(Originally posted on Camille Crimson’s blog)

I’m back from night two of the Feminist Porn Awards! What a night! I can surely say that this has been an amazing experience so far and I absolutely can’t wait for the awards themselves. The second night of the events was a wonderful screening and Q&A called Public Provocative Porn. It was certainly all of those things, in the best way possible! On a personal note, this took place in the theatre where I used to go to a monthly shadow-cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, cementing a lot of sexual firsts for me. It was a trip down memory lane in a big way.

There was a rousing introduction by the wonderful Godmother of feminist porn, Tristan Taormino, who exclaimed to the audience that “Feminist Porn leaves a stain on your sheets you can’t get out!” which I found to be very apt and charming as part of her call to arms. She made it clear that it “disrupts dominant sexual imagery” which is exactly what I feel The Art of Blowjob accomplishes and why I see it as so clearly part of feminist porn culture. Camille and Mike make sure to present blowjobs in a way that we’re just not used to seeing. So, thank you to Tristan for an intelligent and affirming kick-off to the discussion panel.

The discussion, lead by Toronto burlesque sweetheart Coco LaCreme was comprised of queer pornstar Drew Deveaux, porn director Carlos Batts, independent film/porn director Cheryl Dunye and sex educator/”porn” director Jaiya. They were all extremely eloquent and had a lot of great things to say.

Drew Deveaux was quick to bring up her belief that “The bedroom is the last frontier of social justice.”, indicating that even though we may be very progressive in a lot of ways as a society, sexuality and gender always seem to trail behind when it comes to this kind of change. By showing the kind of sex and dynamics we want in making our own porn, we’re unleashing a lot of possibility into a lot of sex lives to follow suit and make their own sexual revolution.

When asked about why he got into porn, Carlos Batts stated that “I never wanted to do anything other than represent what’s real. Once you become a gear in the (porn) machine, you can bring down the machine.”  Truer words have never been spoken. There was really an undercurrent of “Be the change you want to see in the world” through everything everyone was saying about the industry. It was like hearing everything that we believe for The Art of Blowjob coming out of everyone elses’ mouthes.

“Porn is the only independent cinema that exists.” said Cheryl Dunye, who is an independent film director turned porn director. She said that she wanted to go beyond the love scenes in movies where the action stops where the fun starts. “This is what really happens. Instead of having fantasy, let’s just see it!” I’ve always felt like The Art of Blowjob is like that in a way. It’s removing the unsatisfying tease (but still keeping the fun parts of the tease) and showing real sex, just in a more beautiful way.

Jaiya was really fun to hear from because she studied musical theatre before she started working in sex education and she’s only recently started embracing her identity as a pornographer. “What do we do if we’re erotically gifted?” she asked… I asked myself the same question. And we both ended up here.

The screening was really hot and beautiful all at once. The first piece they screened was a collection of educational films by Jaiya on oral sex. This is well-tread territory for me from the site, but it was great to see it so well explained and with so much background information from the participants. The people were attractive, but not at all fake seeming. It was just nice, normal and fun people having inventive and skilled sex. Just from the excerpts, I learned a thing or two, and I’m already well-versed.

The next scenes were by Carlos Batts, featuring Drew Deveaux and April Flores together in a scene, then two solo scenes of April Flores. I think Batts’ biggest attribute as a director is the way he is able to get the most genuine performances out of his subjects. Everything is very off-the-cuff, but it seems perfectly placed. It really show how good he is at making everyone feel at ease. He mentioned that he conveys this kind of feminist subjectivity by “Trying to collaborate and having he or she (the performer) feel explosive in the way they express themselves.” This really shone through, and everything felt very personal and intimate without being at all intrusive or “gonzo” feeling.

Then, there was the Courtney Trouble directed piece with Drew Deveaux and Mickey Mod, which was for sure the hottest film for me. I just love very queer sex but also really love boys, so this is the best of both worlds. It kind of reminded me of the kind of passion I have with my partner, Jed. The person I was sitting with actually had a spontaneous orgasm in her chair, so it was that level of very intense sexuality. Drew definitely leaves it all on the stage, or, table in this case. She so clearly adores what she’s doing. It’s impossible to not get swept up in the feeling.

The last film of the night was Cheryl Dunye’s full-length scripted film called “Mommy’s Coming”, which I will go see come hell or high water. It was hysterically funny, really creative, stunningly shot and boasting a cast of really amazing people. It’s basically a sexy switcheroo comedy about someone who ends up having sex with both a mother and a daughter. It ends with a very apt “Motherfucker!” Cheryl talked a bit about “Playing around with the boundaries of narrative and storytelling, letting the cast develop their own story with their bodies while (she) directed the story with the words.” She also mentioned that she uses the same shooting techniques as The Art of Blowjob. As a celebrated film director, it’s good to know that we’re making the right choices!

Before and after the event, we went out for drinks and I ended up talking with a ton of lovely people. I was definitely a bit more shy with them the first time around (more on the second time around tomorrow) and stuck to being a little more business-like and less my true wacky self, but it was really great to see and speak to such amazing people who have rocked my world and brought the industry to its knees…