LOS ANGELES—Director Julie Pacino comes from a family background in the movies. She is the eldest child of legendary actor and movie star Al Pacino, best known for The Godfather, Scarface and dozens of other iconic film performances. But though he made his share of controversial motion pictures, his daughter in her newest short film has ventured where even Al Pacino has yet to tread — the world of the adult film industry.
The 11-minute comedy short debuted online last week on PornHub, which has recently been making a push to expand its audience into mainstream — albeit edgy — cinema. The company is now also looking to stream entries from Germany’s top indie film event, the Oldenburg Festival.
Director Pacino’s latest short film, appropriately titled "Hard Work," takes a comedic though affectionate look behind the scenes of a porn shoot, as seen through the eyes of a wide-eyed and nervous production assistant, portrayed by New York actor Max Meisel — who also scripted the film and according to Pacino, was actually the originator of the idea to explore porn as a topic for her film.
“My good friend Max Meisel wrote the script and I thought it was a super funny slice of good-spirited, vocational humor,” Pacino told AVN. “He had done a ton of research on the adult industry and even shadowed as a PA on a shoot before writing the short.”
“Vocational” humor is certainly an apt description, because — without giving away too many spoilers — the central comic premise involves the fictional PA “Max” finding himself forced to help the shoot’s male star overcome a common vocational hazard of the business, the inability to achieve an erection — even after he's popped not one but two Viagra tablets.
We won’t give away exactly how Max ultimately assists with this problem. Suffice to say, Pacino’s film is not, itself, porn — but it doesn’t spare anything to earn a laugh from a situation that would probably make even Larry David uncomfortable.
Meisel’s research appears to have paid off. According to Pacino, feedback from inside the real-life adult industry has been positive.
“We got really great feedback from adult film actors who felt the short was very authentic, which honestly was the most important thing for us while making it,” she said. “A few of them even shared it on their social media platforms.”
She also said that PornHub viewers “seem to be enjoying the short... at least the ones who weren't expecting it to be an actual adult film!”
Nor does Pacino worry about being looked at askance by the “mainstream” film industry for premiering the film on the world’s largest porn site.
“There are always people who want to criticize and make judgements, but my partners and I don't take ourselves too seriously when it comes to that,” she said. “We had a product that we felt would be fun to share with people, so that's exactly what we did!”
The distribution deal with PornHub, however, was not Pacino’s original intent for the film. Instead, she and her partners in her New York-based production company Tiny Apples envisioned “Hard Work” as the first episode in a series about the misadventures of Max, the porn PA. But then, the coronavirus pandemic closed off that possibility, at least for the time being.
“Once we realized physical productions would be on hold for a while, we decided to pursue Pornhub as an avenue for the release. We wanted to release this playful short to provide a chuckle while we’re all staying safe at home, and luckily Pornhub presented with us a really fun opportunity to do that,” she said.
Another Tiny Apples partner, Robert MacCready, came up with the plan to approach PornHub with the possibility of streaming the film.
“We all thought it was a really interesting, outside-of-the-box idea,” she recounts. “At the time, I didn't realize PH had been expanding their business model into non-pornographic material but my other partner Eliese Lissner filled me in on what PornHub did with the documentary Shakedown, and I was totally inspired. It was the perfect fit for our short.”
Pornhub Vice President Corey Price also said working with Pacino a “natural fit,” calling the short film, “a fun story to share with our global audience. No doubt many of our fans, even those outside the adult industry, will be able to relate to this tale of a tricky work situation.”
But what does Pacino’s famous father think of her porn-themed short. Julie Pacino addressed that topic in a recent interview with The New York Post, saying, “He thinks it offers comic relief during this pandemic.”
“Hard Work,” which also stars Jason Dietz as the chronically flaccid “Pistol Pete,” premiered on Pornhub May 15, and may be viewed on the site by visiting this link. Bear in mind that while the film itself contains no nudity or explicit images, the closing credits montage sequence definitely does.
Photo courtesy of Julie Pacino
