PORN VALLEY—Last week saw the release of a new movie from a new company: Twisted Fate: A Lesbian Feature, from Girl Co Films, an all-girl studio that's distributed by Black Market Entertainment. But the movie is something that's been in the back of director Sal Genoa's mind for a long time.
"Black Market is Jody and James Melendy's company, and they wanted to branch out to having an all-girl company, so Girl Co was born," Genoa told AVN. "You know, it's funny. Jody said, 'I want to name it Girl Code,' and I'm like, 'Girl Co is kind of cool; it's like 'girl company.' And she says, 'I like that!' And I was like, 'Dang; okay!'"
With almost 20 years in the business, Genoa's certainly no stranger to XXX, beginning as a production assistant for folks like Paul Thomas and Robby D at Vivid and Vince Vouyer at Anabolic, and though his directorial bow was at Red Light District, Genoa eventually helmed more than 60 films for Anabolic Video and its kissin' cousin Diabolic. But by 2007, Genoa decided it was time for a break, and he didn't return to adult until last year, then hooking up with Filly Films and Combat Zone for a double handful of movies before the yen to do higher-end features returned.
"I'm friends with Jody; we PA'd together about 15 years ago, and they needed somebody to do a good all-girl feature," Genoa explained, "and I've got 79 movies out, and I thought this would be a great chance to just blow it out of the park, and Jody and James are really nice people, so I'm directing for them."
However, it wasn't exactly a slam-dunk to get the Melendys to back Twisted Fate.
"For this movie, I really battled with them," Genoa admitted. "I was like, 'Please, just take a chance,' and when they saw this trailer, they were like, 'Oh, we get it. You're confident.' They know my work, but I was pitching this to bring it to another level, which means more money, more time, and that's hard to do when every day, people come in and pitch them, 'I'm gonna take your company to a new level.' That's what Jody was telling me, and she was glad to see this trailer, and then she watched the whole movie and said, 'Oh, this is great; let's just keep making these, it's such a high-level production.'"
"It's kind of fun helping these guys develop this new line," he added. "I've known them for such a long time, and they want this high-level girl feature stuff, and I love it. I sat on [Paul Thomas'] sets at Vivid in '99, saying, 'This is filmmaking!' And Michael Raven at Sin City—these guys have been around forever. This is what I like: big, elaborate sets. So I said, 'Let's make some real movies, and within those movies, have great sex.' It's possible to do both. I did a series at Anabolic called Artcore, and it was artsy stuff and I loved it. The sex was Anabolic sex, but it looked really like a feature. I love big, elaborate things. I'm a cinephile and I want to make elaborate, nice features and have the sex just off-the-wall crazy."
Genoa dropped off both soft- and hard-core trailers for Twisted Fate, and we can confirm that "off-the-wall crazy" is an apt description of the sex. (Click here to see a trailer. Alas, it's the softcore version in a low resolution—but it does give a taste of the action.)
"It's good versus evil, and in this particular movie, Dana DeArmond just crushes it. Annika [Albrite] just crushes it. I put them as heads of the good girls and the bad girls," Genoa recounted. "So the good girls get a chance to go to their dad's summer home, and oddly enough, the evil girls are causing a wreck through the entire town. The twist of fate, obviously, is what happens when they finally meet up. There's an underlying subplot of like, 'Whoa, that really happened?' but then there's another underlying plot from that, so the thing is, you can really get involved in the story, and the sex is amazing, so what happens is good versus evil with a twist, and there's a twist underneath what happens from the remnants of what the bad girls are doing.
"I don't want to give it all away," he said when pressed for more detail. "The trailer is intriguing, but there's so much going on that I had to leave a lot out to make the trailer under two minutes. But cinematically, I tried to take it to another level, and I believe because of this movie, you'll see a certain cinematic trend developing in the industry."
Also starring in the all-girl production are Carter Cruise, Catie Parker, Marina Angel and Sara Luvv.
Besides making movies, Genoa spends time with one of his first loves: martial arts.
"I'm self-employed, so I can do martial arts; I've been doing that for 17 years," he said. "And I've gotten a lot of people in the industry into martial arts because I'd come to the set and after the shoot, they'd say, 'I'm gonna go out and party,' and I'd be, 'No, I'm gonna go train.' And they're like, 'Really? Let me hear about this; it's interesting.' So I got a lot of people into the sport, and I'm excited to show the healthy side of the industry. You know, a lot of people on the outside need to know that it's not an orgy every day on set; no one's partying blatantly, no one's using drugs. It's not like that. If you're into a good, healthy lifestyle, that's what happens when you come on set and when you leave. I like to be a positive, happy person and bring my outside world into the industry and say, 'Look, man, it's not about this. It's about me working out,' and a lot of people who have been at it a long time, the martial arts, because it's a good feeling to just show the industry in a positive light."
Genoa's other time-consuming interest is his podcast.
"It's called Porn Director Podcast," he stated. "It's a weekly radio show showing the positive things about the industry, and we have male talent, female talent, directors, PAs, PMs, anybody in the industry who has a positive light to show. We're on episode 54, so we've made it a year. We have our new year-end awards coming up; the fans can email us and vote for people, and it's fun. The girls get crazy sometimes, they do little shows, and I'm like, 'Whoa! Okay; well, we'll just roll it.' I'm kind of developing characters for it now, kind of like a Howard Stern thing where you follow these people. It's cool. So I get people to come on the show, we have a great time; it's a fun experience. ... I had Greg Dark on there; that was a highlight. Nina Hartley's been on the show, Chasey Lain was on the show, so I'm able to get these people that I watched growing up."
As for the future of more features with Girl Co, Genoa is playing it close to the vest.
"I think they [the Melendys] want a big, elaborate thing about every other month, and I don't want to rush," Genoa cautioned. "Jody said, 'I love this!' as soon as she saw the trailer. 'Man, this is great. Let's do another one!' And I was like, 'No, no, no.' I'm telling her, 'let's just let this fucking breathe a little, build up something, and then go at it again.' Because it eats me alive, literally 24 hours a day. I dare people to sit with me and follow me around in a day and watch my brain and the things I'm listening to, the things I'm reading, the things I'm watching—it's never-ending, you know. If I get up to take a leak at 6 in the morning, I'm thinking, 'Okay; she comes out of the room; it's gonna look like this; we're back here; do a reverse here'—it eats me alive, so 'every other month' for me is just fantastic."
Genoa hinted that his output may change in January, but he was even less forthcoming about that.
"Hey, don't worry," he told us. "I've got a big thing coming up in January, which I'd like to tell you about but I can't—but I'll be back to tell you about it as soon as I can."
Twisted Fate: A Lesbian Feature is available now from Black Market Entertainment.
Pictured: A scene from Twisted Fate.
