Inside Lara Roxx | |
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Directed by | Mia Donovan |
Written by | Mia Donovan |
Produced by |
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Edited by | Omar Majeed |
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Running time | 81 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Inside Lara Roxx is a 2011 EyeSteelFilm Canadian documentary film by Canadian film director Mia Donovan. It covers the circumstances of a 21-year-old Canadian woman Lara Roxx who in the Spring of 2004, left her hometown Montreal heading to Los Angeles to work in pornography. Within two months she contracted HIV after shooting an unprotected sex scene with two men. It was revealed that one of the two men, porn actor Darren James, [1] was HIV positive. [2] The film did well critically. In 2012, it was nominated for a Claude Jutra Award for Best Documentary.
The film's director Mia Donovan [3] [4] documents Roxx's life in the 5-year period following her diagnosis. Donovan meets her in a psychiatric ward in Montreal suffering from bipolar disorder. [5] The film covers Roxx's return to L.A. and Las Vegas to reconnect with the industry, her appearance on The Maury Povich Show , her attempt to establish a foundation for the protection of sex workers, and her crack addiction and entry into rehab.
The film has interviews with a number of Roxx's former associates – porn agents, porn actors and actresses like Bill Margold, Dick Nasty, Ron Jeremy and Anita Cannibal. The film also interviews the doctor who diagnosed her HIV, and her parents.
The film had its world premiere at Hot Docs, Toronto's international documentary film festival under "Canadian Spectrum" section on 5, 6 and 8 May 2011. [6]
The film placed second in the Bacchus Award for best feature at the Boston Underground Film Festival. [7] It also won Documentary on Society and Humanity at the 2011 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival. [8] In 2012 the film was nominated for a Claude Jutra Award for Best Documentary. [9]
The Squamish Five were a group of self-styled "urban guerrillas" active in Canada during the early 1980s. Their chosen name was Direct Action. The five were Ann Hansen, Brent Taylor, Juliet Caroline Belmas, Doug Stewart and Gerry Hannah.
Seka is a retired American pornographic actress who was known in the 1980s as the Platinum Princess of Porn. In 2013, she released an autobiography about her life and career, titled Inside Seka.
The Adult Industry Medical Associates P.C., also known simply as AIM or AIM Medical, was a non-profit organization devoted to STD testing of pornographic performers for HIV and other STDs on a scheduled basis. Founded in 1998 by former pornographic film actress, Sharon Mitchell, AIM went out of business in 2011 after licensing issues, and a data breach and lawsuit regarding the violation of patient privacy.
Lara Roxx is a Canadian former pornographic actress who, in March 2004, became the first of three known individuals in four years to contract HIV while making a U.S. pornographic video.
Darren James is an American former pornographic actor and director. He gained notoriety after he contracted HIV and infected three pornographic actresses in 2004.
Ovidie is a French director, actress, producer, journalist, former porn actress and a writer. First known as a porn actress from 1999 to 2003, she has since directed pornographic films as well as documentaries and has written several books.
Philippe Falardeau is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.
Boys in the Sand is a landmark American gay pornographic film, released early in the Golden Age of Porn. The 1971 film was directed by Wakefield Poole and stars Casey Donovan. It was the first gay porn film to include credits and to be reviewed by the film industry journal Variety, and one of the earliest porn films – after Andy Warhol's 1969 film Blue Movie, but preceding 1972's Deep Throat – to gain mainstream credibility.
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; which at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornography directed toward heterosexual female, homosexual male, and bisexual audiences of any gender.
A creampie is a sexual act, commonly featured in hardcore pornography, in which a man ejaculates inside his partner's vagina or anus without the use of a condom, resulting in visible seeping or dripping of semen from the orifice.
Omar Majeed is a Pakistani Canadian film director and producer who studied cinema at York University Film School and later on studied editing at the International Academy of Design in Toronto. He is the son of Pakistani actress and singer Musarrat Nazir. He went on to work as producer Toronto's Citytv and won a Gemini Award for his television work. He also worked with Canada's National Film Board through the Reel Diversity program in Montreal and with EyeSteelFilm.
Sexually transmitted infections in the pornography industry deals with the occupational safety and health hazard of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by workers in the sex industry. Since the 1980s many cases of pornographic performers contracting HIV/AIDS have been reported. However, since the mid-2000s strict adherence to rigorous STI testing, and limiting sexual contact with only fellow tested performers has halted the spread of HIV and other STIs in the industry.
Lorelei Lee is an American pornographic actor and writer. Lee is non-binary.
Patricio Henriquez is a Quebec based filmmaker, who is a partner with Robert Cornellier and Raymonde Provencher in the Macumba Films documentary studio.
Mia Donovan is a Canadian photographer and filmmaker. She is best known for her documentary Inside Lara Roxx released through EyeSteelFilm about 21-year-old Canadian Lara Roxx who in the spring of 2004, left her hometown Montreal heading to Los Angeles for working in pornography and within two months contracted HIV after shooting an unprotected sex scene with two males. Donovan followed Lara Roxx through 5 years of Roxx's attempt to build a new identity and find hope in the wake of her past. Her film won "Best Documentary on Society and Humanity" at the 2011 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival and it was runner-up for "Best Feature at 2012 Boston Underground Film Festival.
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Liz Marshall is a Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Since the 1990s, she has directed and produced independent projects and been part of film and television teams, creating broadcast, theatrical, campaign and cross-platform documentaries shot around the world. Marshall's feature length documentaries largely focus on social justice and environmental themes through strong characters. She is known for The Ghosts in Our Machine and for Water on the Table, for which she also produced impact and engagement campaigns, and attended many global events as a public speaker. Water on the Table features water rights activist, author and public figure Maude Barlow. The Ghosts in Our Machine features animal rights activist, photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur.
Maya Gallus is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, and co-founder of Red Queen Productions with Justine Pimlott. Her films have been screened at international film festivals, including Toronto International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, SEOUL International Women’s Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, This Human World Film Festival (Vienna) and Women Make Waves (Taiwan), among others. Her work has also screened at the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Donostia Kultura, San Sebastián and Canada House UK, as well as theatrically in Tokyo, San Francisco, Key West and Toronto, and been broadcast around the world. She has won numerous awards, including a Gemini Award for Best Direction for Girl Inside, and has been featured in The Guardian, UK; Ms. (Magazine), Curve (Magazine), Bust (Magazine), Salon (Magazine), POV and The Walrus, among others. She is a Director/Writer alumna of the Canadian Film Centre and a participant in Women in the Director’s Chair. She will be honoured with a "Focus On" retrospective at the 2017 Hot Docs festival.
Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On is a six-part Netflix series that premiered on April 21, 2017. A follow-up to the 2015 documentary film Hot Girls Wanted, it was produced by Jill Bauer, Ronna Gradus, and Rashida Jones. The series explores pornography, technology, and relationships.
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. is a 2018 biographical documentary film about English rapper and artist M.I.A. Directed by Steve Loveridge, the film follows 22 years in the rapper's life, her rise to fame and her perspective on the controversies sparked over her music, public appearances and political activism.