The Feminist Porn Awards 2011 in Review
The Feminist Porn Awards have become a multi-event spectacle that have put Toronto on the sexual entertainment map. From screenings to networking to play parties, the burgoening feminist porn industry comes together to celebrate the past year and plan some awesome action in the future. Frequent Sexlife Canada contributer Dorianne took in all the action of this year's festival.
The Launch Party at the Gladstone
The place was packed so there was a fair amount of conversation going on before the first clip was screened. It’s pretty funny to hear a noisy room fall dead silent when they realize there’s pornography playing.
The clips that were shown were:
• Strap-On Jo: Jo Takes it like she gives it
• Switch w/ Mr Gray and Sophia St James (this was filmed live at the Switch party in February and streamed, at the time, on House of Switch.)
• Said and Done by Link Ross
• Picnic in the Rain by Sam Martin
• Maybe He’s Gifted by N. Maxwell Lander and Beau Charlie
They were all great, but I want to make not of a particular scene in Said and Done where one person wearing a long, flouncy, fancy period gown deftly lifted it to hilariously reveal a strap-on.
Public.Provocative.Porn: The Year's Best in Feminist Film
I remember last year’s screening having more, shorter, clips. I may be wrong about that, memory being fallible, but this year I did feel that perhaps I shouldn’t have told people “It’s just clips, so if you don’t like what you’re seeing it will be over soon and onto the next one.” This year it felt like each clip went on for quite some time. Perhaps because the first movie shown was not to my taste. It was Oral Sex For Couples Volumes 1-3 by Jaiya, which won the Smutty Schoolteacher Award for best educational film at the awards. While I’m sure a lot of folks are being helped to shake their inhibitions by this series, I like things much raunchier, so I was happy to move onto the next scene, from Carlos Batts’ Artcore when it finally came. It featured April Flores and Drew Deveaux filthying up a hotel room, with Drew dressed in some stripey underthings that I seriously coveted.
Then we saw a scene from Sola which disappointed my desire for variety, since we had just seen a clip featuring April Flores and directed by Carlos Batts. I like their work very much but I had been hoping for a diverse set of clips, with the next scene being very different from the last.
Next up was a scene with Drew Deveaux and Mickey Mod from Queerporn.tv. Despite having one of the same performers as an earlier scene, this did not disappoint my love of variety because how fucking awesome is it when cismen are in queer porn? Answer: Really awesome. And how fucking awesome is it when cismen are in queer porn with transwomen? Answer: off the charts awesome.
But that wasn’t even the best. The best was saved for last.
Cheryl Dunye is a film artist with a respectable career in non-porn. When asked why she made the switch she said something along the lines of “I show the beginning of sex in my films but then I can’t show the rest, the details, and I wanted to capture that.” I am very happy that she did so. Mommy is Coming is hilarious. I always thought more porn should be openly comedic—sex is pretty funny, after all—so I’m very pleased to finally see an X-rated film that is funny and queer and filled with quirky kink.
There was a panel discussion and Q&A with Carlos Batts, Drew Deveaux, Jaiya and Cheryl Dunye, but the most outstanding non-film aspect of the night was Tristan Taormino’s introduction, a rousing revolutionary call full of sound bites like “Feminist porn is a mouthful.”
The Sixth Annual Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards
There is nothing like the vibe of this event. Every pervy feminist in the GTA is there and so are our heroes, be they local cats like Coco La Creme, or performers, directors and producers who have flown in to see if they might win themselves an award (in the shape of a glass butt plug). The standout performance of the evening was definitely Boylesque doing a dance to Backstreet Boys that was cute, funny and sexy all at the same time.
And here are the winners of awards (or as I call it “my shopping list.”)
Big appreciation to FPA Director Alison Lee for all her work!
Switch – the FPA Queer Porn Play Party
I’ve been to Oasis a couple of times, including the last Switch and it was always missing one thing: a dungeon. They’ve fixed that now. They didn’t take away any of the other play space though—this is in a room that wasn’t open before, so I assume owner Toni always had a dungeon in her plans.
Two of my lovers and I made use of the sling which was appropriated immediately after us for the official live streamed porn shoot. I watched this intensely hot scene and had the pleasure of, at one point, noticing that we had just been doing exactly the same thing: I had been wielding my cock on one of my lovers in the sling, while the other was doing nasty things to her upper body, and now, before my eyes, Mr Gray was wielding his cock on Jiz Lee in the sling while Sophia St James administrated to Jiz’s upper body!
The Dungeon Master for the night was terrific. We were told so politely that they needed the sling for the shoot in 15 minutes, then we asked for a 5 minute call and got it, and then we were actually thanked for cleaning up after ourselves (which everyone should do anyway.)
Lots more happened over the course of the night, but those are probably stories to be told in the oral tradition. ‘Til next year for the FPAs—but only ‘til July 3rd for the next Switch!