Apr 072014
 

Good For Her is proud to announce the winners of the 2014 Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards!

Courtney Trouble, winner of Best Dyke Film and Most Tantalizing Trans Film

 

Toronto, ON, April 5, 2014:  On Friday April 4th, Toronto’s 9th annual Feminist Porn Awards, sponsored by Slixa once again attracted directors and performers from around the globe, each vying for a prestigious Feminist Porn Award. The Castlefield Event Theatre was filled with steamy porn clips, sexy performances and a powerful room of feminists of all genders celebrating sex on screen. Twenty-three awards in total were handed out in categories ranging from Smutty Schoolteacher Award for Sex Education to Steamiest Straight Movie at this annual event, now in its ninth year.

“Good For Her began organizing the Feminist Porn Awards in 1996 to celebrate the growing diversity of porn where everyone can see their bodies and desires reflected,” said Carlyle Jansen, founder of Good for Her and producer of the Feminist Porn Awards. “Feminist Porn is rapidly eclipsing mainstream options for its fair trade labour practices and inclusivity for everyday people. The festival showcases an increased level of sophistication and cinematography that appeals to both the mainstream porn audience as well as to those who feel left out of porn’s traditional style of eroticism.”

Responding to feedback that they want to “see more porn”, the events also included a screening event called Public Provocative Porn: The Year’s Best in Feminist Film, giving audiences a chance to see more of these incredible films as well as the opportunity to engage with filmmakers with their questions.  Held at the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre in Toronto on April 3rd, over 500 people gathered to watch selections from Feminist Porn Award nominated films. French film maker Ovidie, Amsterdam based Jennifer Lyon Bell, Australia’s Zahra Stardust, Barcelona’s Lucie Blush, Americans Paul Deeb, Courtney Trouble and Shine Louise Houston, as well as local film makers Carey Gray and Sonya Barnett were on the panel to share their experiences, goals and processes in filmmaking. These selections of films shattered assumptions about the porn aesthetic, from folks who used an iPhone to those with big budgets, from soft to edgy, artsy and political.

The 2014 Good For Her Feminist Porn Award winners are:

Sexiest Short
No Artificial Sweeteners
The Madame

Sexiest Short
Trains
Paul Deeb

Steamiest Straight Movie
The Temptation of Eve
Jacky St. James

Golden Beaver for Canadian Content
Power at Play
Carey Gray

Best Direction
Liberte Sexuelle/Sexual Freedom: Sex Stories 3
Ovidie

Smutty Schoolteacher Award for Sex Education
Tristan Taormino’s Guide to Bondage For Couples
Tristan Taormino

Hottest Dyke Film
Lesbian Curves 2: Hard Femme
Courtney Trouble

2014 Indie Porn Icon
Carlos Batts

Most Tantalizing Trans Film
Trans Grrrls
Courtney Trouble

Hottest Kink Movie
Rubber Bordello
Soma Snakeoil

Hottest Straight Vignette
Xconfessions
Erika Lust

Hottest Lesbian Vignette
Women Reclaiming Sex on Film
Madison Young

Steamiest Romantic Movie
The Submission of Emma Marx
Jacky St. James

Best Boygasm
Bed Party
Shine Louise Houston

Heartthrob Of The Year
Zahra Stardust

Slixa Movie Of The Year
Silver Shoes
Jennifer Lyon Bell

2014 Honoured Websites
www.wendywilliamsxxx.com
www.naughtynatural.com

www.juicypinkbox.com

www.welovegoodsex.com

2014 Honourable Mentions
Something Better: Performers Talk About Feminism and Porn
Ms. Naughty

Doing It Again: Playful Awakenings
Tobi Hill-Meyer

Best Slumber Party Ever
Samuel Shanahoy

Kitty Stryker, Courtney Trouble, Wolf Hudson, and Drew DeVeaux

 

Good For Her is proud to have now celebrated nine years as producers of the Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards, the largest and longest running celebration of feminist porn in the world.  Since 1997, Good For Her has been creating a nurturing environment where everyone can feel comfortable learning about sex and pleasure. Good For Her takes pride in providing quality sex toys, erotic and educational books as well as DVDs and workshops that empower and celebrate the diversity of everyone’s sexuality.

The Feminist Porn Awards Events took place at:

Public Provocative Porn Thursday April 3rd at the Bloor Cinema at 506 Bloor Street West

Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards Friday April 4th at the Castlefield Theatre at 2492 Yonge Street

All photos credit to Kristy Boyce.

Apr 022014
 

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Welcome to the Courtney Trouble Fan Club, where you’ll get FULL VIP ACCESS to the exclusive content on both of her award-winning porn sites IndiePornRevolution.Com and QueerPorn.TV – as well as a bunch of special treats that only my favorite groupies will get. Most of all, you’ll rock out to the 3-5 updates a week, making this the best and biggest way to be a part of her little world. Welcome to the largest library of indie, queer, feminist, and fun porn on the internet, please, jump on over that velvet rope and play with Courtney!

Become a groupie today!

Jan 242014
 

Print
TORONTO (January 24, 2014)—Building on a year of unprecedented media attention for the feminist porn movement, registration opens today for The 2014 Feminist Porn Conference, which takes place April 5 and 6, 2014 at the University of Toronto. The Feminist Porn Conference brings together academics, students, cultural critics, sex workers, activists, fans, performers, directors, and producers to explore the intersections between feminism and pornography as well as feminist porn as a genre, industry, and movement. It includes sessions devoted to both academic and non-academic presentations, film screenings, two keynote talks, and networking time. New this year, there is a business track featuring workshops on production and filmmaking, legal issues, marketing and branding, social media, and web-based technologies.

dugganIn addition, conference organizers announced the opening and closing keynote speakers: Professor Lisa Duggan and filmmaker/performer/artist Courtney Trouble. Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, will give the opening keynote on April 5. Professor Duggan is a historian, journalist and activist who has published widely on feminist and queer sexual politics. She is the author of Sapphic Slashers: Sex Violence and American Modernity and The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy. She is co-author with Nan Hunter of the seminal collection Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture and co-editor with Lauren Berlant of Our Monica, Ourselves: The Clinton Affair and National Interest.  She is also co-editor with Joseph DeFilippis, Kenyon Farrow and Richard Kim of A New Queer Agenda, a special e-book edition of The Scholar and the Feminist Online.

“Lisa Duggan is one of the most powerful voices for radical sexual politics of our time. A scholar, journalist, educator, and activist, Duggan is a leading authority on the feminist sex wars and queer politics. Her keynote will provide both the historical context and the call to arms we need as activists, academics, and artists working on the front lines of the new sex wars,” says Mireille Miller-Young, Professor of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara and co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure. Miller-Young and Professor Constance Penley, last year’s keynote speakers, will both present at the 2014 conference.

courtneytrouble-avn-2014Fresh from the red carpets of the 2014 AVN Awards and the XBIZ Awards, where she received multiple nominations, performer, director and artist Courtney Trouble will be the Closing Keynote speaker at the 2014 Feminist Porn Conference. Courtney Trouble is a porn star, photographer, award-winning pornographer, and founder of TROUBLEfilms, IndiePornRevolution.com, and QueerPorn.TV. The director and creative force behind over 22 queer porn films (including  Girl Pile, Live Sex Show, Trans Grrrls, Lesbian Curves, Hard Femme: Lesbian Curves 2) and endless online conent, Courtney is the recipient of numerous Feminist Porn Awards (including Best Website, Best Trans Films, Best Dyke Film, and Most Diverse Film) and countless adult industry honors, including 8 XBIZ 2014 nods (a first in queer porn history), and won Director of the Year at the BBW Fan Fest Awards in 2013. “Courtney invokes that ’70s spirit of rebellious adult moviemaking while also being ahead of the trends when it comes to sexuality in art,” wrote AVN staffers in the feature “Game Changers: 30 Women Power Players in the Adult Industry.”

Courtney Trouble’s films speak to an extremely fluid, authentic, and hardcore version of graphic sexual imagery and feature queer, trans*, and genderqueer performers as well as performers of color and size. Her films have been screened at film festivals throughout North America and in Australia, The Netherlands, Mexico, Greece, France, Israel, Denmark, Spain, and the UK. Trouble contributed a piece to the first issue of the academic journal Porn Studies and directed “Chapter One” of Michelle Tea’s Valencia: The Movie/s, a film that consists of 21 directors’ unique takes on the legendary queer memoir. Most recently, Trouble released the boundary-breaking film Trans Grrrls: Revolution Porn Style Now, which brings porn and feminism together directly to center trans women in queer porn. Trans Grrrls is nominated for 2014 Trans Porn Award for Best Film.

“Courtney Trouble’s contributions to feminist porn cannot be understated; she sets the standard for DIY, radical, artistic movies that represent incredibly diverse performers and sexualities. Political and provocative, I’m confident that Courtney’s keynote speech will educate, challenge, and inspire everyone in the audience,” says Tristan Taormino, founder and producer of the conference.

The Feminist Porn Conference is made possible by the generous sponsorship of The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good Vibrations, GoodVibrationsVOD.com, The Feminist Press, Good for Her, The 2014 Feminist Porn Awards, and Sex Out Loud. The conference is part of the largest gathering of feminist pornographers in the world, four days of feminist porn that includes The Public.Provocative.Porn Screening and Panel and The 2014 Feminist Awards and Gala, both presented by Good for Her.

Dec 032013
 
Courtney Trouble Releases Girl Pile: An Unscripted Lesbian Orgy on DVDNominated for a 2014 AVN Award for best Web Premiere, Girl Pile is presented un-edited to offer unique, gonzo, feminist take on classic girl/girl porn.TROUBLEfilms has released Girl Pile: An Unscripted Lesbian Orgy today, a new lesbian production by esteemed queer femme adult film maker Courtney Trouble.

Immediately following it’s release, AVN Mahazine announced Girl Pile as a nominee for best Web Premiere, making this DVD release even more highly anticipated!

2013’s AVN Award Winner for Best Girl/Girl Scene Sinn Sage stars in Girl Pile alongside 2014 Unsung Starlet nominee Arabelle Raphael, Tori Lux, and AVN’s Best New Starlet Fan Favorite nominee Nikki Hearts.

“A lot of viewers have their doubts about the classic, uber-feminine girl/girl style of lesbian porn, assuming that much of it is fake or that the performers don’t know (or enjoy) what they are doing. Girl Pile shatters that stereotype by letting the shooting process be a transparent element of the film,” says a TROUBLEfilms representative when asked about the gonzo style in which Girl Pile was filmed. “By letting you see every second of the sex that happened on set, Courtney Trouble proves that lesbian porn can be feminine, flirty, hardcore, and authentic.”

Courtney Trouble says of the film: “You don’t have to sacrifice explicitness or hardcore hotness to make a truly woman-friendly, lesbian-friendly adult film. I think that all kinds of porn watchers will get something good out of Girl Pile. It’s unbelievably sexy. The chemistry between these women is undeniable.”

GIRL PILE is presented unscripted, unedited, unrehearsed, and untouched so you can see through Trouble’s signature hardcore HD camera work, that these women are madly attracted to each other, super excited to be fucking each other, and will do anything to get each other off. There’s NOTHING formulaic about this lesbian porn film.

Contact TROUBLEfilms at info@troublefilms.com or order wholesale online directly at http://troublefilms.com/ordering-information/

Girl Pile premiered online exclusively at QueerPorn.TV in October, with VOD access through AEBN, PinkLabel.TV, GameLink, HotMovies, and RealQueerPorn.Com following shortly after.

Fleshbot was on set for the filming of Girl Pile, and Rae Threat was the on-set photographer, catching many cute and candid shots of Courtney and the porn stars working hard on this film.

We are the exclusive distributor of TROUBLEfilms releases, and ordering wholesale DVDs from TROUBLEfilms is as simple as this:

Fill out our easy Wholesale DVD Ordering Form online
if it’s your first time, or when re-ordering. You can also send us a PO to info (at) troublefilms.com
Orders of 20 or more DVDs will receive an automatic 10% discount. Got questions? Just E-Mail us! info (at) troublefilms.com

HERE’S OUR CURRENT DISTRIBUTION CATALOG AND PRICE LIST

Jul 272013
 

HARD FEMME IS COMING! Lesbian Curves 2 released on July 23rd 2013!


Watch the Trailer Now!!
at LesbianCurves.Com

Hi reader!!!

The sequel to Courtney Trouble’s best-selling, Feminist Porn Award winning LESBIAN CURVES is here and it’s even hotter than the first! This marks in history the very first all queer, all femme, lesbian BDSM film featuring plus size and curve-rocking raunchy babes – and it’s shot entirely in Courtney’s fresh artistic all-HD hardcore signature style!

If you’ve been waiting for  deliciously bound fat bodies, big tits and asses getting spanked and slapped (and kissed!), thick thighs covered in female ejaculate, sex slings, paddles, and sweet, sweet submission – your wait is indeed over.

 

HARD FEMME stars Courtney Trouble, April Flores, Kitty Stryker, Betty Blac, Kelly Shibari, Devlyn Red, Amory, Kathleen Diamond, Sadie Lune, and Ava Solanas!

The DVD will include a very special guest director – DAVE NAZ – in an exclusive short film featuring the rope work of Damon Pierce and a bound and suspended Courtney Trouble!

Out on TROUBLEfilms on DVD and VOD.

Wholesale? Just email us at info@troublefilms.com

May 292013
 

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One year ago, Sex Out Loud radio began with interviewing Dan Savage for the very first episode. Join me this Friday, May 31st at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET for an hour revisiting that first show as well as some of my favorite moments from the past 50 episodes, including talking with Real Housewives of Atlanta Kandi Burruss, adult legend Nina Hartley, gender outlaw Kate Bornstein, sex start-up powerhouse Cindy Gallop, rockstar academic Jack Halberstam, and many more. With highlights and behind-the-scenes stories, I look back on a year of talking about sex out loud and then take us forward into season two of the show.

Apr 102013
 

IMG_2801I just returned from Toronto and the 2013 Feminist Porn Awards and The Feminist Porn Conference, and I am still reeling. We arrived in Canada on Thursday and hit the ground running. Thursday night Good for Her presented Public. Provocative. Porn, a screening and panel that featured short films and clips by Gala Vanting, Saskia Quax, The Madame, Christian Slaughter, Julie Simone, Nica Noelle, and Clark Matthews. I’d heard a lot about Krutch starring Mia Gimp and directed by Clark Matthews, and I was really impressed by it. Mia Gimp is a star. The way the film is framed, how it flows, and the photography are all fantastic, especially for a first time director and performer! Mia and Clark are also articulate and funny, and, I wish the panel could have gone on longer.

The 8th Annual Feminist Porn Awards were on Friday night at a brand new venue this year, The Capitol Event Theater, which was really lovely. I was thrilled that Krutch won for Sexiest Short along with Biodildo, the Christian Slaughter film starring Jiz Lee that was screened the night before. I was truly surprised, and absolutely honored, to win the Smutty Schoolteacher Award for The Expert Guide to Pegging. Of all the sex ed movies I’ve made, this one is really close to my heart. Three of its stars (Dylan Ryan, Jiz Lee, and Wolf Hudson) were there to see me win (and were award winners themselves that night), and I dedicated my award to the kick ass women behind Bend Over Boyfriend.

Me, Colten, Nan Kinney, Christi Cassidy

Me, Colten, Nan Kinney, Christi Cassidy

Fittingly, Shar Rednour, femme diva, pioneering lesbian pornographer and the director of Bend Over Boyfriend presented The Trailblazer Award to Nan Kinney. Nan is a legend: she is the co-founder of On Our Backs and co-founder and current CEO of Fatale Media, the first company to produce lesbian porn by and for queer women. Nan’s speech was really moving, her partner Christi Cassidy (who runs Fatale with her) was in the audience beaming, and the crowd jumped to their feet in a well-deserved standing ovation.

This year, there were two awards for Hearththrob of the Year: Christian and Jiz Lee. I have directed Christian in a ton of films (Chemistry 2 and 3, Rough Sex, The Expert Guide to Oral Sex 2: Fellatio, The Expert Guide to Anal Pleasure for Men, The Expert Guide to Advanced Fellatio, The Expert Guide to Threesomes, The Expert Guide to Advanced Anal Sex, The Expert Guide to Pegging), and this was a big win for someone who is always overlooked by the mainstream adult industry. He was one of the first (and continues to be one of a handful of) male performers who has done gay, straight, and trans porn, who gets pegged on camera, and, as Nina Hartley once said, “lets his freak flag fly.” Congratulations Christian!

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Jiz Lee and Wolf Hudson (photo: Tania A)

 

Jiz Lee is also just as deserving. I must say if there was any one person that everyone wanted to meet, who people gushed the most, and who is widely worshipped and adored by filmmakers and fans alike, it’s Jiz Lee. They rule for so many reasons, and I am so glad to know them. I’m also excited that Madison Young’s film 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan won for best kink movie and Gala Vanting, Ms. Naughty, and Wolf Hudson all received Honourable Mentions. Carlyle Jansen, owner of Good for Her and producer of the awards and JP, this year’s director, and their crew did an amazing job once again with the Awards Gala. It gets better every year!

The next morning, I was up bright and early to prep for The Feminist Porn Conference. The Feminist Porn Conference was inspired by The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure and my co-editors Celine Parreñas Shimizu, Constance Penley, and Mireille Miller-Young. We first met and began a conversation about the intersections of feminism and pornography at the Console-ing Passions Conference in 2008 on a panel called “Sex Work in Industry and Academe.” It was the first time I had the opportunity to publicly talk to academics who were studying and teaching pornography, and it was an invaluable conversation. That conversation lead to more discussions, which lead to us co-editing The Feminist Porn Book. I created The Feminist Porn Conference to continue the dialogue that the book has sparked. Like the book, I wanted the conference to emphasize a hybrid approach, bringing together academics, cultural critics, performers, directors, producers, sex workers, activists, students and fans to explore the emergence of feminist porn as a genre, industry, and form of activism. Most importantly, the event was designed to put these folks into conversation by coupling academics with performers and producers whose work informs, inspires, or intersects with their porn scholarship.

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Carlyle Jansen, me, Nan Kinney, Carol Queen, Jiz Lee, Wolf Hudson, Mireille Miller-Young, Clark Matthews

We had some major accessibility issues at University College at UT, which I only found out about once I arrived in Toronto on Thursday. I want to thank Clark Matthews who assisted us in addressing some of these issues, Loree Erickson for bringing additional issues to our attention, and both of them for their patience and kindness during what was a frustrating, imperfect situation. I learned a great deal from the experience about what it means to be truly accessible, what kinds of questions to ask in the future, and make a public pledge to do better next year.

Interest in the conference exceeded my expectations, and we had 240 attendees. For you geeks out there, here’s what I know about who came to the conference: 31% of attendees were students, 22% identified themselves as producers, directors, or performers, 12% as professors and scholars, 12% were fans, members of the media and cultural critics made up 6%, 17% identified as “other,” and some of them specified: activist, writer, editor, therapist, sexologist, sex educator, sex worker, student and performer, researcher, programmer/curator, and sexual health clinic worker.

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jes sachse, Carrie Gray, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Carlos Batts, April Flores, Courtney Trouble (photo: Tania A)

Although lots of folks partied late into the night, most managed to get to the conference in time for the first session at 10:15. Courtney Trouble organized the panel “If I Had A Hammer: Reclaiming Feminist Porn As A Tool of Political Activism Against Oppression,” and there was a big crowd for it. This notion of porn as a form of activism is really important and highlights the multiple ways feminists can intervene and challenge the status quo. Courtney is a shining example of putting politics into action. She is strong, driven, and steadfast in her refusal to shut about issues most important to her.

Constance Penley proved why she is such a kick ass feminist rock star when she opened the Keynote Lunch with some history and context for the conference and some amazing stories of teaching porn in the early nineties at UC Santa Barbara.

Mireille Miller-Young

Mireille Miller-Young (photo: Tania A)

Mireille Miller-Young spoke eloquently about the importance of acknowledging access and privilege in spaces like the conference as well as the links between sex work, criminalization, politics, and pornography. I wrapped up by discussing why “feminist porn” is the right term for this genre, industry, field of study, philosophy, and movement and the parallels between feminist porn and the organic/fair trade movement. Then I put forth a call to action for folks to shift the cultural dialogue about feminist porn. I got a little fired up about it!

In Session 2, I was part of “Watch and Learn: Sex Education Discourses in Feminist Porn” which featured the scholarship of Kevin Heffernan of Southern Methodist University and Sarah Stevens of Ohio University whose work focuses on the sex ed films of Nina Hartley and I. I was both humbled and giddy with excitement to hear them talk about us! I cannot tell you how validating and revelatory it is to have academics talk about my filmmaking. Kevin analyzes it through the lens of early sex ed hygiene films and exploitation films, and Sarah does so from a theoretical perspective about pedagogies. Both of their presentations were fascinating, and I actually gained new insight into my own work through them. Notably, on the issue of authority (who has the authority to teach about sex education and especially about women’s sexuality), Sarah argued that I displace myself as the sole expert in The Expert Guide series when I include interviews of the performers who also serve as experts, teachers, and advisors. I strongly believe that professional porn performers do have much to teach us about sexuality from their unique point of view, so that point really resonated with me.

Bianca Stone, James Darling, Jiz Lee, Quinn Cassidy, Arabelle Raphael, Tina Horn (photo: Tania A)

I was sad to miss a panel that was at the same time as mine: To Be Real: Authenticity in Queer and Feminist Porn with Jill Bakehorn, Dylan Ryan, Jiz Lee, and Shar Rednour. Authenticity in feminist porn is one of the most discussed concepts among directors, producers, performers, and audiences and Dylan, Jiz and Shar all have great things to say about it. Jill Bakehorn from UC Davis and UC Berkeley presented her academic work about authenticity as a social construction. To me, this panel epitomized what the conference was all about: having an in-depth discussion about crucial concepts where people had very different points of view and experiences. People really raved about the ensuing discussion. I heard wonderful feedback about all the sessions (here’s a great post by Girly Juice on the con). Several people were especially impacted by the panel Tina Horn organized and moderated “Being Out Now: How Performers Navigate Sexual Morality and Media Representation.” One attendee said it was “one of the most moving, important, life-changing experiences,” and another called it “an incredible array of experiences articulated by a group of smart, self-aware, thoughtful, fascinating people who happen to be sex workers.”

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Kali Williams, Carol Queen, Emily Nagoski (photo: Tania A)

I attended “Feminist Porn XXX-Ed: Feminist Perspectives on Sexual Identity and Sexual Health in Educational and Feminist Porn” in Session 3 with Emily Nagoski of Smith College, Carol Queen, and Kali Williams. Emily’s presentation had me jotting down an entire page of notes, and she raised so many interesting questions about how feminist porn “queers” narratives about sex but doesn’t challenge them enough and often reinforces ideas about female sexuality that are not what she calls “evidence-based” or reflective of how women’s bodies, arousal processes, and orgasms actually work. She gave me so much food for thought. Carol Queen has the unique perspective of being involved with some of the earliest feminist porn and working at Good Vibrations (one of the first sex-positive shops that had a curated collection of porn for sale). Her thoughts about why people turn to porn for sex education, what role porn could play in sex ed, and how explicit sex education (or XXX-ed, as she calls it) fits into the mission of feminist porn. Kali Williams (founder of Kink Academy, Passionate U and Fearless Press) provided an interesting counterpoint when she argued that her explicit sex education is decidedly “not porn” because its intention is not to arouse but to teach. As I sat in the audience, I just really appreciated three powerful women discussing, disagreeing, and pushing the dialogue forward.

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Kevin Heffernan, Constance Penley, Bobby Noble (photo: Tania A)

 

Each room was jam-packed for Session 4 which featured Constance Penley, Bobby Noble and Kevin Heffernan talking about Teaching Porn in Academe, Madison Young’s presentation on “The Politics of Kinky Porn and Feminism,” a panel about mandatory condoms and safer sex with Lisa Kadey, Courtney Trouble and Arabelle Raphael (moderated with skill by Lynn Comella, who is the best moderator in any industry anywhere), and the screening of Shine Louise Houston’s documentary Shiny Jewels.

Me, Shar Rednour, Nan Kinney

Me, Shar Rednour, Nan Kinney

At the closing reception, we all got to unwind a little and I had a chance to get my copy of The Feminist Porn Book autographed by contributors; I now have the signatures of Candida Royalle, Dylan Ryan, Sinnamon Love, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Ms. Naughty, Ariane Cruz, Mireille Miller-Young, Constance Penley, Kevin Heffernan, April Flores, Jiz Lee, and Lynn Comella. I missed Bobby Noble and Loree Erickson, the two Canadians dammit! Bobby Noble is the Principle Investigator of The Feminist Porn Archive and Research Project at York University. I had a few stolen moments with Sarah Stevens, Clark Matthews and Mia Gimp, Carlos Batts, Madison Young, Christi Cassidy and Nan Kinney.

IMG_2793I feel so much love, gratitude, respect, and awe for everyone who took part in this historic event. As I walked through the hallways or stopped outside classrooms, I’d catch bits and pieces of the most exciting, engaging conversations. People were clearly energized and buzzing from all the dialogue; they were making connections with each other, developing new ideas, re-thinking theories, challenging themselves and others. Each presenter paid their own way, traveling from California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Washington, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, and as far away as The Netherlands and Australia. There was also a fantastic local contingent of Toronto folks like Nicholas Matte and several of his undergrads from UT and Bobby Noble, Toby Wiggins, and Loree Erickson from York University. The presenters contributed to the success of the event in innumerable ways. I had an extraordinary team of volunteers lead by my co-producer and partner Colten: Simon, Clyde, Frances, JP, Addi, bek, Freia, Torsten, Ilana, Tania A., Mike, Marie, Petra, and Rachel worked tirelessly all day with smiles on their faces. Rebecca Thorpe of The Marc Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies and Aaron from UT worked their asses off making sure technology worked and things ran smoothly at the facility.

There was a dizzying array of tweets about the conference (#FPcon), and I want to close with some of my absolute favorites. If you want to read all the tweets from the event, we have an #FPCon Storify (special thanks to Epiphora!).

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Mar 282013
 

feminist-pornICON
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO (March 28, 2013)—Producers of the 8th Annual Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) and the 1st Annual Feminist Porn Conference will hold a joint media event on Friday, April 5 at 12 noon at The Holiday Inn Yorkville, 280 Bloor Street West in the Varsity Room on the 2nd Floor. The event will open with a panel of distinguished guests who will discuss their passion for feminist porn, the significance of their work, and their involvement with the 2013 Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) and the 2013 Feminist Porn Conference; the presentation will be followed by a question and answer period. The panel will include: Carlyle Jansen, owner of Good for Her and producer of The Feminist Porn Awards; director/producer Tristan Taormino, who is the Feminist Porn Conference producer and co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book; performer Jiz Lee, 2013 Feminist Porn Award nominee and Public.Provocative.Porn special guest; director Matthew Clark, a 2013 Feminist Porn Award nominee and Public.Provocative.Porn special guest; performer Wolf Hudson, a 2013 Feminist Porn Award nominee; performer James Darling, the 2012 Feminist Porn Award Heartthrob of the Year winner; Nan Kinney, groundbreaking lesbian porn director/producer and featured guest at the Feminist Porn Conference; and Professor Mireille Miller-Young from University of California-Santa Barbara, co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book and a Feminist Porn Conference keynote speaker.

After the panel, an additional group will be introduced that includes FPA nominees, past winners, and presenters as well as Feminist Porn Conference speakers. Members of the media will have an opportunity to meet, interview, and photograph the panelists and special guests. Special guests include: Dr. Carol Queen, groundbreaking sex positive feminist and founder of The Center for Sex and Culture; performer/filmmakers Madison Young, Courtney Trouble, Tobi Hill-Meyer, and Carry Gray; filmmakers Shar Rednour, Carlos Batts, Nica Noelle, Shine Louise Houston of Pink + White Productions, and Ms. Naughty of ForTheGirls.com (Australia); performers Dylan Ryan, April Flores, and Sinnamon Love; Liesbet Zikkenheimer and Marije Janssen of DuskTV in The Netherlands; Professor Kevin Heffernan from Southern Methodist University and Professor Lynn Comella from University of Nevada-Las Vegas; and Professor Bobby Noble, Principle Investigator on the Feminist Porn Archive and Research Project, York University. Special guests’ complete bios here.

About The Good for Her Feminist Porn Awards
The Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards have pioneered the celebration of erotica with a difference. Founded in 2006, The Feminist Porn Awards are produced by Good For Her, a Toronto- based feminist sexuality education centre and sex store.  This event was started to celebrate, recognize and endorse filmmakers who who are creating erotic media with a feminist sensibility in porn for everyone to enjoy.  We all deserve to see artistic expressions that celebrate the diversity of who we are in all our glory, and artists deserve to have their work recognized for challenging stereotypes, expanding the boundaries of sexual representation and creating hot movies!

About The Feminist Porn Conference
The 1st Annual Feminist Porn Conference, April 6, 2013 at the University of Toronto, brings together academics, cultural critics, sex workers, performers, producers, directors, activists, and fans to explore the intersections between sex-positive feminism and pornography as well as the emergence of feminist porn as a genre, industry, and movement. Special guests include groundbreaking lesbian pornographers Nan Kinney (Fatale Media) and Shar Rednour (S.I.R. Video Productions), sex-positive leader Carol Queen, award-winning filmmaker Shine Louise Houston and forty other presenters. Professor Constance Penley, Professor Mireille Miller-Young and Tristan Taormino, co-editors of The Feminist Porn Book, will speak at the Keynote Luncheon sponsored by The Feminist Press. The conference is sponsored by Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good for Her, The Feminist Porn Awards, and The Feminist Press.

About the Panelists

Since discovering orgasms in her late 20s, Carlyle Jansen has been passionate about education for everyone. She founded Good For Her in 1997, a sexuality shop and workshop centre where everyone could feel welcome and included, especially those who traditionally did not feel reflected in sexuality spaces. In 1996, the Good For Her team created and produced the Feminist Porn Awards. An eco-feminist, she believes in empowering people with knowledge to make the best choices for themselves. As the proud mom of 2 active boys, she loves kid play-time as well!

Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, columnist, editor, sex educator, radio host, and feminist pornographer. She is the author of seven books including The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women and True Lust: Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion. She runs the adult film production company Smart Ass Productions. She has directed and produced twenty-four adult films, including the groundbreaking series based on real female kink fantasies, Rough Sex and the Expert Guide sex education series, which she created for Vivid Entertainment. The winner of multiple Adult Video News (AVN) and Feminist Porn Awards, she was the first female director to win an AVN award for Best Gonzo Movie for the first film in her reality series Chemistry. She received the Trailblazer Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Feminist Porn Awards in 2010. She is the host of Sex Out Loud, a weekly radio show on The VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network.

Jiz Lee is a genderqueer porn star known for their androgynous look, female ejaculation, vaginal fisting, strap-on performances, and fun sex-positive attitude. The award-winner performer prefers the pronouns “they/them,” and advocates for ethical pornography that creatively and authentically reflects queer sexuality. Ever fascinated by the radical potential of sex, love, and art, Jiz runs a personal blog and philanthropic “Karma Pervs” paysite at JizLee.com. They are the editor of the upcoming anthology How to Come Out Like a Porn Star: Essays from the Porn Industry on Family Matters.

Matthew Clark is the co-creator and writer/director/editor of the award-winning crip porn short KRUTCH, his first adult film. Made with collaborator and star Mia Gimp, it explores issues close to Matthew’s heart: disability, perception, authenticity through representation and auteurship. He studied Film and Media Arts at Temple University and currently resides in Philadelphia.

Wolf Hudson is a Dominican crossover adult performer. He’s known for appearing in straight, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and fetish porn. One of the few openly bisexual male performers to successfully transition between genre’s of porn, he’s demonstrated an appetite to push the envelope of sexuality and delivering passionately driven scenes that has gained him a diverse fan base. He’s won numerous awards, including “Best Personality” at The Cybersocket Web Awards and has appeared in acclaimed films like My Own Master. He is also known for being a talented dancer. Hudson runs his own pay site at WolfHudsonIsBad.com.

James Darling is a transsexual male porn performer and sex worker based in the Bay Area. He won the 2012 Feminist Porn Award for Heartthrob of the Year Transguys.com Sex Performer of the Year 2010 for his work across multiple porn genres. James is also the owner and director of FTMFUCKER.com, a porn site dedicated to trans men.

Nan Kinney is the president and co-founder of Fatale Media. She is also the executive producer of Fatale’s lesbian porn and adult educational videos and DVDs. With Deborah Sundahl, she co-founded On Our Backs magazine.

Mireille Miller-Young is associate professor of feminist studies and affiliate associate professor of black studies, film and media studies, and comparative literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research explores race, gender, and sexuality in visual culture, media, and the sex industries in the United States. Her forthcoming book, A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women, Sex Work, and Pornography, examines African American women in pornography.

Contact:

Tristan Taormino, feministpornstudies@gmail.com
Carlyle Jansen, 416-588-0900, carlyle@goodforher.com

Feb 042013
 

Feminist_Porn_cover
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure
is co-edited by Celine Parreñas-Shimizu, Constance Penley, Mireille Miller-Young, and me
and is published by The Feminist Press

The Feminist Porn Book brings together for the first time writings by feminists in the adult industry and research by feminist porn scholars. This book investigates not only how feminists understand pornography, but also how feminists do porn—that is, direct, act in, produce, and consume one of the world’s most lucrative and growing industries. With original contributions by Susie Bright, Candida Royalle, Betty Dodson, Nina Hartley, Buck Angel, Lynn Comella, Jane Ward, Ariane Cruz, Kevin Heffernan, and more, The Feminist Porn Book updates the arguments of the porn wars of the 1980s, which sharply divided the women’s movement, and identifies pornography as a form of expression and labor in which women and racial and sexual minorities produce power and pleasure. Check out the book’s official website to read the table of contents and see what people like Melissa Harris-Perry, Laura Kipnis, Jack Halberstam, Lisa Duggan, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, and other luminaries have said about it. I am so unbelievably excited that The Feminist Porn Book is here! This is a project that is five years in the making, and I cannot believe it’s in print.

Inspired by the book, I am producing The Feminist Porn Conference, a one-day event on April 6, 2013 at the University of Toronto during the Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards festivities. Speakers include Lynn Comella, Ariane Cruz, Loree Erickson, April Flores, Kevin Heffernan, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Shine Louise Houston, Jiz Lee, Nicholas Matte, Mireille Miller-Young, Ms. Naughty, Nenna, Bobby Noble, Celine Parreñas-Shimizu, Constance Penley, Carol Queen, Dylan Ryan, Tristan Taormino, Courtney Trouble, Madison Young, and more to be confirmed soon. Registration is now open, and Early Bird Registration Rates are good through March 1, so register today! Our host hotel is the Holiday Inn; get our special discount code here. Special thanks to our sponsors Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good for Her, The Feminist Porn Awards, and The Feminist Press.

Jan 022013
 

lesbian curves

The newest TROUBLEfilms release is here! Shipping out to stores by January 11th and officially for sale on January 15th, Lesbian Curves is a full-length vignette-style feature that showcases curvaceous women getting each other off with bountiful body worship and hardcore sex.

On the shelf next to your best-selling Lesbian or BBW porn titles, Lesbian Curves fits right in with either, while also standing out on it’s own as a premier title that blends the two genres with perfect cohesion. This title will be easy to sell to your avid BBW fans as well as your lesbian porn aficionados. Lesbian Curves is a film that your customers will want to own on DVD, as it’s high definition content, gorgeous cover art, and fantastic bonus videos add special value to the hard copy.

This gorgeous film stars Courtney Trouble, Kelly Shibari, Betty Blac, Sophia St James, Sandy Bottoms, Kitty Stryker, Peppermint Fatty, and Eden Alexander and was shot in full HD.

Hard copy DVDs as well as digital screeners are also available to press for coverage or review. Request via email at info@troublefilms.com

To Order Lesbian Curves for your retail establishment:

Send Purchase Order to info@troublefilms.com
Lesbian Curves is $12/unit. We offer a 10% discount for over 15 dvds. There is a 10 dvd minimum.  We can mix and match with any other dvds in the catalog: http://troublefilms.com/ordering-information/ Please include billing and shipping information, and contact emails and phone numbers for your lead buyer and accounting/bill fulfillment representatives. For your ease, we’ve prepared an online ordering form you can use as well:
http://troublefilms.com/wholesale-order-form/

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About TROUBLEfilms

Lesbian Curves is TROUBLEfilms 3rd DVD release. TROUBLEfilms garnered 3 AVN award nominations this year for thier film and web projects Live Sex Show on DVD, queerporntube.com, and indiepornrevolution.com. TROUBLEfilms is a porn production company that focuses on sex-positive, diverse, and authentic representation headed by award-winning pornographer Courtney Trouble. TROUBLEfilms also serves as a distribution point for other great porn projects, like James Darling’s FTMFuckers.Com website and the films of Handbasket Productions/Tobi Hill-Meyer.
Established in 2011.

TROUBLEfilms’ newest project is lesbiancurves.com. It is a full website about the film, with an affiliate-loaded blog with extra content and curated links to other fantastic lesbian and BBW porn titles and websites. The entire project is produced, directed, edited, and released by Courtney Trouble.

About Courtney Trouble

Courtney Trouble is a film-maker, adult performer, photographer, queer rights activist, DIY genius, and an award-winning feminist pornographer. Courtney is the founder of TROUBLEfilms, IndiePornRevolution.Com, and QueerPorn.TV, as well of the director of 14 full-length films, including the Reel Queer Production line through Good Releasing and 3 films through their own line at TROUBLEfilms. For current releases, please see TROUBLEfilms.Com

Queer Porn Icon Courtney Trouble has been producing, directing, and performing in Queer Porn since 2002, and is responsible for coining the term “Queer Porn” as a genre in the mainstream industry. Nominated for 7 AVN Awards, and winner of 5 Feminist Porn Awards, Courtney Trouble’s films speak to an extremely fluid, authentic, and hardcore version of graphic sexual imagery.