Pornhub Premieres Avant-Garde Doc 'Shakedown'

NEW YORK—Leading adult tube site Pornhub takes a step in a new direction with the release on a dedicated viewing page of experimental documentary Shakedown. The movie will be available on the site through the month of March. Directed by Leilah Weinraub, Shakedown is described in a company announcement as a piece of "radical queer filmmaking and contemporary video art." Elaborated Pornhub vice president Corey Price, "Shakedown explores themes of race, class, currency and identity through the lens of Weinraub's boudary-breaking vision. Here at Pornhub, we're invested in celebrating artists and visionaries like Leilah and in sharing diverse narratives of human pleasure and sexuality. We are so excited to share her work with a wider public audience for the very first time." Further outlining the picture, the announcement goes on to say, "Capturing the early-aughts downtown Los Angeles black lesbian owned and operated strip club from which the film gets its name, Shakedown chronicles the personal and professional relationships of the club's female performers, the Shakedown Angels. Weinraub maps out an all cash economy run by black women rarely seen on screen. ... Weinraub's process of creating Shakedown spanned a decade and consisted of impressionistic cinematography using available cameras and archival work preserving flyers and AV recordings used by the club for promotional purposes. The resulting visual presentation is an emotionally immersive, subjective experience similar to that of a personal memory." The CEO and creative director of fashion label Hood By Air, Weidraub first collaborated with Pornhub when the adult brand backed HBA's controversial 2016 SS17 runway show during New York Fashion Week. The director "saw an opportunity for an expansion upon the conceptual work that she had done with Shakedown by collaborating on this premiere with the Pornhub team," according to the announcement. Shakedown has previously screened at the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the 68th Berlin International Film Festival, Tate Modern, MoMA PS1 and Weibraub's first solo show at gallery Gavin Brown's Enterprise in Harlem, New York. Pornhub's acquisition of this "art edition" of the movie is one of various editions being collected by both institutions and private collectors. Throughout March, Pornhub and Weinraub will be hosting a series of live Q&A chats that will "simulate the experience of watching the film together, even while alone." For more details on the Q&A event schedule, and to watch Shakedown, visit pornhub.com/art/shakedown. Still frame from Shakedown taken from pornhub.com/art/shakedown.