LOS ANGELES—Film director Julie Davis drew upon her experience in the adult entertainment industry to inform her latest project, Finding Bliss. As a 21-year-old new to Los Angeles, Davis’ work as a video editor at Playboy TV propelled her semi-autobiographical film.
For a world she apparently finds fascinating, Davis doesn’t seem to be fond of her time in porn.
"The feeling I felt when I was there was, 'I'm too good to be at a place like this. I can't believe I'm working here and slumming here with these people,’” Davis told the Los Angeles Times.
Despite her begrudging stance on accepting the job, Davis stayed about a year at Playboy. She used that time as the basis for her movie, which stars Leelee Sobieski, Denise Richards and Jamie Kennedy.
Interestingly, Wicked Pictures played a big part in getting the film made. The company contributed $10,000 as well as posters, footage and its contract stars for Davis to use in the movie. Davis estimates Wicked’s total contribution would have cost her about $200,000.
“We do a lot of product placement stuff and we're very selective about the things we get involved in," Wicked publicist Hethalein Mares told the Times. "To me, it was a very cute, realistic, honest story that had a positive background story about the adult industry. This movie was like a diamond in the rough that we thought had something special."
The film features numerous cameos, including Wicked Pictures star Stormy Daniels, who plays herself. And the ubiquitous Ron Jeremy also participated in the project.
“It’s always a fun experience to be on a mainstream set,” Jeremy told AVN. “I played myself in the film, and who could do that better than me?
“I really liked being a part of this project,” he added. “It was an independent film and you could tell everyone was invested in the production.”
The early reviews of Finding Bliss are not complimentary—neither to the film nor to the adult industry.
“Attempting to marry the art of love with the business of sex, Julie Davis’s Finding Bliss is a tone-deaf motion picture that sours a perfectly ripe opportunity to slap around the world of porn, forgoing satire to make googly eyes with characters unworthy of such warm contemplation,” eFilmCritic.com’s Brian Orndorf said.
Finding Bliss releases Friday in limited distribution.
