Oct 232015
 

petraday

Petra Joy, one of the most amazing women making porn today, has single-handedly financed all the pre-production and shooting for her latest film Come Together, and now needs some support to get this film edited and out in the world. Petra’s new feature celebrates authentic erotic pleasure while challenging existing stereotypes. She is currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo to raise money to finish the film. Want to support feminist porn? Want to consume your porn ethically? I know you do! Head over to Indiegogo and give what you can!

Sep 152015
 

cinekink300x200

Call for Entries – CineKink 2016

CineKink –“the kinky film festival”–is seeking films, videos and, for the first time, original digital series, of any length and genre, that explore and celebrate a wide diversity of sexuality. Dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television, we’re looking to blur some boundaries and will be considering offerings drawn from both Hollywood and beyond, with works ranging from documentary to drama, camp comedy to artsy experimental, mildly spicy to quite explicit–and everything in between.

Cutting across orientations, topics covered at CineKink have included–but are by no means limited to–BDSM, leather and fetish, swinging, non-monogamy and polyamory, roleplay and gender bending, sex work and sex geekery. Basically, as long as it involves consenting adults, just about anything celebrating sex as a right of self expression is fair game. (Far be it from us to define “kink” – if you think your work might make sense in this context, please send it along!)

Scheduled for its 13th annual appearance in February/March 2016, the specially-curated CineKink NYC will also feature a short film competition, audience choice awards, a special adult entertainment showcase/contest, a gala kick-off event and a sexy closing-night party. A national tour will follow, showcasing favorites from the NYC festival selections.

Discounted, early-bird entries have a post-marked deadline of October 9th, while the regular deadline is November 13th and the final deadline is December 4th. Entry fees are waived for CineKink-alumni directors submitting by the “regular” deadline.

For more information, please visit http://cinekink.com/programs-and-events/call-for-entries.

Apr 032015
 

On Friday, April 3rd at 5 pm PT (8 pm ET), we welcome international porn superstar and writer Stoya to Sex Out Loud radio. Tristan interviews Stoya about her journey into the world of porn, writing for VICE, New York Times & Esquire, and her latest collaboration with Kayden Kross, the new site TRENCHCOATx.com, which focuses on high quality product, fair prices for the consumer, and fair pay for the people who work for them. Don’t miss this enchanting and provocative hour with the person the Village Voice called “America’s sweetheart of smut” and learn why Stoya believes there’s “a fun way to be called a dirty whore”.

tristan mic

This week’s show is LIVE so call in to Voice America with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air. Tune in to Sex Out Loud every Friday, you can listen along on your computer, tablet, or phone, find all the ways at SexOutLoudRadio.com!

STOYA is the co-owner: http://TRENCHCOATx.com. Occasional Writer. Highly skilled at avoiding pants. Follow her on Twitter.

Mar 252015
 

lorraine hewitt

This Friday, March 27th, at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT, Sex Out Loud is back with season three! I’m thrilled to kick off the next phase with my guest Lorraine Hewitt aka CoCo La Creme: sex educator, advice columnist, performer, and Creative Director of the Feminist Porn Awards. We’ll discuss the history of the event, share stories from the first years, and get a preview of what to expect in Toronto for the 2015 FPAs. Hewitt will talk about the changing landscape of porn, including the effects of having more people of colour, trans folks, queers and lesbians directing films featuring their communities without being fetishized and with respect.

tristan mic

This week’s show is LIVE so call in to Voice America with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air. Tune in to Sex Out Loud every Friday, you can listen along on your computer, tablet, or phone, find all the ways at SexOutLoudRadio.com!

Lorraine Hewitt (aka CoCo La Crème) is an experienced sex educator who has been enhancing the sex lives of Torontonians for over 10 years. Her wealth of knowledge, warm personality and wicked sense of humour ensure that her classes are always as comfortable as they are informative. Lorraine focusses on teaching essential sensual skills and improving erotic communication and her work has been featured on numerous television shows, major print publications and blogs. She presents several workshops including Giving Great Head, Flirtation 101, Romantic Sex for Couples and Open Relationships for the Open Hearted. Lorraine is a founding member of the Feminist Porn Awards team and she currently serves as Creative Director for the event.

feminist porn awards
At Good For Her, our staff and customers felt limited by the options of mainstream porn, complete with stereotypes and narrow representations of bodies, desires and pleasure. We began noticing in the early 2000s that more women, trans folk and historically marginalized communities were getting behind the camera. It was no longer as financially prohibitive to purchase a camera, editing equipment and distribute films. We decided to create an event to recognize, celebrate and endorse films with a feminist difference and in 2006 the Feminist Porn Awards were born. The FPAs have grown into a 3 night event with more porn shown and more industry folks attending and even more porn being created with performers from different places meeting up to work together. It has become an opportunity for feminists to find and feel good about their porn and a springboard for performers and directors to gain some attention for their awesome work. This year’s awards take place April 15-17 in Toronto.

Nov 302014
 

pstudies
I See You, Seeing Me, See You, Seeing Me, See You: Surveillance, Pornography, Porn Studies
Journal: Porn Studies
Guest Editor: Evangelos Tziallas, Concordia University

Narrative film’s increasingly frequent emulation of CCTV and surveillance footage has engendered a dialogue about the intersections between cinema and surveillance, and their historical and theoretical antecedents. Most of the dialogue revolves around formal changes and the ontological and political ramifications of film’s and technologically mediated surveillance’s overlaps. Despite this growing exchange, work on how explicit sexual representation and pornography have been impacted by the rise of the surveillance society, and the overlaps between various personal and expressive apparatuses and surveillance technologies, if not the absorption of the former by the latter, are few and far between.

In Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible,” ([1989]/1999) Linda Williams’ Foucauldian inspired analysis explored narrative heterosexual pornography as one of the latest sources of “knowledge-pleasure.” Accounts of pornography as forms of audio-visual knowledgepower have proliferated since Williams’ work, but recent technological, social, and cultural political changes require we think about the impact technologically mediated surveillance has had on pornographic representation, consumption, and production. Knowledge-power is “surveillance,” but the proliferation and ubiquity of various digital, computer, and recording technologies focus and transform the meaning and deployment of knowledge-power and knowledge-pleasure.

In “Surveillance is Sexy,” (2009) David Bell explores “sites where surveillance technologies and an emerging ‘surveillance aesthetic’ are being repurposed through their overt sexualisation,” pondering “whether the mobilization of voyeurism and exhibitionism can be read as ways of resisting surveillance” (203). But where does the line between surveillance and voyeurism exist in a hyper-visual and visible world? Voyeurism is predicated on the notion of privacy, but what is the meaning of voyeurism in an increasingly transparent world where privacy is not only being taken away but willfully given up? At what point does the same piece of technology go from being a tool for “voyeurism” to a tool for “surveillance”? How do the simulation of surveillance and the foregrounding of recording and simulation technologies alter pornographic texts and experiences, which are often understood as the epitomes of voyeurism?

In The Simulation of Surveillance: Hypercontrol in Telematic Societies (1996), William Bogard lucidly argues that “to understand what the technology of surveillance is and the effects it aims for today, increasingly we have to appreciate the fantasy that drives it, and that, in a word, is simulation” (9), going on to point out that “surveillance without limits is exactly what simulation is all about. Simulation, that is, is a way of satisfying a wish to see everything, and to see it in advance…” (15). How are simulation, surveillance, and voyeurism consonant with each other and how are their synchronicity expressed and experienced? Conversely, what discords, be they overt or underlying, does their convergence produce at a representational, legal, political, social, and theoretical level?

There is a tendency in surveillance studies to think of surveillance wholly within the realm of the technological, the social, and the geopolitical, as if these discursive spheres are not directly implicated in the observation, regulation, dissection, and control of the body through sex. There is, likewise, a tendency for researchers to be blind to how surveillance is both implicitly masculine and heterosexual, particularly when mediated through technology. Conversely, works on pornography tend to focus on discipline and ideology, rather than how these ideas are refashioned by technology, due in large part to the legacy and residue of the porn wars. This special issue is inspired by a proposed panel for the upcoming Society for Cinema and Media Studies annual conference (Seattle 2014), and seeks to bring together research from the growing fields of surveillance studies and porn studies into closer proximity. It seeks to fill in intellectual and scholarly gaps, and hopes to create a foundation upon which further research and engagement can be built.

Possible topics and avenues of inquiry include:
-Sexualizing authority, disciplinarity, and the police state (cops, the military, prisons, “torture,” superhero porn parodies)
-Amateur pornography and self-surveillance (XTube, Grindr/Blendr, Cam4)
-Sexualized representations of dystopia and the overly controlled society (Descent [1999])
-Surveillance and/or spying as thematic element or narrative device
-The use/representation of surveillance cameras/technologies, or the configuration of personal recording technologies as tools for surveillance in narrative pornography. (Focus/Refocus [2009])
-Politicized representation (“Gaytanamo,” “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” porn-mashups)
-Policing national borders and racial fetishization (“My Israeli Platoon”)
-The theoretical and formal overlaps between surveillance, voyeurism, and ethnography
-Sexualizing the violation of privacy (revenge porn, webcam spying/recordings)
-Biopower and policed bodies (barebacking, fetishizing and criminalizing HIV transmission, transgendered bodies)
-Censorship, bypassing censorship, copyright issues
-“Social sorting,” sexual taxonomies, and pornographic categorizations
-Risk, data mining, and the thrill of “getting caught” on the internet
-Ethnographic studies of particular websites, and online communities and cultures (4Chan, Reddit)
-Regional analysis of surveillance supra-structures and pornography (China, Iran, Turkey)
-Policing porn mobility (sexting, filming and watching porn in public, Google Glass porn)

Please send abstracts (300 words max), manuscripts (6000-8000 words) with a 200 word bio,
and direct all inquiries to Evangelos Tziallas at evangelostziallas@gmail.com

Abstracts due [rolling]
Manuscripts due [rolling]

Sep 182014
 

Anna Brownfield is embarking on her second erotic feature entitled The Bedroom. The Bedroom is set in one bedroom over six decades and celebrates the diversity and changes in sex and sexuality in Australia.  While, the film is set in Australia, like her previous film The Band, it will appeal to a universal audience.

Last week, she launched a crowd funding campaign for The Bedroom.  You can check it out here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-bedroom–2 .    Any contribution you make would be greatly appreciated and would help her to continue to create high quality, alternative, unique erotica.

She’s got some great rewards for your contribution from limited edition handmade DVDs and VOD access of the film, or perhaps you would like to have a Skype date with an actor of your choice?  You can even come and join them as a VIP at the exclusive cast and crew screening!

Strapped for cash but still want to help out?  Well you can by getting the word out there via social media, email, blog about it or even just old school word of mouth!

Thank you in advance for checking out The Bedroom.

Jul 162014
 

James Deen

Kelly Shibari

This week’s episode of Sex Out Loud features TWO of today’s hottest performers in the adult industry. You know James Deen from the 4,000 scenes he’s performed in, his appearance in the mainstream film “The Canyons” or perhaps his internet series “James Deen Loves Food.” I talk with Deen about his popularity and why he’s so good at his job. Then, Kelly Shibari is on live talking about her recent Penthouse Forum cover shoot, her appearance on Margaret Cho’d podcast, and what’s next for the stereotype-breaking tour-de-force. Tune in this Friday July 18th at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT to catch this episode live, you don’t want to miss it! Listen on your phone, computer, or tablet, find all the ways at SexOutLoudRadio.com. My interview with James Deen was pre-recorded, but you can call in with questions and comments for Kelly Shibari at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air.

Since the age of 18, James Deen’s boy-next-door good looks helped him carve out a niche within the adult industry. Over 4,000 scenes later and Deen is now considered the top male porn star in the world. Deen is the youngest ever to earn Male Performer of the Year honors at the AVN, XBIZ, and XRCO awards shows. He is highly lauded within the adult industry with numerous award wins steadily throughout his career. Deen’s accomplishments extend far beyond the adult industry, with mainstream reporters chronicling his popularity as he continues to break down societal barriers. Popular female-oriented website Jezebel.com often reports on Deen’s large female fan-base, calling him the “permanent crush of all straight ladydom.” In 2012, Hollywood screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis and director Paul Schrader cast Deen opposite Lindsay Lohan in the feature film “The Canyons” which premiered internationally at the Venice Film Festival with Deen in attendance.

From her background in design and construction in mainstream film and television production, to performing in front of the camera as the sexually charged figurehead for chubby Asian girls everywhere, Kelly Shibari is a stereotype-breaking tour-de-force. Holding the distinct honor of being the only plus-sized performer ever molded for a Fleshlight, Kelly is also the face of harness company SpareParts Hardwear®’s plus size line, and made sexy pop culture media site Fleshbot’s Top Ten Crush Object List for 2013. Her self-produced, self-marketed DVD, Kelly Shibari is Overloaded, was nominated for both XBIZ and AVN, not just for the DVD itself but also for its marketing campaign. Kelly was named 2013 BBW Performer of the Year at EXXXOTICA’s fan-based awards, “The Fannys,” and also named Best BBW Performer at the 2013 NightMoves Awards. Most recently, Kelly made history as the first-ever plus size model ever to grace the cover of Penthouse Magazine’s Penthouse Forum.

Sex Out Loud airs every Friday at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on the VoiceAmerica Variety channel. You can listen on your computer, phone, or tablet, find all the ways here!

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Jul 092014
 

candida royalle

candida royalleThis Friday, July 11th at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT on Sex Out Loud, I welcome back author, visionary, and entrepreneur Candida Royalle. Candida will discuss her newest project with award-winning Canadian filmmaker Sheona McDonald, “While You Were Gone: the Untold Story of Candida Royalle“, as well as the unprecedented longevity of the sales of her Femme film line; the three new products from her sex toy line, Natural Contours, coming out in a few months; and how she’s helping release and distribute the work of other women, beginning with filmmaker Petra Joy. Jane Hamilton (aka Veronica Hart) will also join the conversation with Royalle to discuss how they both recently received a Doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality for their life’s work. After a long and distinguished career in adult movies, working on both sides of the camera, Jane Hamilton now uses her expertise to educate women in the U.S. and China on issues of pleasure, aging and self-esteem.

This week’s show is LIVE. Find out all the ways to listen here so you can call in with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air.

In 1984, Candida Royalle came up with the idea to produce adult erotica from a woman’s perspective. The mainstream porn industry scoffed at the idea, claiming “It can’t be done.” This only fuelled her determination.

She knew they were wrong.

Three decades later, her line of 18 features continues to bring in sales revenues and Candida Royalle is hailed as a pioneer in women’s erotica.

As Royalle’s work grew in popularity, she became a media darling, appearing on talk shows from Phil Donahue to Anderson Cooper to Tyra Banks; and written up across the globe – the Times of London, the New York Times, Time Magazine, Glamour, Marie Claire – too many to list.

The international sexology community embraced her work for its egalitarian depiction of “positive sexual role modeling” and she was the first adult film producer to be invited in to membership by the American Association of Sex Educators, Counsellors and Therapists (AASECT). She’s become a sought-after speaker, lecturing at the Smithsonian Institute, the American Psychiatric Association’s national conference, the World Congress on Sexology, and many more sexuality conferences and universities including Princeton, Columbia, Wellesley College and New York University.
In June, 2014, Royalle received an honorary Doctorate in Human Sexuality for her life’s work from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

Building on the success of her films, and her work on female sexual empowerment and pleasure, Royalle partnered with Dutch industrial designer Jandirk Groet, and together they created the Natural Contours® line of high-style, discreet ergonomically designed personal massagers. The line debuted in 1999 and turned the world of sex toys on its head, showcasing vibrators as a “mainstream must-have” and raising the bar for all who followed.

In October 2004, Royalle authored her first book, How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do, (Simon & Schuster/Fireside). In 2006 she launched Femme Chocolat®, created to provide high quality intelligent erotica for the largely underserved non-caucasian market.

As pornography for women and couples grows in popularity, Candida continues to raise the bar. She is currently distributing the work of other feminist pornographers including European director, Petra Joy.

Royalle’s life has never been conventional. The daughter of an accomplished professional jazz drummer, she trained and performed in music, dance and art, attending New York’s High School of Art and Design, Parsons School of Design, and the City University of New York, where she was active in the women’s movement of the late ’60′s and early ’70′s. After a move West to San Francisco, she got involved with some of the original members of the infamous Cockettes, including the late Divine, to create avant garde jazz and theater productions.

In 1974, looking to finance her unconventional lifestyle, she entered the world of erotica as an adult performer and acted in more than twenty feature films. For some, this choice may have been seen as a dead end. But for Candida Royalle, this bold decision would shape the rest of her life.

At every fork in the road, Candida has chosen the path less traveled and, in so doing, has challenged herself, raised the bar and found a new way forward”.

They say “it can’t be done” and she says “just watch me!”.

Jun 152014
 

Dusk-header-900-350-vers02

Dusk! – the first and only adult TV product where content must meet the approval of a panel of women – set to launch this June in the U.S.

After delivering highly successful content throughout Europe, Holland-based Dusk!  will provide select programming to cable TV systems in the U.S. and U.S. territories beginning this month. Dusk! is set to deliver ‘Porna’ to its customers via Video On Demand, reaching nearly 30 million subscribers by mid- summer.

Dusk!’s unique approach to explicit adult content appeals to a growing market of female adult TV viewers. Dusk! has created an online panel (www.duskpanel.com)  of identity verified women, made up of wives, mothers, career women and professionals, who view an array of films and scenes provided by the panel. Programming is then based on the honest and candid opinions of these women. Dusk! has provided definition to this specific kind of female-friendly adult programming by introducing the term, ‘Porna’, meaning porn for women. Porna instantly separates this programming from conventional male focused adult content.

Says Martijn Broersma, co-founder of Dusk!, “We are thrilled to take our first steps into the U.S.  Since the start of Dusk! in 2009, we’ve received a lot of requests from U.S. women who would like to experience Porna on television. From now on, they can find our top rated films on broadcast cable VOD which surely is wonderful. For women – chosen by women”. Candida Royalle, American adult star and director, recognized worldwide as having pioneered ‘porn for women’, has been a fierce supporter of Dusk! since its beginnings. “I knew it was only a matter of time before Dusk! made its way to the U.S.,” says Royalle. “They work hard to find the movies and scenes women want to watch. And they don’t settle!”

Jun 012014
 
Club 90 Then and Now

Club 90 Then and Now

 

On June 26, four former adult movie stars who have become innovators in diverse fields of human sexuality will each be awarded the degree Doctor of Human Sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality (IASHS) in San Francisco. Jane Hamilton (aka Veronica Hart), Candida Royalle and Veronica Vera will receive their degrees from Dr. Ted McIlvenna at the Institute. Gloria Leonard, who died in January, 2014 will receive her degree posthumously.

After a long and distinguished career in adult movies, working on both sides of the camera, Jane Hamilton now uses her expertise to educate women in the U.S. and China on issues of pleasure, aging and self-esteem. Candida Royalle created Femme Productions in 1984 and became known for pioneering erotic cinema from a woman’s perspective, encouraging other women to follow her lead. Veronica Vera founded the world’s first crossdressing academy Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, enriching the lives of trans people across the gender spectrum. Gloria Leonard debated some of the toughest anti-porn activists and toured college campuses as a self-described “stand up constitutionalist” enlightening students on the First Amendment. She was the first president of the Free Speech Coalition. In addition, all four women, plus Annie Sprinkle comprise Club 90, the first porn star support group, which began in 1983 and continues to this day. They credit the resulting deep and lasting friendship of their Club 90 sisters with helping to manifest their individual dreams and successes.

Annie Sprinkle was the first porn star to be awarded a Ph.D. which she earned from IASHS in 2002.  Dr. Sprinkle will host the investiture and awards ceremony. The soon-to-be graduates will each present her life’s work at the Institute’s special “Days of The Divas” (June 24-26) as part of the curriculum. Most events are invited guests only, however, the afternoon of Thursday, June 26th will feature a “Days of the Divas Display—An Open House Meet & Greet & Show & Tell,” that will display Club 90 archival materials and ephemera to which the public is cordially invited.

Founded in 1976 by Rev. Dr. Ted McIlvenna, the IASHS was the first to award advanced degrees in the newly emergent field of sexology that grew out of the sexual revolution. Wardell Pomeroy a colleague of Alfred Kinsey was appointed the school’s first dean. (Chris O’Donnell portrayed him in the movie “Kinsey.”) Says, Dr. McIlvenna, “These Divas personify, what has always been, a primary goal of the Institute which is to spread the truth of human sexual experience in all its complexities. To acknowledge the Divas’ visionary work renews our shared commitment to that goal and helps assure our continued success.”