Join me this Friday on Sex Out Loud as I talk to Stephen Elliott and Lorelei Lee, co-writers of the new film About Cherry, which Stephen Elliott also directed. About Cherry explores the journey of an 18 year old into the world of BDSM pornography in San Francisco. Stephen will talk about his first time directing and what it was like to work with an all star cast that includes Heather Graham, James Franco, Lili Taylor, and Dev Patel. Lorelei will reveal how her work as a porn performer and Stephen’s experiences as a former sex worker informed the script. Both writers will answer critics of the film and discuss about the politics of pornography. Plus, hear about shooting the film at the Kink.com studios, why they love San Francisco, and the role the city plays in the movie.
Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books including the memoir The Adderall Diaries and the novel Happy Baby. He founded the online literary magazine The Rumpus. Cherry is his directorial debut.
Lorelei Lee has worked as a performer and director in the adult film industry since 1999. She has an MFA in Fiction from New York University and has taught writing at NYU, at the San Francisco Center for Sex and Culture, and in private workshops. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Transfer, $pread Magazine, Salon, The Rumpus, and Denver Quarterly, as well as in the anthologies Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys, Feminist Porn Studies, and Off the Set. Along with Stephen Elliot, she is the cowriter of the independent film About Cherry, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and will be in theaters in September, 2012. She has toured nationally with the Sex Workers’ Art Show, is an alumni of the RADAR Lab, and is a Literary Death Match Champion. She writes with playwright and performer Erin Markey for the blog I Deserve This, readable at guesswhatideservethis.wordpress.com. She is currently working on her first novel.