convey the disconnect between modern love and the deep sensuality of the ancients.
The controversy, however, served to fuel the movie’s visibility. In India, discussion for a time focused on social media, with the Kamasutra as a central text for a taboo discussion. Some defended the film for stimulating interest in the original text, while others, with little to no research, concluded it was another case of Hollywood exoticizing the East.
More importantly, the film’s core message, the story of self-discovery through disillusionment, resonated with many viewers as they saw their own fractured relationships playing out on the screen.
Emotional Resonance Behind Closed Doors
American Kamasutra didn’t achieve conventional box-office success, but it managed to find an audience online with viewers who lauded its representation of emotional restraint, recovery, and within an erotic context. Fans across various forums and Reddit threads engaged in discussions about the film, not for its eroticism, but for its depiction of toxic love.
For the cast and crew, the notion of control, the notion of exhaustion, and the notion of finding meaning in meaningful work were the issues during production. Crew members spoke of working for days on end, fueled by only four hours of sleep, and shooting emotionally straining scenes in cramped quarters. One production assistant noted that the weariness of the character and the exhaustion of the performer became so entangled that, “in the end, everyone was Ashley — trapped in something intense, waiting to breathe.”
Art Imitating Life, or the Other Way Around
American Kamasutra is not only a film about passion; it is about power, about submission, and about the struggle to reclaim one’s self. The very struggles involved in putting the film to completion reflected that. A director grappling for creative control within an industry that does not value women filmmakers. An actress entering a brutally honest performance in a genre that is perceived as shallow. A crew pursuing truth and artistry in the face of creative exhaustion. It is not a coincidence that the film’s most haunting line — “You can’t control love, but love can control you” — was spoken behind the camera as well. The devotion to the craft of filmmaking was a powerful motivator. Everything else — sleep, time, and comfort — were in the filmmakers’ control.
A Mirror Wrapped in Silk
American Kamasutra, even after all these years, remains an odd but captivating piece of indie cinema—part erotic art, part emotional study. Its production was an exercise in creative survival, with a group of artists attempting to illustrate a story of passion amidst their own exhaustion, and emotional and artistic dissapation.
Despite all of the surface glamour, the film retains an imprint of all of the people involved. The film captures a portrait of a people, stripped of everything, learning that love and art require a certain amount of vulnerability and exposure. Intricately woven into the narrative of the film, and often ignored, is everything that went into its production.