Interview with Britain's first female porn director

Anna Span goes at it "hammer and tongs." Britain's first female porn director has directed over 200 sex scenes and produced 40 feature-length porn movies since starting her own company, Easy on the Eyes, in 1998.
"It means to go at something really energetically," Span explains to me over the phone from London when I ask her what a character in her 2001 film Anna's Mates means when she says they went at it "hammer and tongs" to describe one of the film's sex, er, shag sessions.

I swear, porn is just so much more charming with a British accent.

And with a director who actually lets her female performers speak. It's the first thing I notice watching Anna's Mates: The women talk during sex - about what they like, what they want, what they see. They laugh too. Because sex is funny sometimes. It's all very refreshingly real, yet Span's films contain plenty of fantasy, porn's main appeal. Because it's not everyday we get to fuck a hot fireman or boldly walk up to a male stranger on the street and bring him back to our place for a no-strings-attached shag.

Which is why Span, who is coming to Toronto for Good For Her's second annual Feminist Porn Awards, keeps her feminist politics behind the scenes.

Rather than making films that constantly remind women of their sexual repression, Span assumes a world in which women already have the sexual power and enjoy using it. Or giving it up. Their choice, of course.

"I think having the politics so in-your-face insults the intelligence
of the viewer," she says. "And it's extremely restricting, creatively."

Besides, she adds, "when you engage the brain too much, it takes emphasis away from the groin. You stop being turned on if you're thinking too much."

A graduate in experimental film from London's St-Martins School of Art, Span wanted to work in a genre of film where she could make a difference.

And she has. Unlike the exclusive male gaze of most conventional porn, Span includes the female sightline, the one with the hot guy in the aforementioned fireman get-up.

Uniforms are popular in Span's films: cops, service industry types, what have you. She enjoys toying with this popular porno gimmick and taking it up a notch, using real uniforms as opposed to cheesy knock-offs and playing off the surreal and often humorous nature of the situation.

When not in uniform, her characters are usually in sneakers rather than stilettos.

"The actors in my films are more street," she says.

They're also hot.

Span would like to depict a wider variety of body types and ages - something women often complain is lacking in porn - but hasn't been able to recruit many.

"Because they think porn stars have to look a certain way, they don't think they're good-looking enough," she says.

Span avoids the lighting and wumpa, wumpa music of traditional porn, opting for daylight and original music, or none at all.

She directs the sex but encourages her actors to incorporate their own preferences. Condoms are by choice.

"I usually include one scene using condom, to do my bit," she says, "but it's financial suicide to use them all the time. They don't sell."

Span is quick to add that England has a very good testing system and no cases of HIV infection have shown up in the industry there.

While porn aimed at women is often jammed with plot and romance - 'cause chicks love that, right? - Span advises those looking for romance to go to the regular movies. You know, the ones with actual scripts written for that purpose.

Sure, she prefers her performers to be characters rather than sex machines and allows for some genuine interaction to draw you into the sex, but, she argues, "you don't need a whole candlelit dinner."

"Porn isn't about romance, it's about igniting the senses," says Span. "You don't need to see romance, you just need to see respect."

She directs the sex but encourages her actors to incorporate their own preferences. Condoms are by choice.

"I usually include one scene using condom, to do my bit," she says, "but it's financial suicide to use them all the time. They don't sell."