Too Hot in Tel Aviv – Impressions from a Hot Country
Posted at 3:14 PM Jul 10, 2008
Every Thursday, Naked City expands your pornographic worldview with tales from the far reaches of the earth. Four international pornographers share this space to tell all about the experiences of being porny and making porn outside of the United States.
This week's column is by Jürgen Anger, curator of thePornfilmfestivalBerlin.
I just returned from a trip to Tel Aviv to attend the 3rd edition of the LGBT Festival. Much to my pleasure they screened Otto; or, up with Dead People, the Bruce La Bruce film I helped to produce, and to my big surprise we won the Special Jury Prize. Screening the film and watching other good stuff wasn’t the only reason for being there. At a film festival you have the chance to meet the other festival guests and exchange news, ideas and body fluids. Liad Kantorowicz, enfant terrible and activist in Tel Aviv is planning a feminist porn film but doesn’t have the funding yet. Cheryl Dunne, with fame from her first lesbian feature The Watermelon Woman presented her work and also announced that she plans to do lesbian porn better than ever before. We will keep you updated.
One main reason to be in Tel Aviv was also to meet the guys from PAG productions, Roy Raz and Eitan Tal, who produced the first ever gay porn film made in Israel Too Hot in Tel Aviv. The film was presented for the first time outside of Israel at last year’s Berlin Pornfilmfestival; it has since received lots of attention and has been released on DVD. The film was made for an Israeli cable TV station which demanded the producers not to show any penetration. In our world of all kinds of hardcore porn I thought this was a disadvantage, but the audience in Berlin loved the film despite the lack of the usual close up fuckfest. The film has a lot of charm, beautiful boys and an easyness not seen often in porn. The additional casting interviews (where you see cum shots) give an in depth look at the motivations of both cast and makers.
PAG productions is a small company which runs an underground club on Thursday 
nights in Tel Aviv where you meet the hip crowd. In their day jobs they work in marketing and commercials. They are planning their second “real” porn film to be shot in July in some run down military base in the desert. I have seen the casting pics and wait till you see them in live action. During a late dinner in hot and humid Tel Aviv both Roy and Eitan talked about their ideas.
Jürgen Anger: Why did you do Too Hot in Tel Aviv?
Roy Raz: I guess that my main reason was because I wanted to be the first...the first that had the guts to make Israeli porn..after that came reasons like: making money and seeing lots of naked men -- that sounded like a good job !!!
More questions and their answers after the jump
Jürgen Anger: Did you want to do something different or only a regular porn film?
Roy Raz: It was extremely important to me to do something different, and I think it shows. I studied cinema, and I am a producer/director in my "real" job, so it was important to me to bring that into the movie. For example: photography in the movie is different than normal porn movie - there's actually a script (!), we wrote original score for the movie and so on...
Jürgen Anger: Was it difficult to get started?
Roy Raz: Very. Israel is a small country, everybody knows everybody, and everybody fucked everybody, so the auditions were really hard. People did not jump on the offer of being Israel's finest and first gay porn stars. It took some time till we found our cast...after that it was quite simple.
Jürgen Anger: Do you watch porn personally?
Roy Raz: Honestly, not really, it does not turn me on, it always looks fake, and the models look like really bad soap opera actors. But of course sometimes I do watch. Hey, I am human after all!
Jürgen Anger: How was the response in Israel?
Roy Raz: Really good, people loved it, it was sold to Israeli TV (the erotic channel), and we were happy with the response in general.
Jürgen Anger: Your next film is shot on an abandoned military base. Why military and soldiers?
Roy Raz: I think...no let me re-phrase, I know that Israeli soldiers/military/the mossad and all the other cliches really does it people..so why not really? It's never been done here before, it shoots well, I love the location, and it's a bit provocative to do it, because Israeli military (the IDF) is a sacred thing that people don't really touch, so we thought it's about time.
Jürgen Anger: Why do you want to do more porn?
Roy Raz: I really enjoyed last time, it was one hell of a ride. It is one hell of a hobby that I hope I will continue to do, and get more and more professional with. It will sound stupid, but I also learned a lot about my sexuality and me as a sexual being while I was directing/producing the movie. And money is always a good reason as well.
Jürgen Anger: Do you see any connection between art and pornography?
Roy Raz: Yes. I would love to put more art in my movies, I think that's a thing that attracts me a lot to porn. The possibilities are endless, porn is first and foremost a medium that has a specific meaning, but it could be more than that. As long as the director does not forget his job.
more: Porn At Large
Roy Raz: Upfront With Spittle
Many of you may not know the name Roy Raz but if you like to be the first under any circumstance, you'll be happy to know that Audacia Ray has posted a instantaneously important document in the gay porn library. For many of you it's nothing more than a series of "Trents," "Cody's," "Mavericks" and "Forget-Me-Nots" who populate the world of amateur straight porn. But when something historic happens, it's nice to know that, thanks to the awareness of people like Audacia, it doesn't go unnoticed.
www.menofcolor.blogs.com
Posted by: Victor at July 10, 2008 5:53 PM
