Dottie Gets Spanked (1993)

Before making his name with feature films such as SAFE and FAR FROM HEAVEN, director Todd Haynes made an auspicious start to his career in 1993 with the short film DOTTIE GETS SPANKED. The story follows a young soon-to-be-gay six-year-old named Steven Gale (Evan Bonifant). Obsessed with a television star named Dottie Frank (Julie Halston), Steven is both ridiculed by his school friends, and worried over by his parents. The highly feminine kid gets a chance to see his heroine in action on a visit to the television studio where Dottie plies her wares. But whilst there he sees her character receive a spanking, sending mixed messages to his brain as he relates it to the prospective punishment his father has been threatening him with. A brilliant, assured debut from Haynes, DOTTIE GETS SPANKED offers an innovative glimpse of a future-talent unfolding.