Lust in America: Erika Lust on Doing Indie Erotica in the USA

Above, Lena Anderson, Michael Vegas and Casey Calvert in The Intern, out now on the new site LustCinema.com. This article ran in the December 2019 issue of AVN magazine;click here to see the digital edition.  The name Erika Lust is synonymous with many things: feminist porn, European erotica, indie production. So what brought this fiercely individual Swedish filmmaker out to Los Angeles, home to mainstream porn? In a flurry of cultural cross-pollination, the team at Lust Cinema—founded by Lust and Pablo Dobner, her partner in business and life—has begun working with some of the top female directors in the mainstream U.S. adult entertainment industry. And the results of these collaborations can be found on the revamped membership site LustCinema.com. In her first official statement about the project, Lust said, “I have decided to put my money where my mouth is, and I want to relaunch Lust Cinema as a brand-new U.S. studio. I want to bring my style of pornography to the L.A. scene by investing money in U.S. productions and giving work to more female filmmakers.” Lust Cinema’s mission is to serve as “the porn studio for lovers of cinema and sex.” Projects will be plot-driven, with sexual encounters incorporated as part of a wider narrative. And they are seeking filmmakers who “show and capture the whole feeling of sex—the passion and the pleasure.” Lust and Dobner spoke with AVN in the summer, when they were out in Los Angeles meeting with some of their American collaborators. Their vision is to build a network of powerful women with diverse voices and provide them with the chance to make the movies they really want to make. When the site debuted, the first two original productions were Erika Lust’s The Intern and Nica Noelle’s The Widow. Noelle’s movie, Lust said, “was the first production we made here.” Since then Dana Vespoli, Madison Young, Kay Brandt and Casey Calvert have directed for Lust Cinema. Above, Casey Calvert in The Intern (LustCinema) For The Intern, Lust cast American performers Lena Anderson, Casey Calvert and Michael Vegas. Set in Spain, it’s the story of two sisters. Dobner described the plot, saying, “It’s a little meta because it’s about a girl coming from the States to Barcelona to do an internship in Erika Lust Films.” Asked to describe the goals of their American enterprise, Dobner said, “We want to just do things that feel right. Erika has had success as a creative director doing the right thing and trying to avoid clichés of the industry.” But these productions are clearly designed to be more accessible to American consumers, who represent a robust segment of the global market. Some of their content is “too European, too indie,” said Dobner. And if it’s not in English, that’s a barrier for some viewers. Lust also noted, “I’m realizing that here in this market, people are really following their performers and they love their performers. … I have to say, honestly, I am so impressed with American performers. I think that they are just fantastic. … The way they get into the character, they are studying the script, they are open to having all these conversations about how we are going to develop it. They show up to the shoot knowing all their lines.” Above, Michael Vegas and Casey Calvert in The Intern (Lust Cinema) Lust Cinema’s roots were planted back in 2004, when Lust and Dobner made their first short movie. Growth was slow at first, as the couple gave birth to not only a company but also two daughters. The studio launched in 2008, but “the first time we hired another person was in 2010. It took time to start it,” Lust recalled. Dobner handled business affairs and Lust served as the creative director. Things really got rolling after Lust began shooting her XConfessions series. Now the company has 25 people on staff—and the growth has its base in an active community of subscribers. In addition to Lust’s original work, LustCinema.com delivers licensed content with a congruous tone, with movies from such studios as Joybear, Viv Thomas, SexArt and Erotica X that put female pleasure front and center. On the relaunched site, new content will be posted weekly. Other projects include Unraveled, directed by Madison Young, and Lost in L.A., a series by Dana Vespoli. Lust and Dobner see Lust Cinema as a space where female directors can find their voice. But just as important, they want to encourage even more diversity. “I have so many young filmmakers especially writing to me, saying, ‘I have always been curious about adult, but … there is this huge stigma. I’m afraid of it. I don’t know how to approach it. And I see someone like you doing it and I realize maybe it’s not such a scary world.’” Lust believes there are more filmmakers who want to mix sex and cinema and find “the intersection of these worlds.” She hopes to draw in newcomers who have not worked in adult. “We’re in a moment, I think, where we need to disrupt the establishment. We need to get in there. People from outside who haven’t done it the same way as everybody else. Other visions. Other sex lives. Other experiences. … It’s the same way why the world needs a female president in America. They need it because young women need to see that you can actually become president. Today you cannot, because it hasn’t happened.” In the meantime, though, Lust will do her part to build a community, one director at a time. “As a woman it’s so hard to make it by yourself. If we can get together, one and one will be more than two.” Above, a still from The Intern (Lust Cinema).