All language subtitles for 01.The Dark Side of Porn 1of9 Porn Shutdown (eng)

On April thirteenth last year,

HIV came to porno land.

Your test is no good.

Why are you calling?

And we should use condoms.

And one woman brought the nine billion
dollar porn industry to a standstill.

How many people can
I alert? How fast?

I've to make a quarantine list
immediately and I've got to

maybe shut the industry down.

But amid the clamor to
control an epidemic,

the dark underbelly of the
porn world was exposed.

It's a fantasy of a lot
of women to be completely and

utterly dominated, choked,

slapped,

humiliated.

Eventually, my ass
was gonna fall out.

Eventually, I'm gonna be hurt,

and it won't be
able to be fixed.

This is the story of
how hardcore porn got out of

control.

This is Pornoland, the
San Fernando Valley,

just north of Los Angeles.

Over four thousand porn films
are shot here each year.

More than a thousand porn stars
by by their trade often having

sex up to forty times a month.

Oh my god.

Sixty gallons of semen are ejaculated
for the cameras every year.

Pretty much everyone has sex with
everyone else every few months.

The vast majority of movies
are shot without condoms.

All it took was one man and one
rogue pawn shoot to bring the

entire industry to its knees.

I got a phone call from one
of the popular male actors.

He had been out of the
country in Brazil shooting

a movie and had
gotten a spider bite

and had felt very, very bad.

The actor was porn
performer Darren James.

He was called in
for an HIV test,

but the test revealed nothing.

This test came negative,
but at that time,

he had viral symptoms.

We didn't know if it was from
the spider bite or or what.

So he went back out to work,

comes back two and a half,

three weeks later
for his next test.

His test comes up positive.

Just how James contracted
HIV is unclear,

but this was the nightmare
Pornoland had feared.

All that now stood between the
industry and a major epidemic

was this small clinic.

It's called the AIM
Healthcare Foundation.

AIM Healthcare.
How can I help you?

It's okay, but I'm not sure.

Every single actor and actress
working in the San Fernando

Valley comes here to be tested
for HIV at least once a month

whether they use condoms or not.

Hope I have good veins for you.

You do.

You have some very
nice things in

Oh, these needles.

In this facility, we have between
thirty and seventy people a day.

We're a walk in facility.

During the gangbang months,
it goes up a little bit more.

The gang bang months
are between now and January.

There's an awful lot of multiple
partner gang bangs being shot.

Doctor Sharon Mitchell is an ex ex
porn star and a legend in the industry.

She's developed a unique system
designed specifically for the

world of adult entertainment.

The first thing that everyone
does when they walk in is sign

this, and this is
a special release,

and it's an authorization
to release test results.

So in other words
Just call them.

If we have someone Yes.

Thank you.

That's HIV positive, we're
able to alert the community

even if we don't hear
from that person.

And I know that sounds
against every confidentiality

law in the United States,
but here, it works.

Sharon's system is designed to
prevent the spread of disease.

For six years, it had kept
the industry HIV free,

but Darren James had
revealed its fatal flaw.

That's not gonna go
over well, is it?

HIV does not show in the blood
until ten days after infection.

He probably was just at six,
seven, or eight days positive,

and no test on the planet as of
yet is going to pick up HIV then.

After initially
testing negative,

James had slept with
more than a dozen women.

Each of them had gone on
to have multiple partners.

I knew this was a popular actor.

I also knew the type of movies
this actor made were very,

very high risk.

HIV had infiltrated
the porn system.

Oh, it was hell.

I mean, worried is not
something that I get.

I get into

how many people can
I alert, how fast,

I've got to make a
quarantine list immediately,

and I've got to maybe
shut the industry down?

The race was now on to track
down each and every one of

Darren James's partners.

Dozens of people were at risk.

I heard the name,
and I was like,

I was a little overwhelmed.

I was like, I think I
worked with that guy.

By April fourteenth last year,

porno land was swirling with
rumors of a major AIDS epidemic.

Porn star Darren James had
contracted HIV while filming in

Brazil.

He'd gone on to sleep with
more than a dozen women.

At the AIM Healthcare
Foundation,

staff were frantically
drawing up lists.

By a day and a half,
I had all the first generation partners,

which means all the people
that he had sex directly with.

By the second day,

I had all the people that
they had had sex with,

and I built a quarantine list.

At that time, it was about
thirty eight or forty two people.

Put them all on quarantine,

got them in for immediate
emergency testing.

Near the top of the list was
twenty one year old Canadian,

Laura Rox.

Laura had arrived in Los
Angeles just a few weeks before.

I wasn't really gonna
move to Los Angeles.

I just wanted to come
here, make loads of money,

and and go back to to Canada.

I found an an agent
on the Internet.

We decided I'd come to Los
Angeles for a couple weeks,

And,

so we did.

I did.

Like many porn stars, Laura
came from a troubled background.

Her parents had divorced
and placed her in care.

When I was, like, sixteen,

I I went to youth
protection center.

I met people that
were a lot worse

than me, I guess.

Mostly, the people
that are there,

like kids that escort
or strip or steal cars

or stuff like that.

And

so that's where I met people
that got me into the sex

industry, really.

When she was seventeen,
Laura began stripping.

My father was very,
like, ashamed.

He said, like, I used to
be his favorite daughter,

but he couldn't.

Like, now I wasn't
anymore because

because he was ashamed.

Arriving in Los Angeles,
Laura found work almost immediately.

She was to have a part in this
film, Split That Booty Two.

Darren James was her
very first partner.

Appearing in the same film
was porn star Marissa Arroyo.

Marissa was far
more experienced.

She was twenty six.

She'd been in the business for
five years and had made close

to four hundred films.

I think what it was is I
think it fit my personality.

I think me and my
job, we're kind of,

we go hand in hand a little bit.

I think it was just easy for
me to do because I was already,

like, kind of
promiscuous on my own.

Marisa's partner in Split That
Booty was also Darren James.

Like Laura, she shot with him just
a few days after he returned from

Brazil.

I had a long week of
work, and I was really,

really tired.

It was like the last day.

Couldn't wait to get it over

with.

I got my money, and I
just wanted a vacation.

I wanted to go to San Francisco.

I wanted to get a hotel.

I wanted, like, a spa. I just
wanted to get my nails done.

I wanted to go shopping.
I just wanted, like, ugh.

By the time Marissa
shot with Darren,

Laura was already feeling ill.

The first scene I
did, the the next day,

I started feeling sick.

I was feverish.

I had zits, like, all
over my my body and, like,

I was thinking like, I I
was wondering what I had.

You ready? You wanna
go in the shade?

This footage of Laura was taken
by chance just a few days after

her scene with Darren James.

Well, this is Max anyway.

It shows a meeting with
porn producer, Max Hardcore.

Frankly, she looked, terrible,

physically,

exhausted, and and her
face was all broken out.

And and I told her
at the time, I said,

you have to get yourself fit.

I couldn't understand how
anybody could shoot a girl,

in this condition.

What happened? Did did your
skin break out from something?

Or I think it's the sheets from
from this hotel that made my

skin break out of my skin.

And she says, wait.

I've got some,

photos here.

I could see

that at one time, at
least, she was you know,

we would have shot
her looking like this.

So do you have enough
money to get back home?

Yeah. That's about it.

Or pay for my doctor
and look for some shit.

Maybe she'll just get on
that plane and go home now.

I had to cancel all my jobs.

And then, when I
started feeling better,

my agent couldn't
get me jobs anymore.

It was at this point Laura got
a phone call from the staff at

AIM.

I got a call that there was,

Darren James was,

HIV positive and that there
was a chance that I was HIV

positive too, and I
had to go get tested.

Marissa too soon
began to hear rumors.

I had talked to somebody
who had heard that somebody

had been diagnosed with HIV,

and I was curious who it was.

I was like, oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. Who was it?

Like, and I heard
the name, and I said,

I think I worked with that guy.

And I was kinda
like and I was like,

I was a little overwhelmed.

I was like, I think I
worked with that guy.

Laura's results came back first.

The first young woman that was
from Canada was one of those

women that normally you would
meet and you would see she was

emotionally unstable
and a little panicky.

And I thought, boy, this is
gonna be quite a disclosure.

But she was also one of those people
that takes big bad news very well.

It was Chyenne Mitchell that
told me and she was I think she

was more she was more
devastated than I was.

She was like

she looked like
she was gonna cry.

So I knew, like, she wasn't
gonna tell me it was okay.

I was like, I was desperate.

I was hopeless. Not
desperate, hopeless.

I felt like a sick
kid that wants their

mother.

Laura returned to Montreal.

As Marissa awaited her test,

Parnoland was going
into panic mode,

Not least because of the
financial implications of an

HIV crisis.

Porn is no longer a
dirty backroom business.

It's estimated to be worth up
to nine billion dollars a year.

It's available on the internet
and it's available in hotel rooms.

And if there's one company that
epitomizes the drive to make

porn mainstream,
it's Vivid Films.

We definitely don't
call it pornography.

And not because we're
scared of the term,

but it tends to have a
taboo in mainstream society.

And the word pornography tends
to just set off an alarm to the

world at large that
doesn't really understand that this

industry is truly a business.

Now we're very much coffee table
in that respect and that, you know,

if you take any one of our
films and you were to rip out

the sex, there's
still a movie there.

Vivid has a stable of contract
girls who make films only for

Vivid. One of the best
known is Brianna Banks.

Being a Vivid girl is great.

We get to, you know, do
really, really cool movies,

play different characters.

You get to become someone
else for the day or two.

And, you know, still work.

Great job.

Did you get a a close-up a
reverse close-up on her face?

You actually have scripts,

and you can inspect her
expect to be there all day.

You're not gonna do
it in or in and out or

Most palm producers
refuse to use condoms,

claiming the effect sales.

But at Vivid,
they're compulsory.

Uh-huh.

I got very lucky because
most of my career,

I did not use condoms
and, you know, luckily,

I didn't contract anything
anything deadly or, you know,

anything that couldn't be cured.

So condom only is the
only way to go personally.

What do you think those will go?

Even though it's condom only,

in April last year when Darren
James was diagnosed with HIV,

Vivid shut down
production immediately.

Vivid is a huge company
that shoots a lot of movies.

And if, you know,

any of these performers were
potentially scheduled or they

had a girlfriend or a
boyfriend that were, you know,

potentially on that hit list,

we needed to make sure that
we weren't gonna put them in

jeopardy or ourselves
in jeopardy.

My little photo. Please.
Please lay over my name.

But Vivid represents just one
part of the porn industry.

It may want to win the approval
of respectable America.

But there are others in Pongoland
who revel in their outlaw status.

I was the first person in
almost fifteen years to have a

a federal obscenity
indictment handed down.

Rob Black makes what
is known as gonzo porn,

a series of hardcore sex scenes with
no connecting plot or structure.

He's defiant in the face
of legal challenges.

Isn't America
founded on the belief

of of fighting
for somebody's rights?

Don't we have a right?

Don't we have a freedom to to
stand up for what we believe in

and and make movies
the way we want?

Robb certainly pushes freedom
of expression to the limit.

Much of his material will shock
anyone unfamiliar with this world.

Gonzo actors appear to
revel in violence and abuse.

Gonzo producers aim to shock.

Rob's most notorious recent
film was set in Afghanistan.

Okay.

This is that. This is
that. I'm out of here.

The scenario of it is we have
a girl that looks like Ashley

Bansfield.

Remember the the cute little
blonde with the glasses?

We had a kid dressed
up like Bin Laden.

And on either side, he's got
his two, Al Qaeda members.

We have one of the guys
come out, and they they grab her.

They kidnap her.

They bring her into the
the the tent or cave.

They bring her in,
then they rape her.

America.

At the end of the
scene, the marines

storm the cave.

They killed Bin Laden. They
cut his fucking head off.

Blood spurting all
over the place.

And then the Ashley Bansfield
character then gives consensual

sex to the marines because she's
thankful that they saved her.

There you go. That's
a fucking plot.

The Gonzo world doesn't give a damn
what mainstream America thinks.

I think it's boring to
have people fuck in a bed.

Everybody fucks in a bed.

I wanna see people fuck, like,

on a graveyard or in a
morgue or in a trash can.

You know, just something
different so you're entertained.

The ideas for Rob's films
come from his wife, Liz,

who also directs and acts in.

The inspiration for their
latest film is her dog, Max.

Thank you, Gilmore.

The movie we're shooting
this afternoon is,

titled Cockhounds, which,
Lizzie came up with it,

and it's basically,

girls depicted as dogs.

So the the dog, like,
sniffs out the drugs,

but the dog's a girl.

It's not a real dog. They
don't have bestiality.

So she'll sniff out the drugs,
and then she attacks the guy,

and they they fuck.

Today, I'm a doggy,

which kinda suits me because
I'm nothing but a dirty little

doggy with the most
basic instincts.

But I am a, a male police doggy.

What is it called? She's
gonna be a chihuahua.

I'm a little stubborn.

Cool.

Since I'm really good at
peeing and stuff, like,

I get to pee on this guy's leg.

Oh my god. Look at this.

She's she's got
hundreds in her hands.

I forgot that. That's very rude.

For the top girls in Gonzo,
the rewards are high.

Gia Paloma, to me, is the very
best Gonzo girl out there.

She takes it in the ass.
She smiles. She's a hard worker.

She shows up. She
never complains.

I would say somebody with the
kind of qualifications that Gia

Paloma has could easily make twenty
thousand dollars in two weeks.

But the money doesn't
come without risk.

There's no condoms.

No condoms.

You know?

Is that where you're going?

No.

Because if I was that
worried about doing it,

then I wouldn't do it.

Put your hands up in the air.

Where's my fucking cut? You
know I've worked the straight.

How long have you
been doing this?

No. Look at this shit.

Fucking hey, Porno.

The shooting of cockhounds
went somewhat awry.

Lizzie got carried away.

Get yourself.

Look at all this.

Let's let's get you
let's get you some sacks.

Okay?

That's what we're doing down
here and laying in your back.

Yeah.

Mother him with your ass. Yeah.

I'm Let's go do it down
here and lay in your back.

Yeah. Mother him with your ass.

Blinded, battered, and bruised,

the male star lost
something of his ardor.

Pussy. This is not how
Gonzo is meant to be.

Oh my fucking god.

All the days work.

Split that booty, the movie in
which Darren James and Laura

Rox contracted HIV, was rather
more typical of the gonzo genre,

both in terms of content and in
terms of the health risk it posed.

To understand how Laura got HIV,

we must descend into the bizarre
jargon of the gonzo world.

The booty in split
that booty means anus,

and the movie made a feature
of what I call double anals.

A double anal is when two hard
penises are inserted into a rectum.

If a guy is underneath you and
then you're riding him, like,

in a this is called reverse
cowgirl, this position I'm in.

His dick goes in
your ass like that.

And then the second guy lays
on top of you and his dick goes

in on top of it like that,
and that's a double anal.

It was painful.

I was trying to picture
myself on the beach,

like, doing something else.

I was proud of myself,

not it's like I was proud that
I could I went through with

that without, like,
crying or anything.

The likelihood of bleeding
in double anals massively

increases the HIV risk, yet
double anals are a common

Yet double anals are a common
feature in the films of many

Gonzo producers,
including Rob Black.

I don't know if double anal
hurts a bit because I've never

had two dicks up my ass.

So I'm not real sure.

Some of the girls say
it's uncomfortable.

Some of the girls
say no. It's great.

I'd rather have two cocks up
my ass at the same time than

kiss in a movie.

I don't like to be too personal.

I'm very familiar with that
dynamic of, oh, we love it.

We love it. It's almost like
a Stepford Wife. We love it.

It's great.

I sit there every
day, and I, you know,

I sew up anal tears
and anal prolapse.

And the physical conditions of
what people are putting their

bodies through is getting very,

very far away from
sexuality as we know it.

Eventually, my asshole's
gonna fall out.

Eventually, I'm gonna be hurt,

and it won't be
able to be fixed.

And then what will be my career?

Gonzo is high adrenaline,
high risk porn.

Although legal, the Gonzo men are
the bandits of the porn industry.

But when Darren James
tested positive for HIV,

it wasn't just the mainstream
companies like Vivid that shut

down.

The gonzo world followed suit.

By the end of April, the
whole industry had ground to a halt.

The bleak warehouses of
the San Fernando Valley,

where most porn is shot,

stood empty as Pawnoland waited
for those on the quarantine

lists to find out their fate.

This became so big, and there
were so many people involved

that everyone just
decided, okay.

We'll just shut down for a couple
of months and let you do your work.

For Sharon, the shutdown
was a personal triumph,

but she was about to receive a
phone call that threatened to

bring the whole fragile
arrangement crashing down.

The entire Los Angeles porn
industry had halted production

after just one
actor contracted AIM

was

the

product

of a

AIM was the product of a
traumatic experience in

Sharon's own life.

She'd been working in the porn
industry for twenty years and

was addicted to heroin.

I was working at a titty bar
in the San Fernando Valley for

fixed money.

And there was a crazed
fan in the audience there,

and he was talking about my
S and M movies and that I,

you know, was the queen of S and
M and that I should be killed.

He was infatuated with S
and M and Jesus Christ.

Nothing against S and
M or Jesus Christ.

He's this particular person who
just had a really nasty mix of both.

The fan followed a hole. He
broke into her apartment.

He bit me all over my body,
broke my nose in five places,

cracks my cracked my
larynx in voice box,

fought me, raped me, beat me.

It was

it was

death.

I had some weights over
by my door and I rolled

this encounter of us over to
the weight pile and I picked up

a five pound weight.

And as I brought this weight
down, I thought, well,

if it falls on him, good.

But if it falls on me, you know,

at least I'll die
by my own hand.

Sharon survived.

She managed to
knock her attacker

out.

She left the porn industry,
studied to become a doctor,

and in nineteen ninety
eight, set up AIM.

Since then, she'd kept
the industry HIV free.

On your elbow like that.

The shutdown showed how
powerful she'd become.

Why do I just tell you that?

But then Sharon received a call
from an official of the Los

Angeles County
Health Department.

His dick was beating like
a drum because this is right,

and it's right, and it's, you
know, it's porn, and it's bad,

and there's a bad guy.

We've gotta get the bad guy.

And he got into
this this excitable mode,

and and all of his investigators
were saying, this is scary.

This is scary.

The health authority did not
trust AIM to deal with the

outbreak on its own.

For them, Sharon's success over the
previous six years meant little.

They demanded access to
Ames' unique database.

They got an order
to seize the records

of those sixty people and
called them and, you know,

browbeat them and terrified
them and made it so difficult

for me to finish
my investigation.

They wanted this one's address.
They wanted that one's address.

We want this result.
We want that result.

It was a clash of cultures.

The people of Pono Land
against the men in suits.

We went in just as we
would in any other,

investigation where
there was an outbreak.

I think that we had to make
clear that it was a public

health responsibility.

It wasn't simply a
responsibility of a private

organization to make sure
that this outbreak was being

adequately investigated
and controlled.

I'm sure that sounds
great with him.

He doesn't know what
double anals are.

He doesn't know that
the calls from us every

day range from how many
chopsticks can I put up

someone's ass to can I safely
come in someone's eyeball?

This is not the regular world.

So do I But officials were
exasperated by the porn

industry's failure to do the
obvious to protect its workers.

Since these are workers,

the only way they can be
protected is by using latex

condoms a hundred
percent of the time.

There's no reason that they
should be exposed more than

would a worker at a building
site not have a hard hat.

Doctor Fielding has
some unlikely allies.

This is me. This is my,
this is my alter ego.

This is when I dress up
like a petite little flower.

That's from, Where the Boys
Are in sixteen. Oh my god.

Shishi LaRue is a drag queen
and a gay porn producer.

Hey. How are you? Good.

How are you? We protect
ourselves in the gay industry.

We regulate ourselves.

We we

look out for each other.

And what's it called?

Shishi, like almost
all gay producers,

uses condoms in all his movies.

What time? Ten PM? We don't do
testing in the gay industry.

I think an HIV test is
hilarious and ridiculous.

It's not something that
people should walk on a set,

look at a piece of paper
and say, okay, that's okay.

I can now screw you
without a condom.

That's that's or get screwed
by you without a condom.

I don't know if I showed
this to you, but we use,

pink condoms.

At AIM, Sharon also aggressively
pushes the use of condoms.

As you can see that
kind of, you know,

with a little pubic
hair on the end there,

that looks just like
a well lubed fist.

So it would look like
a well lubed penis.

So we we recommend these. We
encourage people to use these.

But Sharon, like everyone
else in the porn industry,

firmly opposes any
outside regulation.

My concern is that the bureaucrats
are gonna come and say, okay.

This is the law.

Everybody wear condoms,
and and they've got a test,

and we need all the
records and all that.

People aren't gonna come in
to voluntarily test at my

grassroots organization again.

They're gonna go ahead and shoot
underground and take their chances.

So long as the general
public is going to buy

pornography without condoms,
they're going to make it.

It's all about money.
This is pornography.

Although legal today, porn
still has an outlaw mentality.

It distrusts outsiders and
fears that if they let public

health officials get their
hands on the industry,

it will open the door
to their real enemies.

So today, we have
the work of the devil

to destroy a man,

to lead him astray.

It's called pornography
and obscenity.

The reverend Lou Sheldon is
head of the traditional values

coalition and one of the
fiercest campaigners against

pornography in America.

He openly admits the HIV
outbreak in the porn industry

provided him with
an opportunity.

Hyming is everything.
It was a wide open door.

It was a huge open window for
us to reach in and actually

reveal to, most Americans how
destructive this industry is.

Because it just showed how
promiscuous they were and how

they go against nature.

It always seems like the
religious right or those types

of people are, people that have
fucked up their lives so much

that, you know, they they let
a little fun get out of hand,

and they can't manage that.

Rob Black is contemptuous
of porn's critics.

For him, they're all hypocrites.

Yeah. Fuck them.

The state of California loves the
tax revenue that it generates.

The Marriott
hotels, the Hiltons,

they all love the revenue it
brings in because they have

their pay per view
porn channels.

It's hypocrisy at its best.

But porn seemingly doesn't
need external enemies.

The gonzo world does the job
perfectly well on its own.

The most disturbing example was
a photo shoot published after

the invasion of Iraq.

It depicts porn stars dressed
as American soldiers supposedly

raping Iraqi women.

Rob denies responsibility.

I wish I would have thought
of something like that.

American soldiers are
raping Iraqi women.

You know?

Shit. But it wasn't me.

Iraq Babes was withdrawn after
it began to be distributed in

the Arab world as authentic.

But around the same time,

these notorious photos emerged
from the Abu Ghraib prison in

Baghdad.

For some, it was evidence evidence
Gonzo was starting to infect broader

American culture.

When I saw those
photographs of Abu Ghraib,

I thought these kids have been
watching too much of the latest

pornography from
the United States.

This is having an
effect on our sexuality.

This kinkiness, this
type of, humiliation,

sexual humiliation is
coming directly from a lot

of the content that's being
shot in pornography now.

I think that there's been a,

exponential kink factor growing.

Things are getting more and more
demeaning toward women, degrading.

It's very, very violent.

It's not about sex
anymore or sensual

sexual eroticism.

It's about grossness.

Some college kids in their
dorm room are watching it

and going, oh, man.

Woah, dude. Can you believe
what they're doing to her man?

Oh, man.

At times, Sharon
questions her own role.

She wonders if she
hasn't become complicit.

Part of me feels, am I
part of this problem?

Am I, like, fattening
him up for the kill?

Oftentimes, that five or ten or
fifteen percent of the real assholes

will almost coexist because they have
that blanket of aim to hide under.

This promotional film for aim
is taken from the start of a

Gonzo film.

Hi. I'm Britney.

And before I let a guy
take me home for the night,

I make sure he's got one
of these. It's an HIV test.

It's simple, easy, and it
only hurts just a little bit.

Come on. I'll show you how.

Some of the most hardcore producers
are among Sharon's biggest fans.

That's it. See
that snap so hard.

The man behind this film
is probably the most notorious

gonzo producer of all.

See? It's so easy.

Hey, baby. What place?

Are you tested?

You bet I am. Sure.
Come on, girl.

For Max Hard core,

the AIM stamp of approval seems
to be licensed to indulge his

darkest fantasies.

Now remember, folks, if you're
gonna play, play it safe.

Come back.

A lot of women that I've come
in contact with over the years,

and that is a lot of women,

really enjoy being dominated,

choked,

slapped,

humiliated.

We're gonna be shooting
a boy girl girl scene,

which includes,
the usual typical,

positions in the
Max hardcore movies.

We got anal fisting
and pussy fisting,

and we don't always do all
of those all up in one in one

scene, but we do, we do always
pissing most of the time.

With pissing, you can
be fucking a girl,

taking out of her ass,
pissing up across her body,

directly into her mouth,

and then going in a form of
degradation or humiliation or

just for the fucking hell of it.

Usually, Max is the one that pisses
on the girls and another girl

pisses on another girl.

It's kinda like a train.
Max doesn't get peed on.

Max basically
doesn't get peed on.

Max's movies also make
a feature out of vomiting.

When you throat fuck,
obviously, sooner or later,

one of the girls is gonna,

puke on your cock.

When we get deep throated,

if there's excess stuff
coming out of our mouth, like

regurgitation

Yeah.

We, like, we, like,
have it all over him.

So that's what he gets.

I'm not here to apologize.

I'm I'm just here to say that,

we make entertainment, and let's
see how far we can take it.

Max runs an open access website.

This is where I talk about,

meeting, girls
and and, you know,

what's going on in my life.

So you'll choose a girl
that you're attracted

to, and it starts
out in thumbnails.

The girl looks really cute.

She looks like she
looks very youthful.

She's got braces on, which
is associated with youth.

You meet a cute girl. She's
hot. She wants to trot.

Let's get it

on,

baby.

Most of the clothes chosen by
Max, like this is, like, from,

a regular store in
a extra small size.

And sometimes it's even in the
small children's department.

This is actually
from a swimsuit,

from a child's swimsuit,
and we use it, so

This is, dancing dresses.

We got leotards from
children's departments.

Everything that's small
is good for the movies.

Don't forget your accessories.

Everybody knows Max dresses
the girls like this.

This is porn stripped of all
conventional eroticism and

reduced to nothing but
power and humiliation.

Are you guys thirsty?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I love so much.

Max is another one for whom
the boundaries between porn and

reality seem to
have become blurred.

I think it's important to
get inside the head of a girl

and more importantly to
the to the to the viewers,

is how can I meet
a girl like this?

Or what are the qualities?

What are the traits that that
this girl has that I would be

able to recognize in a girl that I
would actually meet on the street.

And I think that if,
more guys would ask,

they'd be getting laid
a lot, a lot more often.

The reality is that Gonzo porn
leaves a trail of victims.

Laura Rocks was one of them.

And down in porno land,

scores of other women were
still awaiting the results of

their HIV tests.

Porn star Darren James had contracted
HIV while shooting in Brazil.

He caught the disease on a gonzo
film called Split That Booty,

which featured double anals
and was shot without condoms.

Doing a non condom shoot in
Brazil is like a suicide mission.

Normally in Brazil, they
use condoms regularly.

This is an American
born problem.

The man responsible was
notorious gonzo producer,

TT Boy.

James had gone on to have
sex with more than a dozen women,

many in double anal
scenes for TT Boy's films.

On April twenty ninth, Jessica
d, another of TT Boys stars,

tested positive for HIV.

Then on May fifth, Marissa
Arroyo's results came through.

First time I've ever heard that
I shot on a test that is no good.

So if your test is no
good Why are you going?

Then we should use condoms.

Marissa had not realized that
Darren James had initially

tested negative for HIV.

The first time I found
out was right now,

which is totally embarrassing
that I didn't find out.

She didn't call me
and tell me I'm sorry.

My test is no good, Marissa.

She lashed out at Sharon.

I was mad because
she was talking about

the test, and she was talking
about him working on a bad test.

And later on, she tried to make me look
like a fool because I didn't know it

was a bad test.

I mean, porn stars
aren't that smart,

and I'm only paid to
be a good performer.

HIV got in the system.

That doesn't mean AIM failed
because this is a harm

reduction model that I set up for
people that don't use condoms.

I don't say that this is going
to prevent you from getting

HIV.

I don't put you in
the porn business,

and I don't give you HIV.

By now, Sharon's focus
was on one last actress,

cover girl Kayla Marie, the
only one of Darren James'

partners still to
get her results.

Kayla?

Yeah? I'm ready for him.

I got a phone
call, and I'm like,

do you know who Darren James is?

I was like, Darren James.

I worked with so many guys,
so I'm, like, thinking,

Darren James, that
seems familiar.

And then I they're,
like, on April seventh,

I believe it was.

And I was like, yeah.

I did.

Once more, Sharon found herself
confronted with a terrified young woman.

As it turned out, fortunately,

the ejaculation with the one
woman that we thought was going

to be the fourth positive,

the ejaculation took place in
her vagina rather than in her

rectum, and I think
that saved her life.

I don't usually do anal, but
that was one of my anal no.

It was yeah.

It was my anal scene, but
he didn't come in my ass.

He came in my pussy,
so that's why.

I didn't catch AIDS, but it's
very easy to get it in the ass.

The crisis was over.

Once she came back negative,

it was like everybody went okay.

And after thirty one days,

we knew that if the industry
was good boys and girls and did

not shoot anyone that was
still on that quarantine list,

it was just a matter of
clearing everyone out.

The AIM system had worked.

In the end, the outbreak had
been restricted to four people.

Parnolan could breathe again.

I think Sharon Mitchell's a
goddess, and she has a lot of,

like, detractors, but it makes
me feel more comfortable.

Well, we all wanna live.

We wanna stay alive.

And, it's it's great that
Sharon has taken the,

the initiative to
put this together.

It's been a monumental effort.

Hi. Hey. How are you?

How are you doing, Sharon?

Good to see you, sweetie.

Nice to meet you.

How's it?

You're coming down.

Yeah.

Hey, honey.

How are you?

How are you? Good.
I'm looking well.

Nine months on, and the good folk of
porno land are happily back at work.

It's a great show.

I got a man.

You did a live sex
show there last year.

Yeah. This is a
DJ. I don't care.

A DJ in a girl girl simulation.

Max is one of Sharon's most
conscientious patients, but he,

like the vast
majority of producers,

continues to shoot hardcore
porn without condoms.

The scare and the and the
panic lasted for about a month,

and it went away.

People forget,

and people need to
stop forgetting.

And they need to wake up and

protect the people that are
working and doing their doing

their thing for us.

Sharon has set herself the mission
of protecting the performers,

but she knows she can't
shield them from the abuse and

degradation inherent
in the industry.

I can't compete with
the father figure

and the pimp and the bad
producer or the scumbag agent.

And I have to appease them too

because I have to coexist
with them as well.

Ready to go?

Ultimately, Sharon knows
she's a part of the business.

When I see a girl that comes in and
I know she's gonna be a catastrophe,

I can't say no. Don't do this.

Of course, I can tell
her, please watch.

You know, if you're gonna
work for Rob Black or Max Hard

Corps, someone that's
a little bit rougher,

watch their last tape.

But oftentimes, I'll see those people
coming back crying after six months

having had a bad
time in the industry,

not making any money,
getting taken advantage of.

It's very, very sad.

Laura Rocks returned to Los
Angeles for the first time last

October to be interviewed
for this film.

No one in the porn industry
wanted to see her because of

rumors she planned
to sue TT Boy,

the producer of
Split That Booty.

When I went to
Ames to get tested,

TT Boy was there and he was just

looking at me really,

I guess, aggressively, like,

trying to intimidate
me with his eyes.

And,

he didn't speak
to me or anything.

He just stared.

Laura is still looking
into possible legal action.

I'm not afraid of the future.

I'm

I don't know.

Like, I'm uncertain
about the future,

but I'm not afraid of it.

Like

Marissa is still
living in Los Angeles,

but no longer works
in the porn industry.

It can be really hard to one
minute be to drop dead fucking

fabulously attractive and then
all of a sudden have to sit

down and know that somebody

doesn't necessarily
wanna be with you.

I like to be rambunctious.

I like to drink and throw my
clothes off at the bar and

drag people home and listen
to loud music and, you know,

like, I like to be promiscuous.

I like to have fun and those
days are they're they're over.

But there's plenty more where
Marissa and Laura came from.

Every day, a new eighteen year
old gets off the bus in Parnoland.

Some will prosper,

but most will be chewed up
by the machine and spat out.

Sharon and the AIM clinic do
what they can to protect them,

but once they walk out the
door, they're on their own.

To find out more what it's like
to live with a diagnosis of

HIV, go to channel four
dot com slash health.

Now tomorrow at
five past eleven,

we follow two porn virgins as
they embark on their new careers.

And coming up next tonight,

women already working in
the adult entertainment business

talk candidly in
Pornography the Musical.