Hot Movies Article by Don Juan DeMarko
What a time this has been in the world. So much of the landscape has changed all around us, so much so that I have found my way to the wonderful world known as HotMovies.com, a place very dear to my heart. Writing, creating, shooting photos, and making cinema has long been a dream and a passion of mine since as long as I can remember within the world of adult entertainment. Turning a dream into reality is what any artist lives for, and now that I have become a contributing part of HotMovies.com I ask myself: how can I contribute what I know, as an industry insider to a company that has long provided the fans of the XXX world with every type of film their hearts can desire—from big places and small alike? That is where my blog begins, with “the small.”
During this historical period that took us all indoors involuntarily, there were more moments than I can count where I found myself thinking, “How can I contribute to this new world of adult entertainment that is on the horizon—a future that is evolving in ways that no one can predict?” I spent many quarantined nights wondering what performers were doing and how some companies would survive when they were allowed to resume their work. I made a lot of phone calls to performers, directors, and producers and asked them that dreaded question, “What comes next?” During those phone calls and others checking on friends’ well-beings, I discovered that there was this new, universal devotion to making “content” with everyone. Content is a word very commonly used by performers to describe the productions/creations they make on their websites, clip stores, and VOD sites like this very one; where money is spent, or performances traded—all to that common theme with any job that is a need to get paid for what you love to do (or in these moments, to keep food on your table and the electricity flowing through your laptop). I spoke to superstars of the game, award-winning directors and producers who took the industry to places it had never been before COVID-19 hit. I decided that this may be what the future holds, this is what needs to be reported about to fans. One of those “indie” directors and producers goes by the name of Lincoln, and as I glanced at the landscape and took a tour through all that is his company, Black Label XXX, I saw something that fit the Spotlight perfectly.
Lincoln
Lincoln is a man who has long been a magazine photographer and mainstream film production person. One day he decided to follow his true passion alongside his co-producers and started a company dedicated to the lost art of beautiful women in classy, Vogue-style photo shoots that reminded him of the days of the Vivid Girls, lengthy films, and Playboy centerfolds at Barnes and Noble. Black Label XXX is run out of his lovely studio that is located in the wettest city on earth: Portland, Oregon. Lincoln began his independent company strictly as a magazine, but it later evolved into a film studio. He found out quickly that the quick-paced film side of the industry became an obsession for him. This took him across the country in search of making his productions in a different way: with art, performer brands, and passions as the driving force behind his films. He wanted to give the fans an alternative, and—most of all—give back to the performers who give so much to their fans.
Black Label XXX has featured some of the most striking models in the adult world, whose stature in this business is legendary. Some of his first creations featured Girl/Girl Performer of the Year Darcie Dolce alongside starlet-on-the-rise Verronica Kirei in a tantalizing creation called Palace Pussy Part 3. What most fans don’t know is that this is a pretty bold move to request two models with such presence in the world of adult film, and when I dug deep to find out why these two models took part in this creation, I found that I would get a common reply. Every model was recommending Black Label XXX across social media even before I got in contact with them.
Serene Siren, quite possibly the hottest and most in-demand girl/girl performer in the industry right now told me this,
“Lincoln is a man who makes every model feel special. He is a man that I have worked with since I began in this industry and whenever he calls, I answer.”
Myself being a man who has worked with the models of this industry for quite some time, I can honestly tell you that these are not words uttered very often by a star in this business. Most production shoots—big or small—are in-and-out, you do what you came there to do, get paid, and you go home. The models who all walked away from the Black Label XXX sets shared a similar story with me about director Lincoln and how much he gave back to them in ways that are just unheard of. They told tales of how willing he was to see things from their point of view and talk about something they hadn’t seen in the girl/girl world, with productions that had everything planned and catered to from the second they walked onto set. Hell, some of them even before that.
“I want to show the performers that I am here to serve them, they are not here to serve me.”
Words that I have not heard in almost ten years from a director. That is the first thing said when I spoke with Lincoln on the phone for the very first time.
“I love women, I love porn—adult cinema, whatever you wish to call it—and I always have. Even though my film and scene budgets are not as big as say, Girlsway, I still look to put every single dollar, every single light, and camera angle to a use that serves the brand of the model who graced my studio and home city with her presence.”
In most instances, “big production” has become something that is far different from what Lincoln and Black Label XXX are doing. Most teams that create a film for big production have more than a few shoots planned for multiple companies in the same day, believe it or not. Hey, we live in a world where no one has just one job title, or “task,” that defines who they are in the workforce. Fifteen years ago, a director did not even have to hold a camera on set. That just is not true anywhere in the adult film world these days; you must be a jack-of-all-trades. You must know how to make and be that person who starts and ends a film, and Lincoln is just that.
His scenes are created with a delicate process: one that consists of Behind The Scenes, an interview profile finding who the woman is behind the porn star alter-ego. These interviews are all about being sex-positive in the real world, not just video about the scene they just created. Lincoln’s goal is much like my own; he wants to spread awareness to the world of who these performers are and what it is about adult cinema that attracts the millions of people around the world to indulge in something that is as natural an instinct as drinking water when you are thirsty. His work within Mutual Mischief consisted of getting the model’s sizes, seeing what it is that tickles their fancy, and discovering through research what it is that will allow them to become the beautiful, sexy, and erotic wonders of the industry they are. Comic Silvia Sage was allowed to bring about a ferocity in this scene that she is not always green-lit to do when working with other companies (a fact any industry critic will tell you). Serene Siren told me that it made her that much more comfortable to know that she was going to get Silvia at her most natural. Serene loves to have sex with other women, especially one who has a true lust and love for all the little things that are the beauty of woman, just like her. If you rent or buy this scene, which I strongly advise you do, you will see these performers at their most natural. Don’t take my word for it; these are words spoken by Serene Siren, director and performer extraordinaire herself.
Now this was something that really hit home with me when all was said and done. My head was spinning and it was due to the fact that with all the negativity we have been seeing these last weeks in the adult world, and so many airing grievances, bad moments, and more, I had to stop and say that perhaps what the future holds is a landscape where big companies and small share a common ground that brings back the things that many say this industry has been missing since the start of the “dot-com days.” The adult film industry has looked to find its place in a world of entertainment that has seen many of its profits go out the window and many people not able to survive due to a marketplace that has more content, more artists, and more actors then ever before in it’s history. And this is where we aim to show you who is putting in the work so you can decide who to spend your hard-earned dollars on. It is now an industry where models, directors, and others must all know how to be their own makeup artist, their own editor, their own lighting person. Gone are the days when a company mass-produced VHS cassettes that could be sold for $70 a pop, with production value that was worthy of the hefty price tag.
Dear reader, I implore you, this is not a bad thing. This is just the reality we all live in now, especially after this pandemic. I think what will become the “norm” are companies like Black Label XXX—companies that are creating massive productions with only two people handling production and bringing back the standard of quality over quantity. It shows in every single production and even more, is broadcast to the world by the models who leave with a smile on their face and a feeling that what they are doing is exactly what they saw in their heads when they only dreamt about doing what they do for a living now. If there is one thing I can share with the fans of the adult film world as an “industry insider,” it is that we are all fans. We would not be here if we were not, and that especially goes for the performers. That is what made them take that leap of faith, shed their garments, and have the time of their lives after the butterflies settled within the films we love. That is what I see Black Label XXX doing for these amazing starlets. Lincoln is the “Pepto Bismol” of the adult world, relieving the indigestion and heartache that has been a part of what we all have consumed for many, many years—allowing us to get hungry again for a future that looks to be more appetizing than ever for both fans and performers alike.