NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Vivid Entertainment director Paul Thomas shook up Sex Week at Yale with a reel of footage he screened at a seminar Saturday night depicting what the Yale Daily News today called "violent sado-masochism."
According to the report, those who coordinated the event did not view the reel before Thomas showed it, and were "appalled" by the practices it portrayed, described by the Daily News as "fantasy rape, bondage and piercing."
Thomas told AVN the footage shown was compiled from six different productions, one of them his AVN Best Film winner Layout.
"I gave a very carefully considered course in pornography at Yale University particularly tailored to the audience that I had," said Thomas. "It was a huge success; the audience absolutely loved it, and I can only assume that anybody who objected or had opinions to the contrary must not have been there."
Event coordinator Colin Adamo commented to Thomas in the question-and-answer session following the screening that he found the images "sexually unhealthy" and "disrespectful to women." Adamo told the Daily News that his comment was booed by several audience members, describing a "sense of revelry" in the crowd during the screening.
Nevertheless, Adamo called the screening a "grave mistake," and said, "We really dropped the ball on this one. No one watched the movie before Paul showed it to the audience."
Sex Week director Joe Citarella told YDN that he thought the event was positive because it prompted discussion.
"Part of Sex Week is to challenge what's being done," Citarella said. "And I questioned Paul as to whether these graphic images are OK, knowing that there is someone on the other end who is enjoying it."
