Strand Releasing to Unveil '9 to 5: Days in Porn' Documentary

LOS ANGELES—Strand Releasing is set to distribute a DVD documentary entitled “9 to 5: Days in Porn,” which features several well-known adult industry personalities.

The 95-minute documentary is billed as “a portrait about people who work in adult entertainment, a business bigger than the music industry.”

Director Jens Hoffman filmed his subjects for a period of over a year, watching more than 10 different stories unfold. “9 to 5” documents the professional and personal lives of performers Sasha Grey, Belladonna, Audrey Hollander, Otto Bauer, Roxy DeVille, Mia Rose and Katja Kassin; directors John Stagliano and Jim Powers; agent Mark Spiegler and Dr. Sharon Mitchell, among others.

“What we were going for in the movie was to neither glorify nor confirm preconceived opinions or expectations by promoting clichés,” said Hoffman, a German filmmaker who captured the footage in the San Fernando Valley, the Czech Republic, France and Germany. “We searched for closeness by creating an honest approach to the subjects with the thought that through personal portraits, we could offer the audience the chance to identify with our protagonists.”

In addition to the main subjects, there are also numerous appearances in the film by familiar industry personalities such as AVN founder Paul Fishbein, Nina Hartley, Andrew Blake, Kimberly Kane, Jonni Darkko and Karen Stagliano. The DVD includes footage from the AVN Awards Show and over two dozen performers and directors.

The unrated film will be available beginning on May 4 at Amazon.com and on the Strand Releasing and “9 to 5” websites.

Hoffman began his research for the project in 2003, first in Prague and Berlin and then in Los Angeles.

“And when we spoke to the people around us, they always had more questions: Why are the girls doing this? Are they having fun? Do they have boyfriends? How much money can they earn? It didn’t stop. It was obvious, people were interested,” he said. “Once the research continued, a whole new world opened to our eyes and ears and we understood that all those TV reports were just scratching at the surface.

“In order to keep a neutral perspective for the viewer, it was clear that we could not create a narrated documentary. We had actually planned to have a story structure (like a feature movie) and originally intended on five to seven stories, structuring the movie in episodes. When we started filming, it was the plan to work with about 15 people as protagonists but to have only a third of them in the movie. After almost one-and-a-half years of filming we knew there was much more to it than the original five. But the first rough cut was around four hours long. So we ended up deleting a lot and deciding on 11 main characters.”

Bonus features on the disc include deleted scenes, outtakes and a Q&A with the director.