9 to 5: Days in Porn

Title: 9 to 5: Days in Porn
Studio: Strand Releasing
Director: Jens Hoffman
Staring: Audrey Hollander, Sasha Grey, Belladonna, Jim Powers, Otto Bauer, Mia Rose, Mark Spiegler, John Stagliano, Katja Kassin, Dr. Sharon Mitchell, Roxy Deville
Rating:

Every so often I bring everyone a review of something that isn’t necessarily porn but something porn related that may be of interest.  That is where 9 to 5: Days in Porn comes in.  It’s not porn, but it’s about porn, and stars some of everyone’s favorite porn stars and directors.  Think of 9 to 5: Days in Porn as almost two hours of “behind the scenes” footage.

9 to 5: Days in Porn, and I hesitate to shorten the title to 9 to 5 because I don’t want it mistaken for the 1980 Dolly Parton movie, was put together by German film maker Jens Hoffman and Strand Releasing.  The movie will be available in the United States in May and it is currently being enjoyed in movie theaters in Germany.  If only we could be that lucky here in the United States that we could watch films of this magnitude in the theater.  Sadly though, most theaters won’t touch it because of the theme.

And it’s an interesting theme.  What goes on behind the scenes in the porn industry.  9 to 5: Days in Porn is unlike anything that HBO or Showtime could put together.

The documentary took a year and a half to film and originally followed the personal lives of 15 people.  The original edit ended up being four hours long so it was cut down to 11 people.  Of those 11 people we see Belladonna at home with her family and learn that is just as much a hippy as she is a pornstar, John Stagliano talks about why he started making porn, we find out why Katja Kassin came to America from Germany to star in porn and how Roxy Deville views her career choice, we see first hand the relationship Mia Rose has with her sister, we see Audrey Hollander and Otto Bauer at home and Audrey nearly have a breakdown where porn is getting to her, we see just how normal Jim Powers is, we get to find out why Mark Spiegler is a well respected agent in the business, we  find out why Sharon Mitchell left porn, became and doctor and open AIM and we see Sasha Grey enter the business.

It’s all very human.  This isn’t some film that shows us, like we are so used to seeing, the technical aspects of what it’s like to work in porn.  This is footage of porn stars living their lives, telling us in their own words how they got into porn and why.  This is about the reality of the work they do and how it affects their personal lives and relationships.  One of my favorite quotes came from Dr. Sharon Mitchell.  “So here they are, on their eighteenth birthday they end up in Los Angeles thinking that pornography is going to be the backdoor to Hollywood.  The backdoor part would be right…”  For those that ever doubted that Dr. Mitchell was ever in the industry, 9 to 5: Days in Porn shows us a few brief clips of some of the films she has been in (ironically, one of those movies arrived on my doorstep yesterday from VCX).

From Jens Hoffman (via the 9 to 5: Days in Porn media kit):

“We experienced it ourselves. Once we started this project, we constantly had to explain that we were not shooting a porno but that we were making a movie about the industry.  And still, some really didn’t want to “get their hands dirty”.  Perhaps it was this that created some solidarity with our protagonists.

I also got the impression that there would be no American independent movie scene without porn. All cameras, lights and sound people have to work on these “love stories” to make some cash, but talk about the ‘cool indie’ project which they work on for free. Yes, porn helps our culture. And porn is fashionable – recognized by T-shirts boasting a pornstar, or the rebirth of the golden-framed Wayfarer, or just general trends. And Boogie Nights – that definitely started something!

If we go by the statistics, pretty much every second American or European household has some “dirty DVDs” hidden on the upper shelf of their wardrobe. Pornography, as a concept and in certain manifestations, seems to be often, and acceptably, used in movies. Still it has not gained access to cultural society nor has it shed its aura of shadiness.”

But at the end of the day, somebody has to do the job and have sex in front of the cameras.  Who are these people?  What is their motivation and how long can they do this job?  How does it affect their personalities and their private lives?  Pornography puts one of the highest moral goods of society, i.e. love, in its physical form.  How do the protagonists deal with it when personal values such as love, friendship and sex are put into new relationships?

“These questions kept coming up once research for the project started in 2003 – first in Prague and Berlin and then later in Los Angeles.  And when we spoke to the people around us, they always had more questions: Why are the girls doing this? Are they having fun? Do they have boyfriends? How much money can they earn? It didn’t stop.  It was obvious: people were interested.   Once the research continued, a whole new world opened to our eyes and ears and we understood that all those TV- reports were just scratching at the surface.

In order to keep a neutral perspective for the viewer, it was clear that we could not create a narrated documentary. We had actually planned to have a story structure (like a feature movie) and originally intended on 5 to 7 stories, structuring the movie in episodes. When we started filming, it was the plan to work with about 15 people as protagonists but to have only a third of them in the movie. After almost 1.5 years of filming we knew there was much more to it than the original 5. But the first rough cut was around 4 hours long. So we ended up deleting a lot and deciding on 11 main characters.”

The world of pornography is a small, sometimes family-like parallel society that has established its own values and rules. The actual protagonists of this industry live in a world in which they build a second identity, often by using a stage name. When you take a closer look, the self-image of the industry does not correspond to the clichés, which are so often promoted by its representatives in their public appearances. The real world of porn is not as glamorous as magazines and TV shows want to make us believe. It is a small world of its own, burdened with big problems and prejudices and is also extremely sensitive. It is not obvious because dealing with the subject is still a venture – one that takes some courage and puts one at risk of becoming ostracized.

“What we were going for in the movie was to neither glorify nor confirm preconceived opinions or expectations by promoting clichés.  We searched for closeness by creating an honest approach to the subjects with the thought that through personal portraits, we could offer the audience the chance to identify with our protagonists.”

They succeeded very well in putting this across.  The documentary was very neutral, it presented everyone in a matter-of-fact way, with no one making apologizes for who they were or what they were doing.  There was no one telling the viewer that we should look at these people this way or that we should feel a certain way about what they do.  The only real opinion on the industry came from Dr. Mitchell and how she views the industry since she was once a performer and now provides health services to that same industry.  She seems a bit cynical and jaded but again, she makes no apologies for anything.

As porn becomes more and more mainstream Jens opened the doors to give us a view into “the other Hollywood” at just the right time showing us that these are normal people who are just doing a job like the rest of us.  They have hopes and fears, family and goals.  Hopefully this film will shed some of the much needed light on the industry and the people in to help break down some of the stereotypes and misconceptions that people have about pornstars and the industry.

You can learn more about the movie and see clips at the 9 to 5: Days in Porn website and you can pre-order the movie from Amazon.com.

We Did Porn by Zak (Sabbath) Smith

Title: We Did Porn
Author: Zak (Sabbath) Smith
Rating:

Part picture book, part memoir, We Did Porn is a very interesting look at art, porn and life in general from alt performer and contemporary artist, Zak Smith.  I feel almost insulting referring to the pictures of his art work as  pictures, as they are as much part of the memoir as the words on the pages.  These are pictures of people he knows, places he’s been and things he’s observed.

Sometimes Zak comes across more as a observer than an actual participant.  He has a way of removing himself from a situation and reporting it as matter-of-fact.  This is how his life is and he makes no apologies for it.  It’s his life and he’s okay with it.  All the important names of people and places have been changed to remind himself and everyone reading that there are more to these people than he has recorded.  Anyone who pays enough attention or is obsessive enough will know who most of these people are but the alternate identities will prevent over-zealous gossip columnists who think he or she is a  journalists and twisting something that was said in the book and posting somewhere that Zak Sabbath said this or that about so-and-so.  You can guess that he is talking about Sasha Gray or Pixie Pearl, and you are probably right, but you can’t prove it.  It also gives the book a bit of a mysterious undertone, like he is giving access to a peep show that you aren’t supposed to see.

It keeps the book from being boring and another droll autobiography.  That’s the thing about memoirs and autobiographies, they are either interesting as hell or boring as hell.  Anyone who feels they need to write a memoir because they did something interesting, hopes that their book turns out to be the first rather than the second.  Quite often though, because the writer wrestles with every word put on the page many come out as the second no matter how interesting the person or his/her life.  Zak doesn’t have that problem.  Words seem to be his friends as much as paper, ink and paint are his friends.  He has a way of saying “It’s like this, only different” that makes perfect sense.  When I do that people look at me weird, when Zak does it he comes across almost philosophical and makes it sound like there is no way in the world it doesn’t make sense.

Often he compares the art world to the porn world making many parallels.  If his art career has suffered from doing porn you would never know.  If you are going to make assumptions about people, you would assume that those that hang out in art galleries and collect art work are the sort of uptight folks who wouldn’t watch porn.  You would also assume that those who watch porn wouldn’t be the sort who would hang out in art galleries.  Making that assumption you would also have to assume that the two worlds would very likely never run into each other.  The thing is, if you visit Zak’s website, Zaxart.com, you will get a link to zaksabbath.com where you can get a glimpse of what he does in porn.  If anyone is researching the artist, they are bound to find the porn star.  That’s just how the internet is.  It’s almost like the art world expects idiosyncrasies out of it’s artists.  Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat did drugs, Smith does porn.

That is the thing about Zak Smith though, he defies stereotypes.  Many people think of those in porn as people with no other marketable skill when in fact, many of them have left decent, well-paying and “respectable” jobs for the sex industry.  Zak is a shinning example of someone who isn’t what you would expect him to be.   He doesn’t look how you would expect someone to look with a masters degree in art, then again, I am not sure how an artist is supposed to look.  I realized not long ago that a good deal of the people I know are artists and they are all very different and don’t fit into any kind of mold.  He is also well spoken and intelligent.  He knows as much, if not more, about what is going on in the world as the average person and could probably out debate most everyone on any given day.  This is another sense about him that you get from reading We Did Porn.  He talks about what is going on in the world with more than a passing knowledge and gives you a brief history lesson as to why some of these things are the way they are.

Zak tells people he got into porn because the art world is void of any social life.  If you believe that or believe that he got into porn for the experience, one thing is for certain, his life became more interesting when he decided to take the scenic route by adding porn performer to his resume.  Those experiences make for just as interesting stories as his experiences being an artist.  They are just interesting in different ways.

I kept asking myself over and over as I was reading We Did Porn if someone who had no idea who Zak Sabbath or Zak Smith were and couldn’t even begin to figure out who Osbie Feel or Tina DeVine was would enjoy the book.  I honestly think they would.  If nothing else, We Did Porn serves as something other than the myopic look at the world that most of society shares.  You will understand that porn people are no different than other people, they just have sex more and get paid for something they enjoy doing rather than going to some 9 to 5 job where they have to follow a dress code and be nice to everyone and they are constantly miserable.  If everyone made something they enjoy their career instead of choosing a career based on how much money and/or prestige they are going to get out of it, there would be fewer miserable people in the world.  That is what Zak has done on all accounts.  Sometimes you just have to step out of the box and look at the world from a different perspective and Zak does that while sharing a part of his life with you, from gallery showings to the set of x-rated movies to Europe to a normal day in the life.  In the end it doesn’t matter who these people are, it just matters that they are real people who make up part of Zak Smith’s world.