Follow that dream, kids

I saw a very interesting documentary on the Sundance Channel the other night-- Diary of a Porn Virgin, by Simon Egan. Normally I have very little interest in porn; for the most part I consider it repetitive and so mindless and objectifying it's insulting and more sad then sexy. Perversely (now there's a fitting term) I find the *business* end of pornography to be kind of interesting-- Here's a multi-billion dollar enterprise where women have a surprising amount of power and even longevity if they can just play their cards right and get in the director's chair early enough. At least that's what the documentaries aired on the AMERICAN porn industry would have you believe, and the examples of famous porn entrepreneurs Jill Kelly, Jenna Jameson, and Nina Hartley would seem to bear witness to that supposition.

How does it all get started, though? Simon Egan takes a look at the BRITISH pornography industry, and the reality is not quite so glamorous as some HBO Real Sex extra documentaries would make you think.

We meet three people who are just entering into the porn industry; Frankie, 38, a blonde full figured type, who leaves a job as a corporate manager with a big British firm to "follow a dream" by being a porn star. Sahara, earl 20s, British of Pakistani heritage, and Muslim! She is leaving a career in the fashion industry to get involved in the porn industry. And there's a guy named "Joe" I think, who is having a hard time breaking in as a male actor.

This post isn't about the merits or evils of pornography; pretty much whatever people do in the privacy of their own home is okay with me as long as no innocents are hurt. So my interest is not judgmental, nor is it prurient.. there was sex in the documentary, sure, but it was for the most part handled fairly tastefully and in a such a blase, technical manner it was anything BUT titillating. The film is realistic about the problems of a male star (many of whom have to perform for hours on end.. and many of whom have to take medical supplements to keep up with the rigors of their occupation). The film is also fairly frank about the prospects of Frankie, the 38 year old hoping to embark in a second career as a porn star. Her experience is far from glamorous-- those HBO documentaries don't mention the physical pain a woman endures from having to perform for hours on end, when she doesn't feel like it, the pressure to perform certain acts that she is not interested in or naturally disposed to... in one sequence Frankie has to perform her first lesbian scene and it makes her feel extremely uncomfortable. As lesbian scenes are a porn staple, Frankie would do serious, serious damage to her career by refusing to do them.. yet that is exactly what she does refuse (among other things). She finds herself wondering why the phone isn't ringing after the third job.

Joe is pretty much the comic relief... He is the last guy in line at his first show and all the lads in front of him (newcomers all) have a little bit of trouble with a certain requirement for male porn stars. After a day's fretting he manages to hold his end up, you might say.

Of the group, it's Sahara that does very well as a newcomer. Being young and pretty and exotic looking, she rapidly is in demand. As she starts in a long series of fetish porn, you get the idea that here is a lady determined to put her Islamic past behind her.. Up until a year before the events in the documentary transpired, she still went about with her hair covered with a scarf for religious reasons. Her career starts to take off and by the end of the film she is moving out to Los Angeles to be part of the "Porno Valley" adult film scene.

Frankie, after enduring a mammoth five hour shoot where she has to compromise on a lot of activity she doesn't want to do, decides to pack it in. She comes off as the most painfully deluded and pitiful of the group, confessing to crippling self-image problems, but she has no regrets, as the experience was "liberating". How having three guys unload in your face is supposed to fix self image problems, the movie does not say. She is a beautiful woman, to be sure, but she is getting involved in a business that is all about superficiality. rampant objectification of women and shallow behavior.. this is supposed to be GOOD for one's self image?

Joe performs once on film then never gets called again. He takes the whole thing stoically.

Porn Virgin was a nice little counterpoint to the more rosy stuff that sometimes gets broadcast on HBO. Porn is hard work (ahem) and often not very pleasant if the people concerned aren't turned on by some of the work they are forced to do again and again. I was struck by Frankie's almost pathetic attempts to draw the line on certain types of activity: no girl/girl stuff, no anal sex, etc. When the director tells us that the other girl in the scene made about fifty quid *extra* for doing one scene that Frankie refuses to do (about a hundred bucks!), you begin to wonder if it's all worth the effort.

Watch the Trailer on the Sundance Channel site (the trailer contains no nudity, but the film does contain nudity and frank discussions about adult subjects)