Final Erotic Film – No Butter

Yes you read right, No Butter is my final erotic/ explicit film.

Why you ask?

When I started on this journey there were little to no women or queers making alternative, ethical explicit films.  However, now there are  many more women and queer filmmakers, who are making explicit films that are exciting, interesting and that continue to challenge the concept of pornography.  The other reason is that I feel I don’t have anything more to say, there no longer is the driving passion to create such content, so I have decided that this is my last feminist porn film.

I will continue making films, focusing more on documentaries.  The time I’ve spent making explicit films has allowed me as a female filmmaker the opportunity to produce and direct with creative freedom.  I’ve met and worked with many amazing people and it has been an honour and privilege to work with you all.  So thank you to the community, I will continue to be a part of you and look forward to mentoring the next generation of ground breaking young women and queers who want to re-image sexuality on screen.

To give you a little insight into No Butter, it’s a film noir told from the perspective of the femme fatale.  The story it that of Ida, who when her husband is unable to give her what she desires, she hatches a plan to get her bread buttered.

It stars Kim Cums and Stirling Cooper, has beautiful cinematography by Reed Morrison and music by Utopian Crush.

You can view the trailer here.

Or watch the film here.

Enjoy.

 

And the winner is…….The Bedroom for Best Director.

Much to my surprise The Bedroom has won Best Director at the International Toronto Porn Awards (formerly the Feminist Porn Awards) on Sunday night!

I was hoping to attend the festival and awards this year but work and other commitments conspired against me…maybe next film!

Thanks again to all the crowdfunding contributors who helped make The Bedroom!

You can check out The Bedroom here:

http://www.poisonappleproductions.com.au/product/the-bedroom/

Or if you are in Melbourne you can come and see it on the Big Screen with a Q and A with the cast, giveaways and lots more!

http://www.poisonappleproductions.com.au/product/the-bedroom-melbourne-screening/

Or maybe you’d like to learn more about how the film was made?  Megan Spencer spent time with us on set capturing the ins and outs of The Bedroom!

http://www.poisonappleproductions.com.au/product/the-bedroom-behind-the-scenes/

I hope you enjoy!

The Bedroom now available online!

Yes, I have finally moved into the digital age and you can now purchase all my film online!

However, if you like to rock it old school style you can also get The Bedroom on DVD, which is a strictly limited edition of only 100 that are hand numbered!

Zahra Stardust and Stitch The Bedroom 1990
Zahra Stardust and Stitch The Bedroom 1990

The Bedroom to open Berlin Porn Film Festival!

the-bedroom-1990-1
Zahra Stardust in The Bedroom

I’m very excited to announce that The Bedroom will be the opening night film at the Berlin Porn Film Festival on October 26th 2016.

This date will also correspond with the release of The Bedroom online and in a very limited edition DVD.   I will be attending the festival and you can live tweet along with me #bedroomparty

Big thanks to all the awesome people who contributed to our crowd funding and helped us make The Bedroom.

More details soon.

Eros Shine Award Nomination!

best-australian-porn-production-or-production-company

Can’t believe it but Poison Apple Productions and a whole lot of awesome feminist erotic/porn makers have been nominated this year for Best Porn Production or Production Company.

Please click here and cast your vote for Poison Apple Productions and prove to the mainstream industry that there is a desire for alternative/feminist porn and erotica.

I will also be eternally grateful!

Video On Demand

Its been a very long time between post and please excuse my slackness but I have been dealing with some big health issues, but more on that at a later date.

However, I have been setting up some of my films as Video On Demand or VOD, which is very exciting to have my films enter the next phase of distribution options available to independent filmmakers.

So please find below some of the titles currently available and I will be adding more as time goes on.

THE BAND

BEHIND THE SCENES- THE BAND

MAKING IT HANDMADE

I hope you enjoy!

Tristan Taormino talks and other adventures.

Last month, I spent a highly entertaining night listening to sex positive feminist, Tristan Taormino talk about her very interesting life and journey to making porn films.  It was a captivating and fascinating two hours.  Tristan is a great public speaker and if you ever get the chance to hear her talk I highly recommend it.

She spoke about her ethical approach to her actors: good pay, reasonable hours, providing safe environments, and giving actors the freedom to do what they wished rather than dictating to them.  It was strange to hear this referred to as ethical treatment of actors in explicit films as I thought it was the ONLY way to treat actors, but then again I have chosen to forge my own path and not be dictated by the mainstream industry, and I guess that what makes the difference. 

I decided to get up and ask a question about safe sex and the use of condoms in her films, as it is one of the things I feel very strongly about and think as erotic filmmakers it is very important to promote, especially as there is a rise in sexually transmitted diseases (which I find shocking, as choosing to have sex with someone is also about making a respectful choice to use condoms).  Her take was quite different and I do wonder how much of it is dictated by the studio she worked for or if it is as she said, a choice she let the actors make.  She was actually quite surpised how many of them would rather have sex without condoms!

The evening also gave me a chance to catch up again with Louise Lush, who I haven’t seen in the flesh since “The Band” screened at the Berlin Porn Film Festival in 2009.  Wow how time flies!  Finally, I got to meet two actors/makers I have been wanting to meet, Angela White and Liandra Dahl.  We where all standing around being total video/film nerds getting excited talking about RED and Lexus cameras, steady cams and jib arms!  Pretty funny!

I actually stood next to Angela White for quite sometime until I realised it was her!  In the photos she has sent me she looks like an amazing amazon, yet in person she is still amazing but petite.  She had just returned from a month in the US filming scenes for her website and was looking forward to going home to several terabytes of video footage and begin editing!

Afterwards, I was hoping to talk with Liandra further about her films, but unfortunately she had to leave early, but we did catch up later that week.  She came by my office and we talked non stop for 2 hours.  I could have spent the rest of the afternoon talking with her, but unfortunately prior commitments prevented us from doing so.  However, I’m sure we will have many more discussions in the future.

It was great to be surround by such a wonderful group of sex positive women and so nice to talk openly about sex without anyone looking shocked, disgusted or horrified, but that it is just a natural part of life.  This is what I love about Pleasure Salon gatherings!

Hats off to amazing sex therapist, Cyndi Darnell from Pleasure Salon for organising yet again another sex positive evening.  Pleasure Salon holds monthly nights in Melbourne and I highly recommend you go and have a look, they are always informative and interesting.

In other news:

I’m giving a talk at Melbourne University this Friday 4th May at 12:30pm about Feminist and Queer Porn, for their “Rad sex and Consent week”, which is free!  I’m looking forward to it but I’m also slightly nervous that Shelia Jefferys and her anti sex minions will be on hand!  However, the organisers look like they are providing a very safe space for people to discuss and explore sex and its many variations through workshops and talks.  If you want more information, check it out here.

Must go and finish practicing my talk.  Hope to see you there.

Writing a new erotic film.

Finally, I have found  focus and  begun working on a new erotic film entitled “Screwed in Suburbia”.  It feels great to have something to work towards, as I was feeling lost towards the end of last year and didn’t know where I wanted to go in regards to my next film.  More details on it soon, but we already have at least a US distributor attached who is they love it may take on international distribution!

I’ve been trying to write without putting pressure on myself as I have a habit of wanting to make everything perfect then and there rather than just letting it flow and leaving holes in it that can be reflected upon and fixed later.  Fingers crossed I can push out a draft before I return to teaching this year!

Also, I have begun a collaboration with an amazing script writer, Shanti Gudgeon.  We are creating an erotic thriller together which is very exciting.  I love writing with other people as you can bounce ideas off each other.  The last film I wrote in a partnership was “The Money Shot” with Lance Petrie.  It was great as I would write a scene get half way through loose my focus and pass it to him and he would finish it off.    It speeds up the process dramatically.

The Band nominated for Feminist Porn Awards

I’m so thrilled! The Band has been nominated for a Feminist Porn Award! Very exciting. I would love to make the journey to Toronto for the awards but I’m back teaching this week so I’m guessing I’ll have to miss this one. Such a bummer, that is one of the dramas of living on an island at the bottom of the world! But still very excited to be in such good company!

Other good news is that my doco “Making it Handmade!” has a few paragraphs written about it in the most recent addition of IF
(Inside Film) magazine! Does this mean I’m moving from Smut maker to legitimate filmmaker??? Hee hee Like I would care either way!

Also two festivals has asked to have a look at “Making it Handmade!” so I need to return to editing. I’m nearly done, but I need to go and shot some more footage on Thursday. Nothing very exciting, just computer screens and the like, but its getting closer to being a complete rough cut so that is exciting. Next I need to get some fresh eyes to have a look and give me some feedback!

Australia’s sexploitation and erotic filmmaking history!

Last week wasn’t as productive as I hoped. The intense and ongoing heat, knocked me out and made it impossible to sleep, but the rough cut for “Making it Handmade!” is still chugging along. I’m finding it interesting to see how over the year or so that I shot this documentary, not only did my interviewing technique improve but also my shooting skills. Yet again making another film has been a massive learning curve for me! I guess that is something that sucks me in…everytime you make another film you learn something new!

Any of you reading this are probably thinking, but what does that have to do with Australia’s sexploitation and erotic filmmaking history….to be honest not much, accept I was working on the film when I spoke with legendary Australian Erotic filmmaker John D Lamond. Like most Australian genre filmmakers you may not know his work but if you’ve seen that great documentary about ozploitation, “Not quite hollywood!” you would probably know who he is. Just to refresh your memory, he is the one being interviewed with a pole dancer in the background or you may have seen some of his film “the ABC of love and sex: Australian Style” and “Felicity”, just to name a few.

I was interested to talk with him but also a little weary as I have found male film makers of that generation to be …..how does one put this…pigs! However, John was anything but! He was lovely, humorous and extremely personable. We talked about the trials and tribulations of making erotic films in Australia, from dealing with censorship issues to trying to find cast who can act and don’t have a problem taking off their clothes. He was as wealth of information and shared so many stories about his filmmaking adventures not only here but overseas. One story that suck in my mind was how he challenged the censorship board in regards to masturbation scenes in “the ABC of love and sex: Australian Style”, inspirational and sad that still as a society that is so inundated with sexual images in our daily lives from advertising to music video clips on TV, we still are more threatened by sex than we are by violence….. It was truly an honour to speak with him and fingers crossed I get to work with him in the future.

I have always felt like I was working in a bubble here, until I went to Berlin last year and meet so many amazing women making films, so it was nice to connect with a fellow erotic filmmaker here in Australia who strives to make good erotic films with high production design, good scripts and acting. I no longer feel so alone!!! hee hee

Must return to the edit suite as I have a strict deadline to have the rough cut finished by the end of Feb. As my dad would say its time to put your head down and your bum up!