For some typical ‘Artsploitation,’ check out Kino Now

Above : Kim Yong-hoon’s crime thriller “Beasts Clawing at Straws” is now streaming through Kino Now. (Photo/Artsploitation Films)

Many, if not most, of us who have had careers in journalism started out with a love of words. We read a lot as kids, maybe kept journals and some of us, at least, were pretty good at spelling bees.

I was a decent enough speller, even if in the finals of my 8th-grade school spelling bee I failed miserably.

Things started out well enough. Of the 25 or so kids initially on the stage – in front of the 100 or so other students, faculty and staff – only two of us were left. I was one, and a girl named Joanne Longino was the other.

We went back and forth for several words before I was given a word that I heard as “militia.” Well, being the son of a naval officer, I spelled that word out proudly.

Wrong. The word I had been given was “malicious.” Which Joanne then spelled correctly, after which she also correctly spelled “crescendo” – and so was declared the winner.

I got over the humiliation of that loss. Of course I did. I barely remember it these days (he says, cringing). But I did retain my love of words.

Which is why the term “artsploitation” jumped out at me.

It’s an obvious reference: art plus exploitation equals the portmanteau (I just looked that one up) word artsploitation, which one online dictionary defines as “a genre of art film with lots of gratuitous sex or violence.”

It’s only natural, then, that there would be a film distribution company specializing in such material, and it’s called Artsploitation Films . I learned about it from a recent email alert from Kino Now , which announced that it had just acquired Artsploitation.

Which means that Kino Now is offering streaming versions of such films as Kim Yong-hoon’s South Korean crime thriller “Beasts Clawing at Straws,” Sebastián Muñoz’s gay prison drama “The Prince,” Maja Milo’s controversial “Clip” and British comedian Simon Amstell’s offbeat romantic comedy “Benjamin.”

“Clip,” by the way, was supposedly banned in Russia. One description that seems particularly apt: “Clip” is described as “a Serbian take on Larry Clark’s ‘Kids.’ ” And if you’ve even been to The Balkans , you know just how twisted that could be.

Those films, and others, are now available for your online viewing. And if you click on the Kino Now link, you won’t even have to worry about spelling – not in English or any other language.

I wouldn’t require that of anyone. I’m not that – wait for it – “malicious.”