I had the immense pleasure of getting to know Parisian porn star Judy Minx during my trip to Toronto. Judy has a preternatural ability to be dead serious about her sexuality while relishing the humor in the shocked way most people react to her bluntness. We had lovely slumber parties at Drew Devaux's and illuminating cab conversations and filmed a very special scene involving pissing and fisting for a very exciting upcoming project. Behind us in this picture from the ceremony is Madison Young, the kinky who gave me my first big break in porn!
What follows is an article I wrote covering the awards:
The ceremony-cum-party of the 5th Annual Feminist Porn Awards transformed the Berkeley Church in Toronto, Canada, into a decadent underground club of sexual deviants. The cavernous church overflowed with fetish fashionistas, boys in skirts, girls in ties, glitter, leather, latex, heels, boots, and indie-smut luminaries from all over the globe. They gathered to worship the very best in last year's conscious, creative, progressive pornography.
The FPAs have become a Toronto institution thanks to local sex shop Good For Her, which this year honored 47 films and seven websites that, in their words, "expand the boundaries of sexual representation on film and challenge stereotypes that are often found in mainstream porn." Judging by the record-breaking crowd of 450 revelers at the 2010 event, and by the wild local sex celebrities who graced the stage, Toronto is emerging as a veritable mecca of sex positive, artistic, queer, feminist community.
The event itself played like a raunchy variety show. HostMorgan Brayton, a blowsy Mae West-type, ran the night like a dive bar cabaret MC. Indeed, the sincere award presenting and inspiring acceptance speeches were well balanced by a diverse group of burlesque and drag performers including Ill Nana, Masti Khor, and Coco La Creme. Playfully parodying award show culture, flamboyant "Special Correspondent" Ryan Hinds probed the night's guests for sex and fashion dishing.
The commemorative 5th-year anniversary FPA trophy, an honest-to-goodness detachable NJoystainless steel dildo, was decadent and functional but extremely difficult for American winners to explain at customs.
Not surprisingly, the event's special guests Shine Louise Houston, April Flores, Tristan Taormino, andNica Noelle were the night's big winners. The night preceding the awards, much of the same crowd had gathered at the Bloor Cinema for the Provocative.Public/Porn preview of some nominated scenes directed by or featuring these artists. An illuminating panel discussion rounded out the night.
BBW muse and starlet Flores accepted the Deliciously Diverse Cast award for her husband Carlos Batts's film Dangerous Curves. A crowd favorite for her sex appeal and effusive earnestness, she later returned to the stage with an exuberant, "This is fucking awesome!" to accept the Heartthrob of the Year honor.
Afterwards, Flores gushed, "Toronto was absolutely amazing! There was such a supportive, celebratory, electric energy flowing through the air. I have never been surrounded by such positivity at any other porn-related event—or any other event, for that matter. It was truly magical to have so many like-minded people come together from many different parts of the world and just celebrate our work, diversity, and message. I keep saying that I wish we could all live and work together. If that could happen, the world would shift from the power we would radiate together."
Houston took home the Viewer's Choice Award based on a screening of a scene from her websiteCrash Pad Series in which the cisgendered male Mickey Mod sucks the butch Sid Blakovich's strap-on cock. She was also honored with the Visionary Award for challenging notions of what constitutes queer sex and setting a high bar for quality and artistry. Over the years Houston has garnered a record total of eight FPAs, making her a sort of Feminist Porn Meryl Streep!
Noelle's The Deviant collected the award for Sexiest Straight movie, reminding us that heterosexual LA-produced films can be feminist too!
Winner of the Smutty Schoolteacher Award for her work on the Expert Guide to Anal Pleasure for Men, Taormino earned the mantle of Trailblazer for 10 years of sex educational filmmaking and advocacy.
Tobi Hill-Meyer accepted the first-ever Emerging Filmmaker Award, which honors and provides a scholarship to assist promising artists in getting their first projects off the ground. Before she even knew she had won the award, Hill-Meyer was making a name for herself at the Provocative.Public/Porn event, hawking her first DVD, Doing It Ourselves: The Trans Women Porn Project, out of her backpack.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Jiz Lee was named Boundary Breaker of the Year, tearfully proclaiming that porn was the first place she felt accepted for her genderqueer identity. A common thread among the night's celebrated filmmakers was a sense of urgency to create images that represented a part of their sexual identity that had been marginalized, whether it be female orgasms, trans identity, diverse bodies, or sexual health and technique. The night's atmosphere of bold celebration illustrated a growing force of pride in and recognition for their efforts.
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