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| I have several partners I am madly in love with and can be found spooning and cooking with them... | |
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How did you decide to get into porn?
My interest in porn started off while in college. I was a fine art photography and digital media major with a conceptual focus of the intersections of fine art and pornography. I was really interested in the artists that came out of the NEA crisis of the early 1990's, the identity politics and governmental impact that was made in the world of art, censorship and national economies.
When I graduated, I moved to San Francisco and immediately took an internship in the art direction department of On Our Backs Magazine which was the only print explicit dyke magazine around started by lesbian feminists that were pro-porn. While working there I became a worker/owner at Good Vibrations, which at that time was a women owned sex toy cooperative.
San Francisco is a pretty tight knit community and I met a lot of great people at both these places. Director and founder of Pink & White Productions (pinkwhite.biz) Shine Louise Houston was working with me at Good Vibrations when she decided to start Pink & White in 2005 with her first release The Crash Pad, which won the First Feminist Porn Awards' Best Dyke Sex Scene. I came on board to help her with marketing that year as well as performing in front of the camera. This was also the same year I started to work for Kink.com's fetish wrestling site Ultimate Surrender. I am currently a co-producer of Pink & White Productions as well as a web manager for there new site CrashPadSeries.com. I also continue to work as talent at Kink.com.
Was there anything that shocked you about the adult industry, or did things all run pretty much as expected?
San Francisco is a pretty progressive city and is a little bit of a bubble. There's a lot of pride there in having "San Francisco Values" and shedding the trappings of traditional perspectives of gender, sexuality and other avenues of constructed identities that have the potential to box the unique aspects of being an individual through the use of labels and expectations.
I think that starting to do more work in the larger pool of porn and encountering a lot of the marketing that follows has been a reminded of the cultural assumptions and stereotypes that are perpetuated through media. Race and gender are the big ones that come to mind. I think one thing about porn is that it is one of the few democratic mediums we have that transcends a lot fo these cultural divides and even though it is still highly segergated content wise, it has the potential to reach a very large audience.
Certain areas of it are definitely ghettoized, but in a way the medium of a whole shares this space and community which is slightly unifying.
Of the scenes that you've shot, what's been your favorite? Do you have any favorite co-stars?
Recently, as in the last month, I'd have to say shooting with Belladonna was pretty much a dream come true. She is completely genuine in her passion on and off screen and we just got to rip each other to pieces. I also admire her work ethic and drive. She's just an all around amazing person.
Other notable scenes would include working with my partner Jiz Lee in our first scene together in The Crash Pad, my first time shooting with bondage queen Madison Young in Champion, first time shooting with my partner Carson for Lesbian Life Real Sex San Francisco and getting to work with many of my lovers and friends on CrashPadSeries.com.
Who are your porn heroes?
My fellow indy Bay Area producers Shine Louise Houston, Courtney Trouble, Madison Young, and Ian Sparks, lovers and costars Jiz Lee, Dallas and Carson, The LA legends Annie Sprinkle, Nina Hartley, and Belladonna, anyone who thinks that they can make the world a better place by picking up a camera or getting in front of one and f--king contributing and all the girls down in LA that are working it right now.
Lately, you've been shooting more in LA, with starlets like Belladonna, Dana DeArmond, and Bobbi Starr. How did that all start happening for you? Has there been any culture shock in moving from the San Francisco queer porn scene to the more "mainstream" LA scene?
Belladonna contacted my partner Jiz Lee about coming down for a casting call over Valentine's Day weekend this year after several of her fans on her forum requested it. I came along to keep Jiz company and Belladonna also ended up interviewing me. A couple months later, Satine Phoenix put me in contact with LA director Nica Noelle and we got booked to shoot together. I told Belladonna that I would be down in LA shooting so she booked me too. That might have been the best birthday week I have ever had. They are both so sexy and getting to f--k them was amazing.
Earlier this year I also had the opportunity to shoot stills for a scene Kimberly Kane and April Flores did with Nofauxxx.com's Courtney Trouble. April invited me to hang out while I was in LA and I met director Winkytiki at a party with her and Carlos Batts. Winkytiki ended up booking me for a women in prison film he was shooting. Seriously it has all been a whirlwind.
I have met some really great people down in LA. Admittedly I am pretty exhausted. This is my second week down here and I got to shoot for Winktiki for Triangle Films, Sweetheart Video, Girlfriends Films, and Belladonna. In the middle of it all, I drove back to San Francisco at 4 am to make the Champion movie premier and part of Gay Pride. I am about to fly back to SF for 2 days and then next week I fly out to NYC for a week and a half to shoot for a new lesbian porn company with a lot of my favorite people.
I am sure there is some culture shock, but I have honestly not have had the time to sit down and experience it. I did grow up in LA and was a PA during the summers for a Studio City productions company so the industry is not completely foreign to me. I kind of grow up a little with it.
It wasn't too long ago that it seemed like all porn girls fit a very specific type--but now the industry seems to be opening up a little more. First we saw girls like Sasha Grey and Stoya rising to fame; now you're shooting with some of the hottest stars around. Do you think the industry as a whole is opening up to the idea of different types of beauty, or is it just a small, visible sector? Either way, what do you think is the driving force behind this change?
I am a pretty positive person and I'd like to think that yes there is a trend in the mainstream that is creating a greater degree of access than was there before, but needless to say, if cracking open beauty standards and providing a supportive environment for exploring this is our goal, we have a long way to go. It wasn't until I started doing porn that I started to recognize that I have a certain degree of traditional beauty which allows me to get the work that I get.
So yes it is opening up and yes it is still a small sector. I think one of the primary driving forces behind this is most definitely the economy. It's a like a calderine. Companies have to get smarter about what they are producing, increase the quality of their products and be open to new ideas. I think this is making more people willing to explore and be creative in the process. I believe Larry Flynt mentioned something about this a year and a half ago at AVN.
I think that in the technological booms of the advent of the VHS and now downloadable video, the market became over saturated with the standard mass produced videos mainstream was making and as the economy dropped, independent, alt and more specialized companies were able to rise from the pack because they are offering something that is unique. Companies are also starting to listen to consumers more rather than shovel the same old shit down their eye holes.
In the 2000's we are recognizing not only the couples' and women's markets but that perhaps the assumptions we have about our consumers and their sexual desires might be short sighted or flat out wrong. So we need to start being open to new content and new ideas of what turns people on and what we find beautiful
And lastly: when you're not making hot porn, how do you like to spend your time?
I fought MMA professionally for a year however the increase of adult work in my life is currently preventing me from doing this, I still love training. I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and have been doing Muay Thai boxing for over 5 years.
I love sweating and being physical, so whether it is fighting, training, or f--king I am totally into it. I also do crazy ass performance art with Jiz Lee, twincest.net. Oh yes and love, I have several partners I am madly in love with and can be found spooning and cooking with them.
More Syd at freeones.com
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