I do not know about you, but I always get sucked in by all the early autumn hype surrounding gargantuan local events like the New York and Hamptons Film Festivals. It is always soooo nice to just inhale deeply for a second and actually enjoy a breath of fresh air if you can find one.

And just like that, welcome CineKink NYC. This year marks the festival's third go-around exploring the outer (and inner, I suppose) limits of alternative sexuality in film, with closer looks at the realms of S/M, polyamory, non-monogamy, fetish and roleplay, leather and a menu of other interests for which perhaps nobody has yet developed a name. Which, ofcourse, sounds just about perfect if you ask me--or CineKink organizer Lisa Vandever.

"Coming into it, I had thought, 'Oh my God, another one of these?'" Vandever half-joked when The Reeler stole a few minutes from her last weekend. "But seeing the films that had come in re-energized me. ... What I kind of do with the program is to not focus on orientation so much as on different kinds of sex. This is kind of unique in that I think it's the only festival that deals with that. There's a real sense of ownership, I think, from those groups for the festival."

As such, the Gotham film community has claimed a significant chunk of that ownership in 2005. Vandever points out a dozen program selections by New York-area filmmakers, many of whom will be in attendance for this week's screenings. Among the locals, look for Michele Capozzi's glimpse of golden-era Gotham smut Pornology New York, Eric Werthman's psychotherapist-meets-dominatrix feature Going Under and Pola Rapaport's opening-night documentary Writer of O. Short films precede most features, running the gamut from edgy docs to blasts of porn.

A close read of the program implies a little more than a five-day expression of alternative sexuality, however--CineKink has a mission under all that leather, latex and leering. "It did start with sort of an activist component," Vandever said. "Even just having mainstream stories about the festival, people say, 'Oh, this is out there enough that there is a whole festival around it?' So, you know, rather than being this marginalized activity, people might see it more ordinarily as the kink festival. And then within that kind of a balance, you'll see more mainstream representation."

Tonight's kick-off party and screenings at the Bowery's Remote Lounge is about as literally underground as this year's CineKink will be (and tickets are still available); the remaining screenings surge into Anthology Film Archives starting Wednesday, with the festival's audience awards to be presented at a "special location" Oct. 23. With any luck, Vandever and her crew will crash the Hamptons and show all those uptight sorts what they are missing. No holding my breath--I'm just saying.