Acacia.gay Coordinates Cinematic Intimacy
Have you ever wondered what goes into filming the sex scenes in your favorite movies and TV shows? Modern production crews rely on professional intimacy coordinators to choreograph these scenes and ensure that the performers are protected and respected.
Acacia (they/them) is a queer disabled intimacy coordinator, writer, inventor, and filmmaker living in NYC. They have intimacy-coordinated multiple films including Apophenia staring Darren Barnet (Netflix's Never Have I Ever and American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules), Coronadate, and New Year's Eve Tacos as well as consulting on multiple other projects.
While film and television have been historically toxic working environments for female, BIPOC, and LGBTQ talent, recent years have finally seen a reckoning and a course correction for the industry. For Acacia, their identity is an asset in their efforts to bring “underrepresented narratives to the screen that center complex POC, queer, and differently abled characters.”
“I am a non-binary and queer intimacy coordinator, writer, and filmmaker. Traditionally, these identities would prevent me from making it in the film industry, but because I make queerness central to my work, people seek me out specifically for my expertise,” Acacia says.
“As an intimacy coordinator, it's especially important that I understand diverse sexualities. But as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, people trust me to make more authentic content and be more sensitive to intersectional identities and stories. Having a .gay domain is a quick way to display proudly who I am, what is important to me, and what you're going to see on my site even if you know nothing else about me. It's also a great conversation starter!”
Besides freelancing in the film industry in roles including intimacy coordinator, production assistant, sound mixer, and production designer, Acacia is currently writing a Western dramedy series that uses magical realism to explore queer futurity in a historical context, and designing a line of anti-pull intimacy barriers to protect actors during scenes of intimacy.
They have lectured on Intimacy in film at the Feirstien Graduate School of Cinema and Marymount Manhattan College and given an interview on the state of intimacy education at the NYU Arthur l Carter Journalism Institute. They received their BA in International Studies from Vassar College in 2019 with an emphasis in Women and Queer studies and anti-colonial History and a minor in Film.