LOS ANGELES—“Porno” Dan Leal, CEO of Immoral Productions, is the subject of a new documentary titled Danland from filmmaker Alexandra Berger. The filmmakers followed Leal for three and a half years starting in 2004, just after he received his first AVN award nomination.
Quitting his job as a successful office machine salesman, Leal got his start filming amateur porn in Virginia, and the 89-minute documentary traces Leal’s life from those humble beginnings as he begins to gain more notoriety in the porn world—all while looking for true love.
To view a teaser from the documentary, click here.
The Hollywood Reporter called Danland “a lively, explicit portrait of nice guy pornographer Dan Leal and his ill-fated attempts at real intimacy,” in a positive review.
During filming Berger said she began to see her role as a cultural anthropologist seeking to uncover the way of life and love, according to Leal.
“Although I didn’t know what to expect when I first met Dan, it was immediately evident that he was still in pain from his last break-up,” Berger said. “So despite the oddness I initially felt about sitting down with a pornographer, I found I could connect with this feeling of lost love—a universal thread amongst us all. And as I soon learned, Dan’s life was in the midst of many changes. He was just nominated for his first AVN Award and it appeared as if his career was on the rise. More surprisingly, Dan also told me that he had decided to stop acting in his own films and concentrate on living a cleaner personal life in a step toward finding real intimacy. As a true believer in love, I wanted to believe that this could happen.”
Of course, knowing Leal, nothing ever quite goes as planned.
“While Alexandra Berger's documentary portrait of Lear starts out like an episode of HBO's Real Sex, it builds into a fascinating look at Leal's psychology and the forces behind his decision to leave his white-collar lifestyle in favor of a far more unorthodox profession,” IndieWire.com’s Eric Kohn said. “Love him or hate him, Porno Dan makes a terrific camera presence, even (or, to some viewers, especially) when he keeps his clothes on.”
Danland premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, which serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent in the film industry.
For more information on Danland, visit DanlandMovie.com.
Photo courtesy of Rick Garcia
