Erika Lust Enters the Blogosphere, and Kicks Me(n) in the Nuts
Erika Lust, director of the award-winning erotic short “The Good Girl” is blogging at http://erikalust.blogspot.com/. There are also links to an online version of the movie, but I can’t seem to get it to work right now. But I’ve seen the trailer and it’s pretty cute.
Comstock Films owes Erika a debt of gratitude. She’s the one who sent Esquire in our direction last Spring, and that little PR boost finally tipped this operation over from red to black, so it’s not without some mixed feelings that I say this:
Erika, enough with the man bashing.
With no more than 10 posts so far, at least two of them lay the blame for crappy porn on the fact that it’s mostly made by men.
Sorry Erika, women have been directing porn for some twenty plus years now, and with a very few exceptions, it hasn’t made much of a difference.
Porn is dissapointing for three reasons:
1) Porn cannot raise the capital needed to finance even the most basic of productions.
2) Since “the industry” can’t offer either money or the opportunity for professional advancement, porn cannot attract talented professionals to the creative process.
3) Mainstream distribution channels remain uninterested in poorly made sexually explicit movies (and unless/until someone makes them again, we may never know if they’d be interested in well-made sexually explicit movies). Without the access to the much higher revenues found in mainstream distribution, porn will remain an ultra low-budget ghetto, characterized by shabby, thoughtless productions. (See #1 and #2.)
These are the cold hard facts. What you’ve got between your legs doesn’t change them. Bitchen hair cuts and a badass tattoos don’t change them either. And the gender politics “only women really know what women want” is distracting window dressing at best; devisive, short-sighted marketing at worst.
If Erika succeeds, it’s not going to be because she has to sit down to pee. It’s going to be because she finds an inventive, sexy and financially viable way out of the strangle-hold that porn has (for the most part) put on itself. Judging by The Good Girl, she’s off to a good start!
UPDATE
I got the download to work, and I saw two things I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a sexually explicit film. 1) Scripted awkward/playful moments that worked. 2) Authentic seeming laughter between lovers while they fucked.
I also like the way the sexual explicitness is casually frank. We see cunt and cock because that’s what you’d see if you watched people fuck. The camera doesn’t linger, but it doesn’t go all coy either. Our desire to him in her is joyously indulged (I love being indulged!)
Even the porno cliche reverse cowgirl position looks like “just happened”, and when the de rigor facial pop goes meta (”I want you to come on my face like they do in the porn movies!”) and I’ll be damned, it works – probably because the Good Girl is smiling so happily and lustily while the pizza boy (yes, the pizza boy) unloads on her face, and then he lays a tender smooch on her jism spattered lips!
Bravo Erika!
April 3rd, 2006 at 10:58 am
Tony,
First of all, thanks for your wonderful words about my short film “The Good Girl”!!! And then let me clarify my statements…
Tony, I really don’t mean to lay the blame for crappy porn on men, but the fact is that even if women have been directing porn for some twenty plus years now, there have been very few of them in the industry (at the most 10??? I don’t count the porn actresses just lending their names as directors), and therefore the crappy porn has been made mostly by men.
However, in the posts you are referring to, I wasn’t bashing all men but I wanted to criticize those disgusting directors and producers in the industry that really haven’t understood women at all. My experience of the mainstream porn industry is that if we take a look at most men in this industry, they are not modern, metrosexual, intellectual or liberal at all. It is peculiar to see that although they work in the porn industry, the great majority is really conservative and narrow-minded, and many of them seem to have a nonexistent sentimental and sexual life.
However I completely agree with you that most female directors haven’t made any difference at all… And the products the industry offers for women are basically corny erotica that we (women) are supposed to like. But I know that my girlfriends find those products terribly corny, tacky, and outdated.
I assure you Tony that for me it doesn’t matter if a film is made by a woman or a man, what matters is the person that made it, the individual behind. For me it’s their values, visions and ideas that matters!
If I succeed, it’s not going to be because I have to sit down to pee. It’s not even going to be because I produced and directed a good quality porn short film. I know well the cold hard facts you write about. “The Good Girl” got fabulous critics, it was relatively cheap to make, and I made a very interesting project idea for a whole DVD, but “the industry” hasn’t shown any interested in my material.
I though that the mainstream porn industry was ready to embrace and launch a new kind of adult audiovisual product, aimed to young, urban, cool people, mostly the new female audiences. I travelled the world from Barcelona, to London, Amsterdam and Los Angeles and met with almost all the industry’s moguls. And the worst topics of the porn business became true. These people (mostly men, sorry to say it again, but this is the reality) are old fashioned pimps, trapped in their small vision of a business that has been producing a lot of money without any kind of creativity or innovation since the early 90’s. The only thing they’ve done is evolve form VHS to DVD and from DVD to internet and mobile devices. But the smut remains always the same!
My conclusion is that I got tired of this people and decided to share my work with my friends and fans, and other modern minded people… for free.
Erika Lust
http://www.erikalust.com
April 4th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Erika! Welcome to the blogosphere and congrats on a smart, fun, sexy little film.
Let me be clear to you and anyone else reading. Every artist makes work that reflects their experience, and the experience of gender is one of the more profound experiences in forming our point of view, and I absolutely think The Good Girl shows a woman’s touch – and that’s a touch I thoroughly enjoyed!
What I am tired of hearing is that porn is bad because it’s made by men, or it’s not appealing to women because it’s made by men. Anyone, male or female, talented or untalented who has to work within strictures imposed by the meager economics of the porn business is virtually pre-ordained to make same sorts of videos the industry already makes, the same sorts of video that most people, both men and women, find off putting or just plain boring. And as you’ve discovered on your long travels, the industry simply doesn’t know what to do with a different view of sex and the moving image. Our experiences with our first film were no different from yours.
But ultimately were were able to create viable economic model for our films, one where everyone on our set gets paid union scale, one where we can shoot film instead of video, one where we can keep our bills paid, by working outside of “the industry”. Rather than going to “moguls” for financing or porn merchants for distribution we do it all ourselves, our own capital and our own distribution. This is a much riskier and harder way to do it, but if you’re going to do something as radical as making an non-intellengence insulting sexually explicit film, it’s might be the only way to do it. (In return for doing it ourselves we do get a much higher ROI, which is why we can do things like shoot film and pay our crew union scale.)
Also on a personal note, even though I understand how much the press eats it up, and don’t blame anyone for using what they’ve got to get their column inches, I still can’t help but get a little prickly when the “women know best what women want” thing gets dragged out. George Cukor might have been gay, but he was still a man, and legendarily very good at making films that women (and men) enjoyed.
The whole by women/for women thing is already well on its way to being another one of porn’s broken promisses; another tired cliche from another decade. Isn’t it time to leave it behind and start making sexy smart films for sexy smart people? After all, you’re already doing just that!
April 5th, 2006 at 11:16 am
“Porn made by women” and “Porn for women”
After debating with Tony Comstock and Ms Naughty about “porn made by women” and “porn for women”, I want to clarify my opinions:
“Porn made by women”
I don’t care if porn is made by men or women, I believe in our individual differences and I don’t beleive that our actions are defined by gender. It’s a fact that most porn has been made by men exploring their fantasies, perspectives and ideas. And I think that we need to see more female filmmakers exploring their ideas of sexuality and pornography. But of course porn made by a guy can work for women and a girl’s porn can work for men.
I do care, however, about the quality of the product and the values transmitted. If porn offends women… or men for that matter, if it reproduces ridiculous stereotypes and stupid assumptions about gender and sexuality I get upset. And the way I see it, most porn do.
“Porn for women”
We are all individuals with personal tastes. Every woman wants porn that satisfies her particular taste. Some want what I call “corn-porn”, and some want hardcore, others fetish or gay porn, and some may not want to watch porn at all. This is all fine by me! But what I wanted to say in my post I am sooo sick of corny erotica for women! was: I haven’t been able to find almost any porn on the market today that I personally enjoy. I want something with a more modern touch, a kind of “Sex and the City” explicit porn. And from my discussion with other women of my generation, I know many feel the same way. My problem with corny erotica, or corn-porn isn’t its existence, but that it’s the only thing labelled “for women” on the market.
So is my porn only for women? Of course not! But I decided to call my porn “porn for women” so girls who never really liked the products the porn industry offered would easily see that this is a product at first hand aimed at them, created for them specifically.
So do I discriminate men? I don’t think so. The porn we’ve seen for years have been targeting a male audience at first hand. The male has been the norm even if the industry told us their porn is for everybody, and the same goes for Society in general. But even if porn at first hand has been targeting a male audience, some women do like it, and some men don’t. The same goes for my short film “The Good Girl”, it’s made for women, however some love it, some don’t, and some men find it fabulous, while to others its just crap.
So, Mr. Comstock and Ms. Naughty, even if we disagree on some standpoints, it seems like we all want the same: More sexy smart films for sexy smart people. More original creative female and male viewpoints of sex, erotism and pornography, be it film, photography, writing or art. Porn that we find innovative, fun, original, challenging and that shows great fucking sex!
Love,
Erika Lust
http://www.erikalust.com
December 19th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I am just a normal viewer and not associated with the industry in any way. I fully agree with you that after watching hundreds of common movies which all appear cloned and dumb, “The Good Girl” was a refreshing change. Both of us loved the movie and so also did all her friends.
What’s lacking in today’s movies are two things - one is realism and second is a storyline. You met both these benchmarks in a fantastic way. Carry on the good work - its a struggle to break the mould but then that’s how revolutions are made. Good luck.
Dave