When I pulled up outside of a large, gated home in Encino at four o’clock, I can’t say I had much of an idea what to expect. I could guess at a few of the people that would be present -- some decent-looking girls, a director, maybe some camera men, who knows how many onlookers -- but that was about it. I parked my car, punched the intercom and listened to my heart tattoo loudly against my chest before it jumped at the grinding sound of the door beginning to swing inwards.
As I walked up the front stairs to the house, a stocky butch lesbian wearing a backwards hat and a red bandana tied through one of the loops of her jeans introduced herself as Candi-Girl. She was friendly and calm -- indicating that nothing about our situation was strange.
As a producer, it wouldn’t be. She had witnessed hundreds, probably thousands of hours of footage. For many other people though, certainly for me, watching the filming of a queer porn would be anything but an ordinary occasion.
Sinn Sage entered the bedroom, her long, thick black hair black hair falling over her shoulders and down her back. Elexis Monroe, blonder, a little older, casually wearing jeans and a light blue tank top, was waiting for her.
Sinn Sage and Elexis Monroe
Two days earlier, I had gotten an email from my editor asking if I was interested in covering a porn shoot. Since I am not an idiot, I immediately said yes.
The shoot would be for Girlfriends Films, a brand that, according to its website, is for “Fine folks with good hearts and curious minds” and “Your #1 source for all-girl DVDs in the world.” I can’t say I got much of a sense of the films or the mission from the taglines, but the “About Me” section was a little more helpful. The main idea behind Girlfriends Films, which strangely enough was started as a project in a UCLA extension class for documentary filmmaking, is that the films are, well… not fake.
Though, like any other video porn company, they produce some films with complicated back stories, some films with multiple girls, and of course, extremely explicit sexual content, they are based on the idea that there is some real connection happening on screen.
The girls get to request who they work with, and during the filming, they take a long time for foreplay. In fact, the actual sex -- positions, length of time, toys -- is dictated by them rather than a director.
As Dan O’Connell, the president of the company, says, there isn’t even really a director on set. He, Candi-Girl, and a woman named Sabrina make up the camera crew, and though there is some direction with dialogue, while they are actually filming the sex scenes there is no contact with the girls themselves, just whispering among the crew as to how best to film what is taking place.
Sinn let out an excited, snake-like hiss before getting onto the bed. She pushed herself on top of Elexis and began softly stroking her cheek. For perhaps thirty very intense seconds they just stared at each other, their blond and dark locks intermingling like river currents as they ran their hands through each other’s hair.
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After entering the house, I met the girls, Elexis and Sinn. Though I hadn’t planned an interview with them, they generously gave me most of their time before their shoot to ask them questions. They swiped some carrots and dip from the counter before we meandered into the backyard to talk.
I was incredibly surprised by how friendly and easy to talk to they were. Both of them seemed to be having a lot of fun, and we all laughed as they talked about themselves, videos that they had shot or directed, and some of their off-camera experiences.
Elexis and Sinn explained to me some of the differences between girl / girl and girl / boy porn. Often, boy-girl porn is shot with many onlookers and with less consideration for the performers. Though they had in general been treated well, there was a lot more of “fuck the girl in this position,” and “now move and do it this way,” without really any warm up or concern for real chemistry between the actors, they told me.
Elexis succinctly described her fondness for girl / girl over girl / boy scenes, saying, “I’m not really interested in taking 30 cocks a month.”
Ultimately, they didn’t seem that different than many of my friends, other than some of the content of what we were talking about.
I’ve always thought of myself to be pretty liberal minded. As a general rule, I don’t find most things that consenting adults do to one another sexually to be bad. Even if it is a fetish or practice that I myself am not interested in, I realize that there are rational, not-wildly-messed up human beings that likely engage in it.
I’ve always sort of thought of pornography in this vein. It’s not something that I want to do, but I’m sure there are intelligent, non-horrible-daddy-issue-having people that engage in it. Or… well that’s the way I thoughtI thought about it.
Once I realized how shocked I was by how normal the girls were, I determined I probably wasn’t as liberal-minded as I had perceived myself to be. Ultimately, when I really dug into it, I must not have actually believed these convictions that I thought I held so deeply. When I really confronted my initial expectations, I had to admit to myself that I didn’texpect the girls to be normal. If I really considered what I thought I would see, I had expected them to be not particularly intelligent and likely drugged up. I figured that they would be slutty and have some serious psychological issues.
But they weren’t like this at all. To both of them, sex was a meaningful thing.
They weren’t having massive amounts of sex with people off-camera that they weren’t in relationships with. The fact that their job coincided with something that they enjoyed doing—well that, Sinn explained (though this should have been obvious), was a very lucky thing.
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I know that I don’t know these girls very well, and I know I’m not a psychologist. However, what I can tell you, with certainty, is that these girls are doing this with their eyes open. They know what they are doing, and they enjoy it.
Sinn pulled Elexis’ hair back and began to tease her lips with her own, not yet getting too close. They began to slowly grind against each other, causing Sinn’s dress to slide down. Elexis pulled the dress down further, and Sinn was quickly naked from the waist up.
After I finished interviewing the girls, they filmed a behind-the-scenes portion where they answered questions from Dan, Candi-Girl, and another reporter. While answering one of Dan’s questions, Elexis mentioned that she had helped Sinn recover after a serious snowboarding accident.
After the accident, Sinn was worried she had lost her mojo and was unsure if she could do porn anymore. Her hair was now short after being shaved in the hospital, and she just “didn’t feel sexy.”
It was during this time that Sinn decided to come hang out at a shoot that Elexis was working on. Talking before the shoot, Sinn expressed her concerns about herself and her career since the accident. Elexis, while saying that she was supportive of whatever Sinn decided to do, also said that it would be a loss to the industry if Sinn stopped working. Elexis said that she would still love to work with Sinn, and that when she was ready to get back into filming, she would be there to shoot with her. Ultimately, it was Elexis’ faith in Sinn that was one of the factors to convince her to start shooting again.
Finally, Sinn sunk into a kiss with Elexis. She pulled her body close to her, and they rubbed against each other. Suddenly, though so far the movements had been so slow, Elexis’ shirt, bra, underwear, and pants were off. Elexis peeled off Sinn’s dress, and Sinn hung her underwear around Elexis’ neck.
The filming was reallyhot. These girls knew what they were doing, what they wanted done to themselves and to the other person, and how to do it. Being on set was extremely uncomfortable. Oddly, not because I was watching two people having sex -- anyone can do this on their own on their computer -- but because there seemed to be an actual moment happening in front of me; I kind of felt like I was watching a real couple making love.
The deep connection of the actors in their scenes lends to Girlfriends films’ watchers to be a diverse group of people: mainly, straight and gay couples and gay girls.
According to Candi-Girl, the couples like the films because they seem real and hot in a way that is similar to the way they have sex. The girls like it because, by using actresses that are not gay for pay, they can watch people that are actually enjoying themselves rather two disconnected straight girls that slap the other person with a dildo before they fake an orgasm.
And it’s not just Candi-Girl, Dan, and the actresses that believe this more “real” style of porn is hotter. The films are unbelievably successful, and recently at the AVN awards they were the second recipient of the new Leadership Award -- given to a company or individual that “best exemplifies the highest level of innovation and good business practices.”
Sinn began rubbing herself between Elexis’ legs. Softly at first, then harder. Elexis began to moan.
Ultimately, these innovative practices lead Girlfriends to be one of the leaders, perhaps the leader, of hot lesbian porn. Though there are other film companies -- Sweetheart and Triangle are two other popular production companies in the same genre -- Girlfriends Films seems to be, at least according to the actresses and the AVN, a cut above.
Elexis’ moans could be heard throughout the whole house, probably down the whole street. Elexis began to lose color in her face.
Girlfriends Films knows something that it is surprising the rest of the porn world doesn’t: sex with an actual connection, with something that cannot be forced, something vulnerable, is truly the hottest kind of sex. While perhaps people just watch porn to get off, at a larger level they are watching themselves mirrored back at them. They are looking, just like in movies, to have their identities confirmed. In porn, the only difference is that it is the sexual identity that is portrayed. But, all of this aside, the best part of these films has to be—
Elexis grabbed on to Sinn shoulders, and Sinn pushed even harder down on to Elexis. For a moment, Elexis lost control of herself and broke eye contact. But Sinn pushed her face back up, locking her eyes in, watching Elexis shake as she achieved what everyone, truly, was waiting to see—
A real orgasm.
Check out Girlfriends Films.
