New Movements and Markets in Pornography
Keynote: Tristan Taormino
Also Featuring:
Bruce LaBruce and Sherrie Quinn
with an introduction by Brenda Cossman
Friday March 12, reception 6-7pm conference 7-10pm
Medical Sciences Building, U of T Downtown Campus
General Admission: $25, Free for U of T Students
Tickets available at:
U of T Tix Box Office
(416) 978-8849
uofttix.ca
U of T Students can pick up tickets at the Sexual Diversity Studies office, Room UC251 at Univeristy College.
Facebook event page
Speaker Bios
Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, sex
educator, and feminist pornographer. She is the author of six books: The Big Book of Sex Toys, The Anal Sex Position Guide, Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, True Lust: Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion, Down and Dirty Sex Secrets, and The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women.
She runs her own adult film production
company, Smart Ass Productions, and is currently an exclusive director
for Vivid Entertainment. For Vivid, she directs a reality
series called Chemistry, the documentary/vignette series Rough Sex,
and helms the company's sex education imprint, Vivid-Ed. She has
written, produced, executive produced, and/or directed 11 sex education
titles for Vivid-Ed. She is the winner of five AVN Awards, three
Feminist Porn Awards, an XRCO Award,
and an Adam Film Award; in 2007, she became the first female director
to win Best Gonzo Release at the AVN Awards for her movie Chemistry. XCritic named her the Female Director of the Year in 2008.
She was a syndicated columnist for The Village Voice for over nine years, and writes an advice column for Taboo Magazine. She lectures at top colleges and universities where she speaks on gay
and lesbian issues, sexuality and gender, pornography, and feminism. She teaches sex
and relationship workshops around the world.
Bruce LaBruce is a Toronto based film-maker, writer, photographer, and artist. He began his career in the mid- eighties making a series of short experimental super 8 films and co-editing a punk fanzine called J.D.s, which begat the queercore movement. He has directed and starred in three feature length movies, "No Skin Off My Ass" (1991), "Super 8 1/2" (1994), and "Hustler White" (1996). More recently he has directed two art/porn features, “Skin Flick” (2000)(hardcore version: “Skin Gang”) and “The Raspberry Reich” (2004)(hardcore version: “The Revolution Is My Boyfriend”), and the indie feature “Otto; or, Up with Dead People” (2008). After premiering at Sundance and Berlin, “The Raspberry Reich” took off on the international film festival circuit, playing at over 150 festivals, including the Istanbul, Guadalajara, and Rio de Janeiro International Film Festivals. He was also honoured with retrospectives at the end of ’05 at the Madrid and Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals. “Otto; or, Up with Dead People” also played at over 150 film festivals, culminating in a screening at MoMA in New York City in November of 2008.
LaBruce has written a premature memoir entitled “The Reluctant Pornographer”, from Gutter Press. A book on LaBruce’s work, “Ride Queer Ride”, was published in 1998 by the Plug-In Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada.
LaBruce was a contributing editor and frequent writer and photographer for Index magazine, and he has also been a regular contributor to Eye and Exclaim magazines, Dutch, Vice, the National Post, Nerve.com. and Black Book. He was also formerly a frequent photographer for the US porn mags Honcho and Inches, and has recently contributed to Butt, Kink, Jack, Currency, Kaiserin, and Slurp. As a fashion photographer he has contributed stories to such magazines as Dazed and Confused, Bon, Tank, Tetu, Fake, Attitude, Blend, Tokion and the National Post.
LaBruce had his first solo show of photographs presented by the Alleged Gallery in New York in December, 1999. He has had subsequent solo exhibits of his photographs at the Pitt Gallery in Vancouver, MC MAGMA in Milano, Italy, Bailey Fine Arts Gallery in Toronto, Peres Projects in San Franciso, and at John Connelly Presents in New York. His show Heterosexuality Is the Opiate of the Masses opened on July 16th/05 at Peres Projects in Los Angeles. Most recently, in July/06, he mounted Polaroid Rage: A Survey of Polaroids, 2000-2006, at Gallery 1313 in Toronto. He has also participated in numerous group shows. In October of 2006 he was the featured artist at the Barcelona International Erotic Festival. His latest solo show, Untitled Hardcore Zombie Project, opened at Peres Projects in Culver City, LA, on May 23rd, 2009.
LaBruce has also made a number of popular music videos in Canada, two of which won him MuchMusic video awards.
Sherrie Quinn is a 4th-year Philosophy and Sexual Diversity Studies student. Her academic interests lie in continental philosophy and the politics and economics of human sexuality. She just completed a fourth year thesis on “The Capitalization of Female Sexuality in Postmodernity”, exploring different aspects of how female sexuality has been commercialized and marketed in our contemporary society. Her thesis included a section on the proliferation of hardcore pornography into mainstream culture, from which the foundation for her presentation stems. She proposed the theme of ‘New Pornography Movements’ for this year’s conference, and has served as the directorial vision for this event.
Sherrie is the 09-10 Chair of the Sexual Diversity Studies’ Student Union. Last year, she was the Events Representative and Co- Conference Coordinator in "$ex For $ale: Prostitution, Government, and Regulation". In addition to the conference, she has organized other SDS events, and has helped many students get involved in union activities. Upon graduating, she plans to continue her education in law school and pursue a career in the legal profession.
Brenda Cossman teaches courses on family law, gender and law, and law and film. She writes extensively in the area of law and sexuality. Her most recent book, Sexual Citizens: The Legal and Cultural Regulation of Sex and Belonging, was published by Stanford University Press in 2007. Additionally, Cossman co-authored Bad Attitudes on Trial: Pornography, Feminism and the Butler Decision (University of Toronto Press) and Censorship and the Arts (published by the Ontario Association of Art Galleries).
Professor Cossman is actively involved in law reform, particularly in the area of same sex couples and definitions of family. Recently, she authored reports for the Law Commission of Canada and the Ontario Law Reform Commission on the legal regulation of adult relationships.
Professor Cossman is also a frequent commentator in the media on issues relating to law and sexuality. She served as a member of the Pink Triangle Press Board of Directors for ten years, working as a frequent contributor to Xtra!
