In Conversation with an Ethical Pornographer

Throughout this series, we are asking our community to help make us smarter. All questions provided by you and for you.

Pornographer: My name is Lidia. I'm a field director and I work with ethical pornography.

How did you get started?

Pornographer: I was living in Rome; I was working already as a film director and I met older female film directors and artists who felt the urgency to talk about sexuality and pornography from a different point of view. So I got involved with this collective called Le Regazze del Porno (Girls of Porn). We started a crowdfunding campaign and we produced short films. And from then I didn't stop.

How does censorship affect your work?

Pornographer: Working with sensitive content, sexuality, of course comes up in my job. The whole issue of censorship all the time. It's not just about nipples on Instagram, even if social media is becoming a very slippery territory. Because we are essentially not free to deliver our content. This is a problem which comes into, of course, pornography, sensitive content, but also, activism and art in general. This is the reason why three years ago, with a small team here in London, we created a festival called Uncensored. Which was focusing on the terrible upcoming news in terms of legislation in the UK. We were trying to give back a response, as a community, and to find new ways, creative ways, to fight censorship. But the path is still long.

Will we ever see one of your films on PornHub?

Pornographer: We say that we want better porn so we should also pay for porn. Of course, I have a producer, I have a platform where I show my movies. So, if you find one of my movies on PornHub, it's probably because it's been stolen. I will pretend not to see it.

How is porn transforming?

Pornographer: I'm part of this new scene. Let's see, we can call it alternative pornography, feminist porn, or simply adult cinema. It's a different environment from the main industry, from the traditional pornography. Speaking from my community, what I'm seeing in the last few years is so many new approaches to pornography. Which means not just unapologetic content or content from a different point of view, from different perspective; but it also means going back to cinematic values, finding new ways to deal with pornographic language. I would say that porn is opening up to queer gaze, alternative gazes, alternative experiences. And that's good because sexuality and sex is part of our life. I think all of us, most of us, consume pornography. So it's very inspiring and reassuring to see there are new people trying to put their hands in these dirty socks.

How do you select your performers?

Pornographer: As any cinematic production, we choose our actor while thinking about what the story requires and the characters. It's all about the profile of the character. We are not tied to the rules of the mainstream industry so it's not about the appearance or the skills you have when it comes to a sex scene. We try, also because we want to make something different from traditional pornography, to keep a variety in terms of ages and body types. We think this is an ethical approach to pornography. It's all about the story because our stories, our movies, have beautiful locations, beautiful cinematography. It works as any other production, going back to strong cinematic values.

What makes porn ethical?

Pornographer: What makes porn ethical? I would say strong cinematic values. We want to make and see beautiful movies. Different body types and ages. Female sexual pleasure matters, all pleasure matters, not just male pleasure. And an ethical approach to production; which means consent, boundaries, all these conversations between the performers and the director and all the people involved on set.