After Porn Ends 2 (3 Stars)

"Is there a life after porn films? I don't know" (Chasey Lain).

This is the second documentary I've watched in a single day. I must be getting serious in my old age.

The very title of this documentary identifies it as a sequel. "After Porn Ends" was made five years earlier. The second film has a different selection of porn stars. The first film showed recent porn stars who decided to quit the business for a variety of reasons. The second film shows primarily older porn stars from the 1970's and 1980's who remained in the business until they were no longer wanted. As people who were in the porn business for many years they have different problems to those who only did it for a few years in their youth.

The main problem for older retired porn stars seems to be financial. Pornography itself doesn't pay well enough to provide financial security after retirement. Only the porn stars with enough skills to branch out into other ventures, such as talent agencies or web sites, are able to retire comfortably.

I was quite shocked to hear about the attitudes in the porn industry. Hopefully they were only in the past, but somehow I doubt it. Women who entered the porn industry were advised not to do everything at the start of their career. They should slowly build up. First they should have normal sex. After a few years anal sex. After another few years double penetration. Then finally the most shocking sex of all: interracial sex. One of the porn stars said that she had anal sex after two years, double penetration after four years and interracial sex after 17 years. I fail to see what's so terrible about it. I thought that we were past the days when it's not right to see a black man with a white woman.

Most of the porn stars in the film were unknown to me. The only two names I knew were Lisa Ann and Brittany Andrews. Lisa Ann had her biggest success in her later years due to her similarity with Sarah Palin. That's obviously a big advantage, and it led to a string of politically inspired films.

Sarah Palin and Lisa Ann. Or is it the other way round?

I got to know Brittany Andrews 20 years ago when I downloaded a lot of her videos. I didn't save them, but they're probably still online if I look hard enough. She was advertised as of the Queen of Pain, and there were countless videos in which she tortured men by kicking them in the balls, jumping on their stomachs (wearing high heels, of course) or just suffocating them by sitting on their faces. That's what I call art.

Brittany is now 44 years old. She's retired from porn a few times, but she keeps returning because she says it's so much fun. Once a dominatrix, always a dominatrix.

As a documentary I find "After Porn 2" disappointing. There are a few long interviews with the porn stars and many shorter interviews, but there's no attempt to make a summary. The overall impression left by the documentary is confusion.

P. S. Evan Stone is tagged in this post because he appears briefly in one of the many film clips included. He has nothing to do with the documentary itself. After 1200 films he shows no signs of wanting to retire.