Filming Ethical Porn
Behind the Scenes with Filmmaker and Director Josie Hess
Interview by Prudence Sperryn
Josie Hess is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has made waves in the porn world, with experimental short ‘Labia of Love’ winning ‘Hottest Artful Porn Award’ at the Toronto International Porn Awards. Josie’s latest projects include co-directing ‘All of Me’ (co-director Morgana Muses), a short documentary about a sex worker with cerebral palsy and directing ‘The Valley’ with producer Stephanie Sabrinskas which was selected to take part in The Pitch Lab, an initiative by AFTRS, The Doc Society and AIDC to support non-fiction talent with a social impact project in development or production.
In this interview, Josie takes us behind the scenes with their work and encourages us to think about the multifaceted and varied worlds of pornography and ethical porn. We explore some of the trends and attitudes towards different genres of porn as well as what it’s like to work in the industry.
What was one of your favorite scenes that you’ve filmed/directed and what happened?
I really enjoyed filming Having My Cake (dir. Morgana Muses) which is a scene between Morgana Muses and Bishop Black. It was amazing to see all these incredible delicate cakes get destroyed and the joy between Mogs and Bishop was really lovely to capture. The whole room smelled like a patisserie.
In terms of porn what are the best selling genres or scenes, is there any kind of content you are surprised that sells so well?
Porn hub releases their stats every year, it's pretty wildly available data in terms of what sells most so I wouldn’t say I am ever really surprised. Amature, Anal, MILF and Teen are usually on the list - but each year will have topical stuff too, like in 2019 for example, it was Bell Delphine and Aliens.
Have you ever had to deal with a person or situation where you’ve had to defend working in porn, what happened?
As someone who works in production/working behind the camera, my experience with this type of thing is definitely easier than those who work in front of the camera. There have been people who have disagreed with me making porn. And while I don’t think it's something I have to defend, if it’s a person I care about, I will take the time to help them unpack why their issue with my work is unfounded.
How does an actor prepare for a scene?
All performers are different. Some common steps though would be sharing your lists of do’s and don'ts with the other people you will be performing with. This would just be swapping information about hard nos, things they know they like etc. Some people like to hang out a few times beforehand, others are able to forge that connection on the day. It really depends.
What happens if someone has their period?
If someone has their period, it would depend on the scene. There is nothing inherently wrong with having your period on a porn shoot. Sometimes that can work out just fine, other times we may schedule around it.
What are some of the considerations performers have to think about when working in front of a camera or an audience?
When we cast people who are new to the industry, we make a point of checking if they have considered any implications for their community, family and friends that could cause them any issues. Sex work and pornography still has a stigma around it so its certainly something to consider first, if you have the privilege to do so.
I also think perhaps for some people there is a glamorous idea of what shooting porn might be like. Particularly for men who imagine its like an all day magical fuck fest with just scores of beautiful women. I suppose in some instances it can be like that. But the reality is, you are working on sets, with lots of people standing around watching while you have sex. It's like any film shoot, there is lots of waiting around and repeating movements and things like that. So making sure people have considered what it will really be like before signing up is important.
I found the mention of age-positive content particularly interesting as it’s something I’ve never considered before, but of course it’s so important! Do you know which demographic this content is most popular with?
Yeah it's interesting how it breaks down. MILF is basically popular in all demographics and Mature and GILF shows up around the 50 - 60 year old age range in terms of being the most popular search term. I think it says a lot about how many people across all demographics are looking for mature women that these terms are not only showing up, but they show up on the top keywords lists year after year.
That data is from tube sites, so I guess we need to consider it's often a pretty fetishistic view of age or maturity that is represented.
We also know from the content we make at Permission4Pleasure (my frequent collaborator Morgana Muses’ production company), which focuses on age-positive porn that people of all adult ages are watching.
What does sex positivity mean to you and why is it important?
It’s a term with a long history and a great deal of theory behind it. My understanding is that at its root, it’s just the idea that sex isn’t inherently wrong or bad and that actually having a sexuality is a normal part of being a healthy adult human.
Ascribing shame or judgment to what is for many people a normal feature of their lives of course causes all sorts of issues. So challenging that stigma, hopefully, means more people can live their lives how they’d like to.
What makes porn ethical/unethical?
The mode of production. Ethical Porn does a better job of unpacking all this than I ever could. But it’s paying everyone fairly, providing safe and healthy work environments, ensuring positive consent is a constant part of the conversation, that after shooting, there is support and after care from the production for any questions or concerns.
When you first started, did you find anything peculiar or shocking about the work that you wanted to challenge or change?
Not really, it was like any other film job. Lovely crews and cast, lots of long days and hard work. It might be different in other countries, but I found here in Australia, quite a lot of people create content because they wanted to either make a difference or create content with a distinction, like having high production values or depicting realistic sex scenes.
I was most interested in age positive content since that was a form of representation that seemed to be missing in some areas. There is always lots of MILF, GILF content, but I hadn’t seen porn with older performers that also had narratives and high production values.
The topic of porn seems to surface in mainstream media when it's associated with crime or abject behaviors by celebrities/politicians. How do you think we can shift the focus away from the negative and onto the positive?
I'm not so sure that is true. I see lots of pop culture/clickbait articles about porn and glamorous lifestyles of porn performers. The conversation has progressed from conflating porn with crime (which certainly still happens) but now I see more discourse around the appropriation of sex worker culture and the impact that has on actual sex workers.
The cultural bias against sex work is pretty clearly born out of misogyny. We judge women for using their own bodies to make a living under capitalism, either as a choice or as an otherwise viable option to make money they need. The way the media talks about sex work is being shifted by the hard work and education by sex workers and their sex-positive allies. We have a long way to go, and progress isn’t a one time fight, it's a constant struggle.
What would you say to people who question the ethics of porn, particularly people who say porn is demeaning and objectifying women?
I’d ask them if they’d actually watched any ethical porn? It's kind of just an uninformed argument. Two things can be true at once. There is some pornography that is exploitative and there is pornography that is ethically produced that actually provides income for marginalized people, plus everything in between.
The argument that all porn is bad, because the male gaze is inherently misogynistic and we can’t view people in that way without being deviant shameful monsters, is ridiculous. Humans are often visual creatures, there is such a thing as the queer gaze, and pornography itself is a by-product of our interests and desires.
Do you think adequate representation of sexualities, races and cultures exists in porn?
Yes and no.
Yes, there is absolutely porn out there for everyone or featuring basically everyone and everything (and if it doesn’t someone will draw it or make it for you, custom content is very popular).
The real question is whether that is widely known or accessible (and by accessible I mean both financially, operationally, and functionally). So likely what we need is better representation in media in general, including widely accessible porn. A good place to start, is to check out a site like Pink Label, its queer and ethical porn from around the world.
Seeing ourselves seems to be the fastest and most effective way to open up our minds to the other possible ways of being.