Petra Joy Interview

1. You’re a woman with many strings to your bow – how did it all start?

My first love has always been photography. I got my first camera aged six. I progressed to work in TV as a documentary producer and writing articles and books. My focus has always been on issues that are important to women. Sexuality is one of them and I always aim to liberate and empower women with whatever I shoot or write.

2. You must be very open-minded about sex and sexuality to do the job you so successfully do. Do you ever find that less liberal people look down on you because of what you do?

People tend not to differentiate between porn and erotica and they also assume that any woman working in erotic films is fair game for all which is annoying. I find it hard to get TV commissions since I started producing adult films. This is very hard as I make my living as a journalist and not with my erotic films. My erotic films are successful as in well known and award-winning but in five years of creating them I have not made a profit yet. I always say that I have the most expensive hobby in the world.

3. Do you find that when people find out what you do for a living they find it difficult to separate that from you as a person?

Yes that tends to happen. Journalists always want to talk about my sex life rather than my vision. Male porn directors are never quizzed about their own private sexuality.

4. What would you say to a woman who was completely new to watching pornography and unsure of whether to purchase one of your films?

I really sympathise if you have seen porn before that shocked you as it was degrading to women. I have been there and still don’t like most porn that I see out of this very reason.

It is OK not to like any porn at all. But if you enjoy sex and like visual art then you might enjoy my erotic and explicit films as they are made for women and not men. Everybody taking part on the shoots does what they enjoy and they are feeling it and not faking it. Every little Vignette is completely unique and I am confident that most women will find at least one or two scenarios that will inspire them to explore and enjoy their sexuality.

5. As an erotic writer, it’s great to receive comments from people saying they’ve enjoyed my work and that it has aroused them. How do you feel about comments you receive about your films?

I feel the same way. This is what makes it all worth it for me: to have changed and enriched women’s self perception and sex life. This is the kind of pleasure and joy that money can’t buy and I welcome every single email or phone call that gives me positive feedback.

6. Your films are primarily aimed at women – to fill the gap in the market for high quality porn films which aren’t all silicone breasts, cum shots, and fake orgasms. Do you find that you get a good response from men that have happened upon your films too?

Yes men tend to like my films too, unless they have been totally brainwashed by mainstream porn. We don’t give men enough credit. May men don’t watch porn or are really bored with the mass produced flicks. In my films men tend to enjoy the authentic sex and emotions and value the opportunity to understand what might turn women on.

7. The sex scenes in your films are incredibly arousing. Do you find it difficult to remain detached whilst filming?

Not at all. I am calling all the shots as the producer, director and camerawoman and have to really concentrate to capture the magic without breaking it. To watch an erotic scenario through a viewfinder is totally different from seeing it life at a club or someone’s home. But I find it exciting to watch the finished film on a big screen when it is shown at a film festival. I tend to think, ‘wow this is actually really hot’ but whilst hooting I am too wrapped up in the technicalities to get emotionally involved.

8. You had great reviews for ‘Sexual Sushi’ – what about it do you think most appeals to the audience?

The reviews for all my three titles have been great and I have won various awards for “Female Fantasies”. I think the audience and the critics really sense that what they see is not a product but a labour of love: A piece of art created by a team of sexually liberated people who have nothing but respect and appreciation for each other. We all try to encourage the viewers to break the porn rules or restrictions of society and really let go, go with the flow and enjoy their unique sexuality. There are hardly any other films like this like it in the world.

9. ‘Female Fantasies’ is exactly what it says on the tin. Do you find there are recurring themes in many women’s fantasies, or do you find they vary wildly?

Yes there are recurring themes and they tend to be the opposite from what men imagine them to be or what mainstream porn leads us to believe they would be. I cannot speak for Lesbian women but most straight or bi women really enjoy watching a beautiful guy play with himself and also enjoy watching men interact sexually. Women prefer a threesome with two men that interact than a threesome where the woman is treated like a piece of meat in the middle. We also like to experience being a ‘queen bee’, being pleasured by two or more men going down on us and caressing us. But it’s not all romance and roses. Some of us have fantasies about playing like a guy – cruising like gay men do and using a strap-on on a guy or two. I did a scene called ‘cruising’ for “Female Fantasies’ and it showed a woman having her strap on sucked by three men. It is really hot ‘head sex’ but got censored by one of my biggest distributor’s as it was considered ‘dirty’. So now there is a director’s cut and a censored version on the market. The porn industry is not as liberal as it tends to portray itself and female fantasies including male bisexuality ate still a massive taboo.

10. You’ve recently released your third erotic film – ‘Feeling It.’ You’re already fulfilling female fantasies in your work, what do you plan to do next?

I am currently working on a book about alternative porn and female porn directors. I am still looking for a publisher but hope to find one soon. I have also been filming many encounters with other female porn directors and collected a lot of behind the scenes footage of my castings ect. I plan to create a documentary about my and other women’s female vision of porn and hope that it will premiere at the bird’s eye view film festival in London. I will start editing soon. I would still like to produce more erotic films as I feel I have only visualized the tip of the iceberg of female desire but it all comes down to money. I still need to make the £ 40.000 back that I invested into “Feeling it!” before I dare to borrow more money for another film. After five years of producing explicit erotica, I hope that I might finally have an economic breakthrough or find an investor. Otherwise it is simply not realistic for me to keep on producing alternative, artistic and upmarket porn.

11. ‘Feeling It’ portrays men as objects of sexual desire, which indeed they are. Do you find it more difficult to make men look sexy than women?

We have no pin-up culture for women. This is the reason why so many women watch gay porn. It is hard to get a guy to masturbate in front of the camera as they are often so paranoid about looking ‘gay’. No one would ever call a solo girl masturbation in mainstream porn ‘lesbian’ so this just proves the double standard. We have a long way to go and many women are really hungry for images of hot and real bi or straight men who know how to pleasure a woman.

12. Your website states that some of the fantasies are included in your work. Care to enlighten us as to which ones they are?

The underwater scene in “Female Fantasies” is an homage to an amazing underwater sex experience I once had on Honduras: Weightless sex above a rainbow coloured reef. It was in a different league. The birthday party at the end of “Feeling it!” where a hunky male butler serves the girls champagne and oysters and the birthday girl gets a gift-wrapped gorgeous guy as a present from the girls – that would be my ideal kind of party.