Interview: Viola V.

See the video-interview in the members area

When did you start to work with explicit / pornographic material?

I started working with porn and explicit material in 2008, when I was 21 and started modeling for GodsGirls.com. GodsGirls is an alt-porn website that was a competitor to Suicide Girls. And on Suicide Girls were primarily people with mainstream good looks with tattoos. GodsGirls was a little bit more alternative. It was a really nice little community. And I really liked being part of it, because I was located in Perth in Western Australia, away from all the rest of the models. I had to shoot everything myself. And that’s what got me started with my DIY kind of porn practice. in 2014 I started making films. I one day had the idea that I wanted to shoot some autoerotic asphyxiation footage to make some GIFs for Tumblr, and then realized that I had enough footage to make a film. And that’s where that started.

What was/is you motivation to work with explicit / pornographic material?

The motivation to work with pornographic materials is very simple, which is that I like sex in all its forms and I didn’t see any representations that were cohesive with my preferred esthetics or my interests. And I kind of figured if I made it and if I found it hot, then other people would find it hot. Which, as it turns out, is true.

Oh, another point on that is that because of the lack of aesthetic options that I could find in porn at the time, I would often look to cinema and art as inspiration for my works rather than contemporary porn.

What is the difference between mainstream-pornography and post-porn?

The general consensus on the difference between mainstream-porn and post-porn is that post-porn is more ethical, comes from a worker slash performer and collaborative perspective, rather than the studio model of the big porn companies, mainstream-porn companies. But also that you get a broader representation of bodies and esthetics and stories in post porn. I don’t necessarily like to delineate post-porn from mainstream-porn whilst you can, and it is possible to do so.

I think that there are a lot of previous works, like The Devil and Miss Jones, or films from Richard Kern that are all produced maybe within porn or transgressive cinema or something like that. They’re not considered to be a part of cinema like The Devil use trends for example, is considered to be the golden age of porn. And so it’s essential to what porn is. But it does present esthetics and plotlines. And at the time, relationships not necessarily seen in mainstream porn, yet it’s still considered to be mainstream porn. So I hesitate to delineate between the two.

What are the topics or stories you want to tell?

Obviously my films tend to the fetish side of things. Mostly I create films about things that I personally want to explore because I am making films with myself solo. Primarily the films that I make are centered on my interests. Whether that is cinema or something like ‘In Heaven, Everything is Fine’ or there’s little fetishes and things that I enjoy.

What are the ethical standards in your films and on set?

Again, because I work solo, it doesn’t necessarily apply particularly strongly. I do need to improve my occupational health and safety, as I have slipped on the lube and hit my head in a tiled room and succeeded in myself almost to passing out. But aside from that I don’t really take a lot into consideration except for what I am willing to do. One ethical conundrum recently was shooting SARX inside an active Cathedral, and I didn’t want to intrude on anyone’s kind of sacred, transcendental time. I don’t believe in the church. I despise the church, but people are still entitled to their meditations in their quiet moments, and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t intrude on that so that was shot very carefully. No one else could see what was happening for every shot that I did, which is probably a bit, breaking the illusion. But, you know.

How do you finance or fund your projects?

All of my projects are funded and financed by myself. I work a straight job and that’s what I used to pay for. Porn is a hobby for me.

How do you collaborate or network with other filmmakers or performers?

Porn film festivals have been fantastic for collaborating and networking with other performers. In Warsaw in 2022 I saw Flower Market by My Baby All Gone. And thought: ‘oh, who’s this person? I want to become friends with them?’. And, you know, I reached out through social media. We became friends, we met in Vienna in 2023, and then in Athens, we filmed ‘DAS MEDUSAHAUPT’ together. It was a really fun collaboration and a friendship that I value dealing. And similarly, my work with the Athens Porn Film Festivals means that I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate and perform with other projects. Being able to meet and talk to people who have interests and being open to collaborating, especially when I come with such a solo background, has been really important and it’s something that I’m excited to explore further.

How does the internet affect your work?

My work as something experienced by people other than myself wouldn’t be possible without the internet. I work in a space that’s very niche, very specific to myself and my interests. And so if there wasn’t the ability to put something on the internet and tag it and send it to people, I just wouldn’t have the possibility at all. And we know that other people necessarily like what I liked. my favorite example of this is that someone I have no idea, embedded one of my films on the VK, the Russian Facebook. It got something like 50,000 views in the space of a couple of months. I have no idea how that would have happened. It couldn’t have happened without the internet. I love showing my films on festivals, but those views are not out in the thousands at most. Whereas the internet gives you the opportunity for a broad audience. And I’m an exhibitionist, so the more people see my work, the better.

Do you share your works on plattforms like Onlyfans, Fansly or Pinklabel or even Pornhub?

I don’t. A lot of that is a music licensing issue because I have licensed songs from artists, for specific licensing concerns. So I can’t sell them. They are just for festivals or to be shown without charge. I can’t earn money from them. I do have some clips on AP-clip.com. I delineate them, the clips, I think of them as clips rather than films. And they’re all just little scenes. I have one that’s just like a beautiful agony style video orgasm. Then I have one that’s me brushing my teeth naked for three minutes straight. One that is made being beaten while I try and read the first chapter of the Story Of The Eye, which is my personal favorite.

I don’t think they’re at odds with my body of work that I consider my films, but I still keep them separate because they’re filmed in a way that’s more utilitarian and less expressive.

How do you work with social media?

I fucking hate social media, but I tolerate it. I only really use Instagram now for this. I was on Twitter but… And I also use Substack for my monthly newsletter or as I call it, my love letter, which gives me a space where I can have an intimate interaction with people who are interested in my work, post things that are uncensored, and I really like that. I enjoyed Substack more than I do Instagram, but of course it is not for everyone and it is actually a lot of work. I like the intimacy of it, but of course there are just people who might just want to follow me on Instagram and see some hot photos every now and then rather than reading about all my thoughts all the time, which just fine.

In the time you worked in this field of porn, what were the biggest changes?

I have been in the field since 2008, which is pretty long, in porn years. I have seen a really big shift, which I find interesting, which is the move away from centralized websites to individual performer led distribution. So OnlyFans and clip sites allowing for lack of a better description performers to seize the means of production and distribution in this case. Which I think it’s been really important. It develops alongside the creator economy of like Instagram and Facebook, which has its own problems. But in terms of sex work and porn production, I think it’s really empowering to be able to find an audience without all of the restrictions that come with a studio. Unfortunately, it’s also, a lot of work. I think it’s something that I don’t really pursue because I just don’t have the desire or the energy to do. I think it is the biggest change and I think it’s positive for the world.

How openly do you communicate about your work with your friends and family?

I’m very open with my friends about my work. Everyone who knows me and most people who know me in the real world know that I’m also Viola, and I will happily show them my work with the disclaimer like ‘hey, this is explicit. I am fucking myself for doing whatever I’m doing and you will see my cunt. I’m okay with that. I don’t care. You can say, it’s not going to be weird to me, but if it’s weird to you, that’s okay. I totally understand and like I will take you off the close friends list or whatever, and that’s been fine.’

My family is very supportive of the international screenings that I get for my experimental film work. And, that’s about as far as we go with that.