LOS ANGELES—Today, fans of beautiful African American women have reason to rejoice. ArchAngel Productions—known for its titles in porn’s perennially popular IR genre (aka white female paired with black men)—is streeting its first all-black movie. And the title, naturally, is The Black Archangels.
“Since we started,” ArchAngel director MimeFreak said, “a lot of people told us, ‘You’ve got to come out with an all-black movie.’ Our thing was interracial—that’s what we started out with. So it took me a while.”
But good things come to those who wait. “This is the movie that a lot of people want to see!” the director exclaimed.
So, who is taking flight as the studio’s first group of ebony angels?
“We have the box cover with Chanell Heart,” MimeFreak told AVN (pictured above). “I think she’s severely underrated.”
In the business since 2013, Heart may be underrated but she’s certainly attracted AVN’s notice. She has been nominated for both Best New Starlet and Performer of the Year, and she was featured in the advertising campaign for the 2018 AVN Show.
The other performers are newer, but MimeFreak is equally enthusiastic. Most experienced is Sarah Banks, who has racked up about 50 titles since 2016. “Sarah Banks—that’s who I call my young gunner,” MimeFreak said. “She kicks ass and takes no names. I met her on a few occasions and I told her, ‘I got something cooking up, waiting for the right time.’ I wanted to piece it together. We have the Marvel Black Panther out, and February is Black History Month.”
Sarah Banks
Also featured are two less familiar names. “We have Mya Mays—she’s young, up and coming, and a lot of people haven’t had a taste of her. And then we have Zoey Reyes. She’s also young; she’s Dominican.”
“I’ll give credit for this movie to the fans. The fans challenged me,” he added. And though “they had to wait for it,” MimeFreak sees now as the perfect time to release the movie.
“A lot of fans were talking about the pigment of performers’ skin—they wanted to see more dark-skinned girls. So the original title that I wanted to use was The Darker the Berry," he said, referring to the expression "the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice." But he explained that the owner of ArchAngel suggested, “We have the Archangels—why don’t we do the Black Archangels?”
As befits the heavenly name, MimeFreak wanted to treat his cast members like angels. “In this movie I have them in nice dresses, I have them in nice lingerie. … I wanted to do it in a different way.”
None of the performers had ever shot with the director before: “I think it’s cool to shoot four new girls I haven’t shot with.” He joked that they were struck by how “goofy” he is on set. “Everybody was kind of surprised because when I do my go-sees I’m a little serious,” he said. He likes to keep the mood light on set, but eve more important, he wants the performers to enjoy themselves. “I told them, 'Hey, whatever you want to do, we can do it.' My number-one rule is comfort. When you come to set, I want you to be in your zone. I want you to feel comfortable, I want you to feel beautiful—because you are beautiful.”
The performers also enjoyed how much freedom they had on set. “I’m not like a robot,” MimeFreak recalled, saying that he told the women, “I want you guys to be in your element. I want you guys to have fun. I want you guys to enjoy yourselves. You don’t have to do this position, do this position, do this position. I trust you guys to be professional. Just be in your element and just float. … I’m going to get my shot, and if I’m not, I’m going to tell you.”
On his sets, MimeFreak asserts, “You come in, you have fun, and it doesn’t even feel like work. If it’s just a gonzo, I don’t want it to be staged.”
The women were only half of the equation, however. “The chemistry with the performers was great,” MimeFreak said, mentioning Banks’ pairing with Rico Strong specifically: “Her scene was fireworks from beginning to end.” Heart performs with Isiah Maxwell, Mya Mays is cast with L.T. and Zoey Reyes with Sean Michaels.
Mya Mays
“I’ve always loved L.T. and when I was shooting for Elegant [Angel] he said, ‘You’d better put me in your black movie,’ and I said, ‘I’ll make that happen.’ Rico also demanded that. I like to look out for the guys who say, ‘If you’re going to do something special, I want to be in it.’’
Sean Michaels was another must-have for this project. And MimeFreak’s only regret, he says, is that due to a scheduling conflict, he wasn’t able to have Prince Yahshua on set.
MimeFreak is already looking forward to the next Black Archangels, which he hopes will be an even more elaborate production. Plus, he's looking for the next star in his all-girl line, which has included AJ’s Angels, Remy’s Angels and Kendra’s Angels. But he says he wants someone who will co-direct—as AJ Applegate did for AJ’s Angels. “We have to get the right one. I know which girls like girls. AJ was perfect,” he said.
As he did in an interview with AVN late last year, MimeFreak continues to hint that big things are on the way at ArchAngel. He has something on the horizon for summer but isn’t ready to share any details.
“This is my baby this year, and I want the fans to be excited about it because the fans are going to be heavily involved. We have the website, we have the blog site, we have something special we are going to be announcing. We’re going to put it on so many platforms—social media. There’s a different crowd for Twitter, there’s a different crowd for Instagram, there’s a different crowd for the blog site. All of these are going to kind of play a part.”
He said he will be “taking porn to a level where I feel it should have gone to, but a lot of people are afraid of it being offensive or mean or putting people in a bad light. But it’s friendly competition, let’s just say that.”
He concludes, “I’m trying to give you something without spilling the beans. … This is the year when I want to put my face and my company back on the map again.”
For more about ArchAngel, follow on Twitter: @Arch_Angel_XXX.
Zoey Reyes
