Next week film students at University of California Santa Barbara will learn about the adult entertainment industry from one of the men who helped shape it, Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment Group.
Hirsch will speak to students at the UCSB Film Studies Department how he helped guide Vivid to its position as one of the world’s most successful adult entertainment companies on Wednesday, May 26.
“I’m delighted to have been invited to UCSB to talk about the adult industry to the people who will one day be running the show in Hollywood,” Hirsch said. “Professor Penley has taken a very professional attitude toward adult, recognizing that it is an important part of the overall entertainment environment. That being said, I think we’re going to have some fun in this lecture because, after all, the topic is one that all students find pretty fascinating.”
Hirsch will outline how over the course of two decades Vivid developed the “Vivid Girl” contract performer concept and took other steps that led to the success of the Vivid Entertainment Group, while leading the way in the increasing acceptance of adult entertainment as an important part of the overall entertainment scene.
Constance Penley, UCSB Professor of Film Studies, invited Hirsch to the campus. “In my class, which I’ve taught since 1993, we take an historical and comparative approach to the adult industry,” says Professor Penley. “We ask of it all the same questions we would ask of Hollywood filmmaking, including looking at the way the industry has evolved over the decades, how changing technologies have affected both production and distribution and how the regulatory climate at any given time influences the content and style of the films.
“We are delighted that one of the prime architects of new business models for the adult industry [Hirsch] will be lecturing to our students.”
Penley teaches Film Studies 150: Topics in Film Genre, subtitled Pornographic Films. Students in her class watch adult titles such as Opening of Misty Beethoven and Behind the Green Door, 1999's Buttman Confidential, and gay video Shooting Porn. Past guest lecturers for the class have included Gino Colbert, Nina Hartley, Veronica Hart, Sharon Mitchell and John Stagliano.
