LOS ANGELES—Okay, we'll bite. Uproxx.com today kindly, but very oddly, published coverage of January's AVNs. Why the coverage in April and not ... oh, say, in January? We do not know. But, as written by Vince Mancini, the article is a spirited and thoughtful jaunt through an immensely popular event for which we are already starting to plan next year's version!
Titled ‘There’s Probably Semen On That’: 3 Days At The AVNs, Mancini's piece is also a profile of sorts of director Lee Roy Myers, who took Mancini on a "tour of his newly opened studio in Las Vegas." He notes that Myers' transition to Vegas "has been held up as part of a porn 'exodus' to Las Vegas after L.A. County passed its infamous condom law last year," but also observed that "no one at the AVN Awards (aka 'the Oscars of Porn') and the AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo) really wants to talk about condom laws."
Actually, the article, rather than providing a blow-by-blow of the convention, offers an extended riff on the porn scene as experienced at AEE by Mancini, who was in attendance, and addresses topics ranging from the changing demographics of porn consumers to Bonnie Rotten's rising star to porn's big trend: piracy.
Surprisingly, he also took time to stop by "The Future of the Feature" seminar at AEE, whose panelists included a handful of the industry's most dedicated hardcore directors. "The entire purpose of this panel, it seems," writes Mancini, "is as a support group for porn directors who really like making porn features, and trying to figure out how to reconcile that with a changing business, where viewers only watch porn in 10-minute chunks, where story, and all the creativity that went into it, is irrelevant."
More to the point, and somewhat movingly, he also notes of one of the panelists, "He’s so earnest and honest and sincere—they all are. Like they really do make porn because they love it. Artists, but mostly unpretentious about it, because it’s an unpretentious art. They’re charming in the way that anyone who seems to really believe in what they do are charming. And then I feel bad because I can’t remember ever having watched a feature porn, except out of curiosity. I watch porn in the same free, 10-minute chunks that are killing these peoples’ business model as everyone else."
Spot on, in our opinion, and refreshingly perceptive regarding industry professionals who are often lumped together into a maddening stereotype.
Photo, courtesy of Vince Mancini, uproxx.com.
