Female Directors of Porn Movies

There are a growing number of women in the porn industry who are calling the shots from behind the camera. Some of them are offering up the standard mainstream stuff we've come to expect from porn, but others are working hard to create a different vision of sex and erotica.

Candida Royalle

Candida earns top billing on any site discussing porn movies for women, because she is the pioneer of this genre. Originally an actress during the 70s, Candida directed her first film for women, Femme, in 1985. She has since made 16 features, her most recent being Under The Covers. "Even though society has told us women are not visual, my hunch was always that if someone created visuals that appealed to us, we'd be very turned on by what we see!" Candida has also created a line of ergonomic vibrators called the Natural Contours range.

Chec out our special Candida Royalle page for more information.

Candida's home page

Estelle Joseph

Caribbean-born Estelle Joseph got tired of looking for porn that she would enjoy, so she went out and made it herself. The result of much work is the City of Flesh series, all of which are self financed and written by Estelle. These movies aren't your typical "girly" porn - there's no soft focus and the sex is very hardcore - but they do reflect a distinct female viewpoint.

Check out our special Stella Films page for more information.

Estelle Joseph's films are listed at Gamelink and Ms Naughty Adult Movies
Stella Films Production Homepage

Petra Joy (Strawberry Seductress)

UK-based film maker Petra Joy originally worked at a German erotic TV show. She turned her hand to erotic photography and then branched out into film, independently producing two titles aimed specifically at women, and featuring female fantasies.

Check out our special Strawberry Seductress page for more information.

Petra Joy's films are available at Strictly Broadband.

Anna Span

Anna Span's final dissertation at film school was titled "Towards a New Pornography." She is now Britain's best known (at first only) female porn director and has had several documentaries made about her. Anna's films cater to both men and women, and they depict numerous female fantasies. The guys are good looking, you get to see lots of them, there's eye contact and realistic scenarios. Her films include: Good Service, Hoxton Honey, Uniform Behaviour, Pound a Punnet and Toy With Me

Check out our special Anna Span page for more information.

Anna Span's films are listed at Gamelink and Ms Naughty Adult Movies. Available to download at Strictly Broadband
Anna Span's Diary

Tristan Taormino

Writer and sex educator Tristan Taormino made her first foray into adult film with the Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, the video version of her book, co-directed and filmed by gonzo pioneer John Stagliano. She followed this up with a sequel in 2001 and both movies won awards. In 2006 she created her own production company Smart Ass Productions and brought our her first film Tristan Taormino's House of Ass, created with female viewers in mind. More films are on their way.

Check out our special Tristan Taormino film page for more information.

Tristan Taormino's films are listed at Gamelink
Tristan's Homepage

Erika Lust

Spanish filmmaker Erika Lust made waves with her short film The Good Girl. She has since completed an adult feature titled Five Stories For Her. The film became available in English in March 2008 and won Movie of the Year at the Feminist Porn Awards. She is currently working on a documentary style adult film starring real couples.
Erika Lust's blog

Dana Dane

Lesbian director Dana Dane is forging new paths into the world of porn with Erocktavision, her rock-video styled authentic lesbian erotica. Originally part of the mainstream industry, Dana was working her way up the ranks by creating music videos with 35mm film. She became involved in the adult industry in 2002, eager to create adult films for women like herself. She is currently engaged to performer Niki Clover and lives in Malibu.
The Erocktavision films are featured on our Dana Dane page.
Erocktavision Hompage

Audacia Ray

Sex educator, editor and writer Audacia Ray originally worked at the Museum of Sex in New York and has since become involved in many aspects of the adult world. Her first adult feature, “The Bi Apple,” was released in February 2007. The film is distributed by Adam & Eve. The details of the filmmaking process can be found on her blog, Waking Vixen.

Jamye Waxman

This sexologist and author has written two books and has long been the sex advice columnist at Playgirl. Now she has ventured into the adult film industry with a new line of instructional videos called the Personal Touch series for Adam and Eve studios. Jayme is directing several films for Playgirl. Her site is here.

Check out our special Jamye Waxman film page for more information.

Maria Beatty

French-based independent filmmaker Maria Beatty started out as a documentary maker. She has been making hard-edged BDSM lesbian films since 1994, writing, directing, shooting and editing everything herself. She has also produced one full-length feature film and is working on another.

Check out our special Maria Beatty film page for more information.

Shine Louise Houston

After studying artist filmmaking in San Francisco, Shine Louise Houston worked at adult store Good Vibrations for five years. The job made her realise that there were very few authentic lesbian porn films on the market and she set out to create her own. Her first film The Crash Pad won a Feminist Porn Award in 2006 and she has since produced several more films as well has her own adult website.

Check out our special Shine Louise Houston film page for more information.

Tina Tyler

Known as "the thinking man's porn star", Tina Tyler has now moved behind the camera, directing a variety of films for Lexington Steele's Mercenary Pictures. Aside from her mainstream porn movies she has her own series of male masturbation films made for straight women called Handyman.

Check out our special Tina Tyler film page for more information.

Veronica Hart

Like Candida, Veronica Hart (real name Jane Hamilton) was also an adult performer in the 70s. She has since directed numerous feature films for VCA and also worked as a producer for that company. Veronica's films are known for their storylines, romance, emotional energy and focus on female pleasure. She also makes an effort to encourage real orgasms and internal ejaculations.

Veronica's films include: Love's Passion, White Lightning and Taken. Full list at Gamelink.

Angela Phong

Another lesbian writer and director, Angela was one of the women behind Pornograflics.
Dirty Pillows Hompage

Venus Hottentot

Named after the Hottentot Venus, the African woman displayed naked as a novelty in the 19th Century, Venus directed Candida Royalle's first Femme Chocolat film, Afrodite Superstar. She's an arts college graduate and has forged a multimedia career as a short film maker, author and playwright.

Female Directors Doing Mainstream Porn

Anita Rinaldi

Italian Anita Rinaldi made the jump from modelling to Euro porn films, and then moved into the director's chair. Her films feature sumptuous fantasy settings, thanks to an interest in interior design. She is also keen on bringing her own fantasies to life. "I had these great visual ideas," she told Adult Video News, "and I thought why should I be giving them away to others for their films? So I put up the money and started to shoot myself."

Anita Rinaldi's films are listed at Gamelink.

Toni English

Toni English has a background in film production, and spent ten years directing documentaries before she was hired by adult studio Vivid. She has since made dozens of features for that company, mainly mainstream titles. "At a personal level, what I like most about movies is context, actors who are believable, realistic scenarios, and realistic dialogue," she told AVN magazine.

Toni English's films are listed at Gamelink.

Ona Zee

After starting an adult film career in the mid eighties, Ona Zee starred in more than 300 adult films before starting her own production company in 1990. She has since produced and directed numerous adult films including her 13 part instructional series Learning the Ropes. "Women have a very different sense of what looks good than men, " she told AVN.

Ona Zee's films are available through her website OnaZee.com or search at Gamelink for "Ona Zee Pictures"

Jill Kelly

Jilly Kelly is another veteran in front of the camera, having performed in over 500 films. She now runs her own production company, Jilly Kelly Productions, which produces relatively mainstream porn content. "I want men and women to be able to watch my movies together," she told AVN. "It's hardcore but not too hard."

Other Female Directors to Watch

Kat Slater

Kat had directed on mainstream Hollywood film before moving into adult, where she now creates films for Hustler. Kat's movies aren't really the kind of smut women will enjoy, however she earns points for this quote from AVN: : "I hate it when someone comes to me and says, 'What positions do you want?' I basically say, 'Give them all to me; give one to me; I don't care about the number; it's the quality.' In Young Sluts Inc. 1, there's a scene with Tristan and Amber Paige, and they were really having sex. They were really in the moment. There was this amazing chemistry going on, and my camera guys turn to me and they're like, 'We're shooting no-core.' And I'm like, 'I don't care. They're fucking. Keep shooting.' Her legs are wrapped around him, they're looking in each other's eyes, and they're just in the moment, and that, for me, is one of my favorite shots."

Shay Sights and Renee LaRue

These two former porn stars turned director run a porn film production company called Dragonfly Pictures. They say their movies have a distinctly spiritual aspect, reflecting Shay's interest in Reiki and other alternative healing therapies.

Devinn Lane

Devinn Lane has worked primarily as an actress for Wicked Pictures, but she has also directed her first feature called Pillowtalk, based around what women talk about together, and has said she plans to create a series of instructional sex videos aimed at women. "Men don't have as many issues about sex as women do," she told AVN. "Women don't want to be told by men how they should be having sex. Women are more apt to listen if it's coming from another woman."

Note: Since I wrote the original entries about female directors of mainstream porn, a lot of other women have moved behind the camera. It may be too expansive a topic to comprehensively cover here so I'll leave it as-is for the moment.