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Last year my friend Jamye Waxman disappeared to Jamaica (of her own accord) in order to film a new instructional adult movie. She then amused us on Twitter with her ongoing search to delineate all 101 sex positions featured in this film.

I was amazed that she managed to even find 50 positions, let alone 101. There’s only so many places your arms and legs and cock and cunt can really go.

Thus I’m really curious to see the final result. It looks like a lot of fun and all filmed with lush tropical backgrounds. It also features Jamye being her usual irrepressible self.

It’s available on DVD here or you can download it here.

And don’t forget to check out Jamye’s blog!

It took five weeks but here, finally, is my little doco about the 2009 Berlin Porn Film Festival. It’s a little over 4 minutes and you’ll hear some great comments about feminist porn by some of the fab female directors I met including Shine Louise Houston, Anna Brownfield, Candida Royalle, Anna Span, Petra Joy, Jennifer Lyon Bell and Renee Pornero. Plus a quick cameo from Joe Gallant and footage from the Petra Joy Awards presentation.

A much longer version went live at For The Girls yesterday and I’ll also be uploading more footage there soon. Candida Royalle’s lecture about her films is particularly interesting – that’s waiting for a future update. I also wrote an expansive article about my experiences in Berlin for FTG.

The short blog version is that I had a ball, won an award, met lots of wonderful people and wished it could have gone for another 3 days. I didn’t get to enjoy nearly enough films because I was so busy with the Petra Joy Award but the ones I did see were amazing.

It was the people I met that really made it worthwhile. I interviewed Shine Louise Houston from the Crash Pad Series and was so impressed with her drive and knowledge. She’s a woman with a plan and she’s going to become even more of a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Well-known director Joe Gallant could well be the nicest man in the world. We talked the future of porn and hopefully we can work together at sometime next year. He said he thought I’d like Bong Water Butt Babes but I wasn’t so sure. He made me aware of how disconnected I am from the mainstream porn industry… something for which I’m kind of grateful.

Anna Brownfield is a card. We were so pleased to meet each other and had the comraderie of two Aussies lost in Europe, trying not to slip into slang when giving interviews. Her film The Band was such a standout and it shows you can easily marry explicit sex, comedy and great storytelling.

I also got to meet Lisa Vandever from Cinekink who is so much fun and easy to talk to, as is Vena Virago, a wild, pink haired artist who just happens to make porn for Vivid Alt. And I found myself getting stupidly protective towards the gorgeous Julie Simone, who is very quiet and shy, despite being a fearsome BDSM Mistress who can rock a rubber dress.

And then there’s Jennifer Lyon Bell of Blue Artichoke Films who I met last year. Jen is kind of like the social glue of the event, introducing people and arranging dinners and you couldn’t encounter a warmer, more positive person.

I even got to say hello to Candida Royalle, albeit briefly. Indeed, I cringe a little when I think about it. I was feeling a little starstruck and eagerly handed her my card which read Louise Lush. “That’s my new pretendy name,” I said.

Pretendy name??? Sheesh! I like to flatter myself that I have a decent vocabulary but do you think I could remember the word pseudonym for love or money at that moment? My husband has been teasing me about my pretendy name ever since.

OK, enough name dropping. Suffice to say I made lots of contacts and, as you see in the film, we all feel like we’ve found a family in Berlin.

I’ve since discovered quite a few of the short films on Youtube or other free sites around the web. I’m hoping to feature these on the blog in the future.

And as expensive as it is to travel all that way I think I’ll have to go back in 2010. The festival is too much fun and far too useful to miss out on.

Someone has helpfully posted the segment on the Oprah show featuring Violet Blue so I’ve finally been able to watch what was said.

Violet has posted her feelings about the show on her blog and they’re overwhelmingly positive. I like this bit:

Look closely at this show and you’ll notice that Oprah has reframed the entire conversation: we women are not ‘tolerated’ or marginalized for exploring our inhibitions, voicing our desires, or owning our sexual agency — we are embraced. The 1 in 3 consumers of adult material online — women — were finally acknowledged, and with respect for a change…

Myths and stereotypes: smashed! We live in a world where women are more sexually powerful and articulate than any other time in history because of the internet and emergent communicative technologies. Oprah’s hip to it. You’re soaking in it. And that’s really, outrageously exciting for all of us.

She’s right, of course. It’s wonderful that women’s erotica got such a good airing on a mainstream TV show without the usual negativity.

I do, however, have a gripe. I feel that the show only seemed to skim the surface of the topic and it did so in a way that seemed to focus much more on the mainstream porn industry rather than the burgeoning indie/women’s porn movement that I feel is doing a better job at catering to women. I think having the interview with Jenna Jameson as the main focus meant things were skewed that way.

That moment when Oprah first asked about Violet’s recommended movies had me holding my breath, waiting to hear Tony Comstock’s name, or Nica Noelle’s, or Shine Louise Houston’s or even Candida Royalle’s. Alas, it turned into a plug for Jenna’s relatively mainstream film The Masseuse, fab though that may be.

And it’s wonderful for Playgirl and director Skye Blue to get a mention but for me that company is a prime example of mainstream porn aiming at a female market but not necessarily getting it right. The Playgirl movies I’ve seen look great and can inspire a mood but they still feature the same old porn stars having the same old porny sex. They’re nice enough but they could be so much more.

Of course, maybe I’m just jealous. Actually, I AM jealous, dammit. Once again, online porn receives much less media attention than “real” porn offered via movies (although now that DVD sales have tanked, this may change).

The main thing is, it’s a start and it was good that Oprah even dared to tackle the topic (especially given some of the negative and vitriolic reactions from viewers in the forum).

Now that Oprah has announced a new cable lifestyle channel we can look forward to a sexuality-themed TV series, one that has more time to devote to women’s erotica.

I can dream, can’t I?

In the last week Adam and Eve and Candida Royalle have released Petra Joy’s Feeling It to the US market. The film has a new cover, one that’s quite radically different to the old one. As you can see it features a big pic of the female stars all laughing together with champagne. They’re not nude. There are three other pics along the bottom but none are explicit. It’s an interesting idea; the cover art seems to suggest this is a fun, “girl’s night out” kind of film, rather than a porn movie. I’m wondering if it will make a difference to sales.

I think I prefer the original cover which features the gorgeous Belle blissfully caressed by a hunky black guy, their skin contrasting in an alluring way. Perhaps the mainstream people didn’t like the “interracial” overtones… because you can’t just have a black guy and white girl together. You have to label them.

Anyway, this looks like Petra’s big break into the US market which is great; she’s been stymied by difficult distributors in the past. And having Candida’s name on anything will ensure it gets out there and sells.

Meanwhile, I’ve been slaving away updating Porn Movies for Women. I’ve added new directors/companies Anna Brownfield, Courtney Trouble and Joybear plus updated the Playgirl and Sweet Sinner pages with their new titles. And I added a bunch of new names to the Female Directors of Porn page, including myself (hell, why own a huge encyclopedic website if you can’t be a bit biased towards yourself?). It’s becoming apparent that the “hall of fame” of feminist porn directors is getting decidedly large. And that’s fabulous.

And I really need to write up some new reviews but I think I’m knackered.

Edit: I did a quick review of Nica Noelle’s The Stepmother.

Petra has uploaded these videos shot on the 24th October at the Joy Awards.

And here’s snippets from the winning films including mine:

Part of me is mortified at how I look on that video. There’s a reason I’ve been anonymous all these years and it’s not just privacy or safety. I’m also kicking myself because I had a fabulous necklace and earrings ready to wear on the night and forgot to put them on. I was so distracted by trying to strap on my mile-high lesbian wedding heels (and then I spent half the night trying not to fall off them). So I look kind of bare. At least the professional makeup job looked nice.

Anyway, I’m out of the porn closet now for better or worse.

I should say that the other winners I met on the night – Lindsay, Cora and Lola – were all lovely and very talented. We had a great time drinking champagne in the limo – even if we did get stuck in traffic and had to do a 16 point turn to make it back to the cinema in time.

I will say thank you again to Petra for organising the whole thing and also thank you to Pjur for putting up the prizemoney. It helped to pay for my trip to Berlin and accommodation which was great.

Anna Brownfield’s amazing indie erotic film The Band has only just been released in the US and is available on Amazon.*

The Band opened the Berlin Porn Film Festival and played to 3 sold-out cinemas on the first night. The response from the audience and other filmmakers was overwhelmingly positive. I certainly enjoyed it. This film successfully combines a fully developed narrative arc with plenty of hardcore sex. The explicit scenes are just the right length and they’re often combined with humour. Indeed, this film gave me the giggles; not the standard thing you’d expect from a porn movie.

I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Anna torwards the end of the festival – she was so busy being interviewed it was hard to pin her down beforehand. It was great to talk porn with a fellow Australian (not to mention revert back into non-enunciated Aussie slang). She’s a no-nonsense, smart and talented woman who really knows her stuff and I’m so glad to now count her as my friend.

Here’s the blurb for the film:

When lead singer Jimmy Taranto dumps his girlfriend Candy then his rock band Gutter Filth, Candy decides to take his place in the band. Together with anal bass player GB, cross-dressing drummer Dee and Jennifer their loyal manager, they begin a journey to stardom. While their success eclipses Jimmy’s, Candy still can’t find the true love she is looking for. But sometimes the things you want are right in front of you. Includes special Making of The Band featurette plus director’s commentary.

The Band is grungy, funny and very sexy and you should buy it!

Here’s the trailer:

* Can I just say how pleased I am that Amazon quietly made the decision to sell erotic films? It used to be that they’d can you as an affiliate if you were also promoting porn.

Well folks, this is my last proper blog post for about four weeks. I’m off on my big trip to the Berlin Porn Film Festival where my short film That’s What I Like is having its premiere on Sunday the 25th Oct at 8pm.

I’m very excited about attending the festival and meeting so many wonderful female porn directors. Candida Royalle, Petra Joy, Shine Louise Houston, Jennifer Lyon Bell, Maria Beatty, Anna Span, Emile Jouvet and many others will be attending. I’m taking my camera and hope to interview them all plus capture some of the fun and craziness that is part of the festival. I’ll post a short video when I get back but I’ll also be adding a longer, more comprehensive version to For The Girls.

In the meantime That’s What I Like and Paddling The Pink Canoe will also be showing at the Sexy International Film Festival in Melbourne. I had a clash of dates and chose the ridiculously expensive overseas trip. Ah well. I wish I could be there. If you’re down south I do recommend you attend as the festival looks fab.

For more on my films visit Indigo Lush.

So I probably won’t get a chance to get properly online and post anything until I come back. I’ve scheduled some simple dirty picture posts to appear in the meantime so the place doesn’t look too sad. I’m hoping to Twitter a bit so check the sidebar for any updates.

I’ve just received a PR email from British adult film director Anna Span. She’s won an important legal victory over the British Board of Film Classification (UK censors) over whether female ejaculation exists.

Her film Women Love Porn, which contains shorts from five separate female directors, has been held up for several years thanks to the original ruling of the BBFC with regards to the ejaculation scene. The censors maintained that female ejaculation is not possible and that the scene actually contained urination. They demanded that cuts be made to the film in order to pass.

Anna Span decided to fight the ruling. She presented the BBFC with substantial scientific evidence that female ejaculation is a natural and normal phenomenon, helped by expert Deborah Sundahl.

Anna says; “I am really proud to have changed this outdated ruling and to have made a difference to women who experience this in their own lives throughout the UK. It was never fair that the BBFC dismissed their amazing orgasms as urinary incontinence”

The BBFC is still being a stick in the mud, saying that their “position remains fundamentally unchanged for future releases” but it’s fairly certain that any future bans will be contested based on this precedent.

Interestingly, the BBFC is currently hamstrung thanks to the fact that Britain joined the European Union but they carry on regardless.

I’ll say it again: I’m OK with labelling videos (classifying – on a voluntary basis) so that adults can make informed choices but banning films is just draconian and stupid and it should never happen in a civilised society to values freedom of speech.

Check out Anna Span’s videos at Porn Movies For Women

Update 9th October
This story has now had some decent coverage in the media and large blogs.
Kristina Lloyd from Erotica Cover Watch has this opinion piece in the Guardian.
That article prompted this post at Jezebel.
Violet Blue’s latest column at SFGate is about the issue and she also wrote a blog post about it here.
Eye for Film featured this article on the issue.

In the last week or so I’ve been musing about the length of sex scenes in videos, specifically, what’s too short and what’s too long.

I was recently editing a non-exclusive male masturbation vid and, in a frenzy of cuts, got a painfully long 18 minute video down to under 5 minutes. In that space of time I captured the guy fondling himself through his pants, taking them off, becoming erect and then stroking himself to orgasm. I watched it with fresh eyes the next day and was very pleased with the result.

This got me thinking that I should go back and re-edit some of the other videos at For The Girls. A lot of them go for at least 10 minutes, some up to 20. When I originally edited them I often left scenes longer than I would like because I figured our members would prefer a nice big batch of ongoing sex with plenty of time for masturbation. That is, after all, the main point of a porn video, yes?

And I suspect this theory of “wank time” is a driving factor behind the length of most sex scenes in porn films. The actors go at it, the camera captures it and the editor gives everybody a whole lot of masturbatory room before anything new or different happens. Plenty of people watch porn with one hand on the remote (or >> button on Windows Media Player) so they can find the bits they want and fast forward what they don’t. Why deprive someone of the possibility of finding a bit they like?

Unfortunately there’s a major downside to the theory of “wank time”: far too many porn scenes are downright boring.

When you think about it, sex is a very repetitive business and there’s only so many ways you can do it. Slot A goes into Slot B, move back and forth, rinse, repeat (or something like that). So capturing every second of it is not necessarily going to reveal anything new or exciting. There might be 3 or 4 minutes of piston-like pumping in any given scene but you might only see one interesting facial expression or line of dialogue in that time. So why persist in giving viewers the whole thing?

Beyond “wank time”, scene length in mainstream porn films may be dictated by the desire to make feature-length DVDs. When you’ve got 90 minutes or more to fill, more footage is better than less, no matter what the quality. It could be argued that the increasing move to web-based product would change this idea but it continues apace. There’s a worry that giving people less product – even if it’s of better quality – isn’t good value for money.

Perhaps another reason for the under-editing is the idea that the footage is there so the director might as well use it. You’ve just spent a bunch of money hiring porn actors and crew to get the scene in the can so you may as well wring it for all it’s worth.

I know. That’s how I originally felt after directing my first erotic short film in February this year. I had a whole bunch of wonderful footage and it was really – I mean really – hard to pick out the bits that would best suit the film because I liked so much of it. And I’ve actually gone through a learning curve with the editing process on that film. My initial cut was nearly 20 minutes. There’s a long version of 15 minutes at For The Girls and the version showing in Berlin is 10 minutes. My R-rated version is 7 minutes. And then I re-cut it again to enter it in the Joy Awards and that version is under 5 minutes.

And having gone through that process, I think the shorter versions are better.

There is of course the balancing act that occurs between authentically capturing the moment and boring your audience. You do want to do your actors and their scene justice by documenting the essence of what went on but you have to also be a little bit ruthless on behalf of your viewers, whose time is precious.

So what’s wrong with editing things down to show four or five strokes (for example), cut to the interesting expression, cue another camera angle, back to the original camera angle… and then move on. Film school students will tell you that 3 seconds is ample time to give your audience an idea of what’s happening. Modern music videos often only give you half a second worth of shot. So why does porn persist in holding the audience captive for so long? Why must we see every different position for at least 3 or 4 minutes? Do people really masturbate along in time, like some kind of perverted Read-A-Long story?

My problem is, I’m not sure that my opinion is reliable on this topic. I’ve been working with porn for nearly ten years now. I’m afraid to say that I find a lot of porn dreadfully boring, perhaps because I’ve seen it all before. Maybe the opinion of a porn newbie or a seasoned fan will be very different.

And I’ve actually been given pause to wonder about scene length even further after watching Nica Noelle’s The Stepmother. The first scene in that film goes for 35 minutes and I think it went for too long. At the same time, I very happily watched it to the 15 minute mark without feeling bored because those first 15 minutes are very watchable indeed. That’s because the sex is so very real, intimate and passionate and I was enthralled to see something like that in a porn movie (still a rare thing!). There were very few edits on show; the footage seemed to flow in real time. Unfortunately, just when it felt like the sex should naturally come to a conclusion, the couple switched positions and kept at it. And at it. And at it. And so I got bored.

And in reality, I could have happily watched a few minutes less of each position, so long as my interest was maintained. As I said in my review: actually having sex for 35 minutes is fun. Watching it for that long, not so much.

That’s the big question: when do things get boring? And are the punters getting bored in the first place or are they just getting busy with their hands (or lovers)?

Meanwhile, Erika Lust has released a short film called Handcuffs that features lots of emotive, film noir build up but very little actual sex. Will it be good wank material? And should it be considered in that sense (because obviously Erika’s film offers more than your average gonzo scene designed purely to get you off)? For some, the erotic atmosphere and shock of the very brief hardcore scene will be enough to inspire fantasies and trigger orgasms. It may leave others cold. Certainly it’s a very left-fieldexample of how a sex scene can be cut together but I do think it shows that the “same ol’ same ol’” theory of porn editing is a bit tiresome.

I asked this question on Twitter a few days ago. I only got one personal reply. She said: “I tend to get what I need by the 15 minute mark.” Meanwhile filmmaker Tony Comstock said that “Boring your audience is a cardinal sin, regardless of subject matter.” And “surveillance camera footage is not a film.” Which is a good point.

But is there a consensus out there about the ideal length of a sex scene? Does it differ according to the type of “action” involved (e.g. can a hetero boy-girl scene go longer than a male masturbation one?) Does “wank time” matter? Let me know!

* Still above is from my film “That’s What I Like”

Almost 3 years ago I interviewed Anna Span and she mentioned that she was working on a porn film called “Women Love Porn” but it had been delayed. The British censorship body didn’t like a scene of female ejaculation because they don’t believe in it and ruled it to be pissing. (Yes, that’s right. They don’t believe in it. Sigh.)

In any case, this film has been hanging around in the wings for a long time. Now there’s a new line of films that carry the title.

The Women Love Porn Series was launched last month and it currently features 2 titles by different female directors. The first, Apocalypse Angels, is by Katie Coxxx, who won Anna’s competition for new filmmakers a while ago. The second is called Rock Hard.

Apocalypse Angels is titled as “Women Love Porn #2″ but I can’t find any mention of a number 1. This might be the legendary missing title, still hung up in beaurocracy while the prudes argue over whether women really can ejaculate.

Anna Span will be at the Venus expo in Berlin but I’m not sure if she’s going to the porn film festival afterwards. I’d like to meet her and find out just what has happened to the first film.

Meanwhile, I made a separate page at Porn Movies For Women for Women Love Porn.

This week sees the premiere of Dirty Diaries, a new feminist porn film helmed by filmmaker Mia Engberg. The movie features twelve shorts created by different women, each offering their own version of what’s sexy. The above pics are stills from three of the films: Skin, For The Liberation of Men and Flasher Girl On Tour.

“Erotica is good and we need it,” says the Dirty Diaries manifesto. “We truly believe that it is possible to create an alternative to the mainstream porn industry by making sexy films that we like.”

Mia talks about her film in this article from a Swedish news site.

Throughout the history of art, the image of woman has been created by men. The gaze has been a man’s gaze and female sexuality has been limited to a few identities that have suited the patriarchal system (and the male artistic ego): whore, wife, mother, muse.
…
We have been faced with many questions. Is there a female sexuality that can be differentiated from its male counterpart and, if so, what does it look like? Is it possible to be subject and object at the same time? How can we liberate our own sexual imagination from the commercial images we see every day and that seep into our subconscious minds?

Unfortunately, some people have objected to the film. They’ve taken exception to the use of public money to fund the project and also have a problem with it being approved because it’s feminist.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Art is subjective. For the state to decide that feminist porn is art but ‘regular’ porn is reprehensible is little more than paternalistic moralising and sends out all the wrong signals in the equality debate. Equality is an important issue, but it should never function as a cloak for state funding of ideologies that are somehow deemed correct in the eyes of the authorities.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have public funding and the subsequent abuse. In Australia we could go to jail just for MAKING feminist porn.

In any case, I welcome yet another addition to the growing pantheon of feminist porn and I can’t wait to see Dirty Diaries. Will try and review it soon.

This week’s movie review at For The Girls is of Tristan Taormino’s Rough Sex. When it first arrived in my mailbox I must admit to feeling very nervous about watching it. Rough Sex is not exactly my bag, baby.

In the end, though, I appreciated it for what it was: a step in the right direction. Tristan has worked her sex-positive magic on a very prickly topic and turned spitting and slapping into a feminist act. Context and consent are always, always the key. A lot of the sex was not my thing but at least there were female orgasms and empowered women enjoying themselves and running the show.

While I was watching the film I made notes, just what I was thinking. I vascillated between arousal, horror and fascination. I enjoyed the interviews and then found the sexy to be alternately super hot and less-than thrilling.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted my “review notes” posts on this blog so I thought it was time I went there again.

So here they are:

Impressive orgasms from Adrianna… but then it goes all ass-to-mouth followed by him coming in her hair. Nope, lost me there.

Pissing… taking a risk there. She needs to practice squatting – that’s no way to wizz in the bushes!

I don’t know what to think, part of me is rebelling at watching it, the other half is fascinated. Because you know that she likes it, it’s OK. But I found myself thinking of all the other porn scenes where girls are choked or end up doing stuff they didn’t sign up for.

OK, so at last the men end up on the receiving end. This has been one of my gripes with rough sex in porn, that it’s always the woman on the bottom.

Ewwwww, spitting. Shoe licking. Blerky polish. Foot licking… much better.

Shadows on the back wall – fix up your lighting guys!

Smothering with plastic boobs. That’s bound to be a health hazard what with all that synthetic material.

Horrible balloon tits are especially distracting from this angle. They don’t move at all. Actually, the left one stays rock still, the other one twirls in circles. It’s almost hypnotic.

Hmm. Doing it against a mirror raises all sorts of camera angle issues. Also, continuity errors. That’s one hell of a smeary sex mirror.

Eeek, don’t spit there. You’ll ruin the felt on that pool table!

Sasha’s hair is definitely a win, it’s just gorgeous and long.

What’s good about this guy is he doesn’t have the porn star reserve. He’s right into it. They both are. It’s nice to have that intensity present.

AND she took her shoes off. Must be for the sake of the pool table felt, even if there’s going to be vaginal juices and spit and sweat all over it.

Ooh wa, he slaps her boobs… so now she’s gonna punish him.

“Even when you have mad, hate sex you still need a vibrator.” – Tristan

Available From Inadult: DVD
Gamelink: DVD or Download

In Berlin last year I had the honour of meeting Jennifer Lyon Bell, an American filmmaker with a compelling vision for erotic film. Her film Matinee is a gorgeous work of art, well written, masterfully acted and beautifully filmed. It is a wonderful addition to the growing canon of well-made, female-focused erotic films and I consider it to be part of the new wave of sex-positive movies that are forging a new path in porn.

Naturally this means the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has banned it.

Matinee was due to screen as part of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival over the weekend but the OFLC told MUFF it would be illegal to show the film in public, effectively banning it. The film has not been officially classifed by the panel; they merely made a brief decision based on… well, I’m not sure what. They haven’t actually seen the film. They found out it had real sex in it and that was enough, I suspect.

MUFF and Jennifer have issued statements regarding the decision and they’re currently on the front page of the MUFF site.

The organisers rightly point out that the OFLC didn’t have a problem with Lars Van Trier’s Antichrist, which disturbingly depicts a scene of female genital mutilation and seems to be misogynist in intent. Jen’s film, which only shows two people having nuanced, meaningful, tender sex, is apparently more offensive than that.

MUFF says:

MUFF opposes the OFLC’s decision on the grounds that it represents a hypocritical and troubling suppression of transgressive female-centric sexuality on film. The modus operandi of Blue Artichoke Films, Bell’s production company, is to create films which portray realistic sexual intimacy, depict empowered female characters, possess artistic merit and strong narratives, and do not fall back upon the damaging and often dangerous stereotypes of female sexuality that the Western media is accustomed to. In other words, Bell is looking to produce films about sexuality which women can enjoy, free of masculine control.

MUFF are considering a “civil disobedience” screening as a way of protesting this ridiculous decision.

Jen writes:

Seriously?

It’s just two characters enjoying sex in a realistic way that fits with their characters’ personalities. Consensual sex, nothing weird. Why on earth would that be dangerous to watch?

What’s weird is that mainstream movies spend hours building up the characters in a story, then mangle the lovescene with brusque camera cutaways and awkward sheet-covering bedroom choreography as soon as the moment arrives. You never see James Bond have sex; after a few witty double entendres it’s fade-out then fade-up with a lit cigarette…and this is considered a perfectly acceptable depiction of sex on film.

Frankly, I’d like to know more about how James Bond does it. Is he a true sexual connoisseur, able to quickly divine each woman’s preferences and feel from her subtle reactions whether she wants her G-spot stroked or her hands deliciously pinned to the bed? Or is he an arrogant Casanova who uses some weird abrasive “patented technique” on every woman he sleeps with, smugly congratulating himself “They all love it when I do that”? I’d like the movie better as a whole because it’d tell me a lot about who he is. Plus, if he was good, it’d be really fun to watch, wouldn’t it?

The films that inspired me to mix explicit sex with story and character – Ken Park, 9 Songs, Shortbus – have all had rough roads. But I hoped that outside of America, my loving but prudish home country, everything would be easier. As it turns out, New York was no problem at all, and neither was Amsterdam (my current home). Strasbourg and Berlin festivals are happily screening it this fall. But Australia has a problem.

It’s depressing but not surprising that Matinee has been banned. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that our country’s ridiculous censorship laws are applied in an ad hoc manner and that they are out of touch with what most Australians think.

How is it that grown adults are prevented from seeing a film because it contains sex? And why aren’t we up in arms about this?

There are no reports in the major newspapers about this issue. I’m hoping to contact Margaret Pomeranz for a statement on where she stands with this. She was willing to be arrested for Ken Park in 2003… will she also speak out for Matinee?

Find out more about Matinee and Jennifer at the Blue Artichoke Films site.

Edit: Tony Comstock gives his view on the issue here.

Within 24 hours of one another I’ve received two emails saying my films have been accepted into two separate festivals: “That’s What I Like” will screen at the Berlin Porn Film Festival and also at the Sexy International Film Festival in Melbourne. The above short film “Paddling The Pink Canoe” has also been accepted at Melbourne.

The funny and frustrating thing is that both festivals are on at exactly the same time in October. While it would be easier and cheaper for me to go to the Australian one, I’d love to go to Berlin, especially because Petra Joy’s Joy Awards are also being announced and screened there.

In any case I’m thrilled to have been selected for these festivals and it makes me feel like a real filmmaker. It’s also great that there are these opportunities for positive adult and sex-oriented movies to be screened to festival audiences, showing that porn doesn’t have to be the same old cliched, offensive shit.

Meanwhile, I’m checking out airfares and weighing up my options.

I’ve just spent a couple of days adding over 30 new film listings to Porn Movies For Women.

I’ve created several pages for individual filmmakers and studios including Madison Young, Sweet Sinner and Libido Films.

I’m actually a little embarrassed that I hadn’t added Libido Films earlier. The movies made by Marianna Beck over the last decade truly are good quality porn for women starring real-looking people having real orgasms.

I want to point you towards a great interview done with Marianna and Jack Hafferkamp called Libido Films Laid Bare.

An excerpt:

Are your movies designed to help guys get feminist nookie?
MARIANNA: We think they’re designed to help guys realize what women’s sexual pleasure is really about. And here’s what it really is about . . . clitoral stimulation! So we almost always try to integrate a vibrator in scenes involving partner sex. Vibrators make some guys nervous. But as our friend Betty Dodson puts it, “a smart guy soon figures out that the vibrator is really his best friend.”

What’s the way to a feminist’s heart?
MARIANNA: Showing signs of intelligent life . . . and remembering that clitoral stimulation. If you mean by feminist a woman who is interested in sex and wants to see an erotic story with a storyline, dialogue, and real sex, that’s a good start.

Great philosophy.