Erika Lust’s ‘XConfessions’ Will Be the First Explicit Erotic Series Featured by the Berlin Film Society

The beginning of mainstream porn: The perks of a different perspective

I'm not exactly new to indie porn screenings. As one of Dan Savage's biggest fans, I've been to Humpfest several times with my friends, reveling in the fact that hundreds of people are willing to convene in the same place to watch a different kind of porn just for the sake of art. That said, Dan, brilliant man that he is, curates his selection of porn—he doesn't produce it. Pornographers aren't typically brought to well-known venues for the sake of screening their own films, and they're even less frequently asked to do so by a mainstream film society. 

But Erika Lust was.

This probably doesn't surprise most of you, considering she's been lauded as one of the most talented, progressive porn producers today. Her empire, Lust Productions, is a company paving the way for artistic, realistic porn shot from the female perspective, and people are taking note. So many, in fact, that she's been featured in almost every magazine in production (OK, slight exaggeration, but you get the point). The only problem? These publications may reference her work, but they won't explicitly publish it—because they can't. The divide between porn and mainstream content remains relatively firm, even in the midst of adult entertainment's "coming out," because the average layman is not exactly thrilled to see graphic sex in the middle of Esquire. Yet here we are, with a film society promoting Erika's films because they explore the narrative of sex in an artistic (but pornographic) way. That's so fucking awesome.

The Facebook event will give you the rundown of most of the details, but here's the gist: The Berlin Film Society is hosting the event for their 4th anniversary at Babylon Kino in Berlin on Feb 10. (The initial event has sold out, so there will be an encore screening on Friday February 12.) The whole shebang starts with a talk by Erika followed by the director's cut of her XConfessions film series, which is an incredible crowdsourced porn series, if you're not familiar with it. 

So what's the significance of all this? Well, as more independent porn companies surface and produce something that the general public deems worth talking about, and as more mainstream companies understand that everyone is watching porn (like Diesel, now advertising on PornHub), more people are talking about sex as an independent experience, something that carries different weight and significance for everyone. And that, my friends, is my life's work. 

Did I mention I was excited about this?