Jennifer Lyon Bell
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Erotic Auteur Jennifer Lyon Bell on SMUT, TEDx Talks and CineKink NYC
In the world of erotic cinema, veteran indie filmmaker Jennifer Lyon Bell is a (non-nuclear) household name. An early member of both the feminist porn and ethical porn movements, the director-producer — and curator, writer and teacher — has for over a decade and a half been on a transatlantic mission to spread the sex-positive word. And now the Amsterdam-based expat and founder of Blue Artichoke Films will be Zooming in to this year’s virtual CineKink (May 4-8 with a week of encores to follow) on the afternoon of May 8 to present “From Fantasy To Film: Design Your Own […]
by Lauren Wissot on May 6, 2022 -
The New Nostalgia of Touch: The Best Adult Erotic Filmmakers to Watch in 2021
The relentless slog of this pandemic has, undeniably, left a lot of us bereft of human physical contact. What seemed manageable to handle for a month or two — no hugging outside of your household pod, no new dates without rigorous measures — is starting to feel like a real and permanent loss. As an adult erotic filmmaker myself, I’m painfully aware that the adult film industry has of course been terribly hard-hit by the ban on physical contact. In-person shooting of couples and groups has, by necessity, slowed to a sanitary trickle. I feel very lucky that I finished […]
by Jennifer Lyon Bell on Feb 16, 2021 -
Jennifer Lyon Bell and Stoya Talk “Blue Artichoke Films Presents: Adventures In Intimacy” (and Sex Positivity)
Taking place on Friday, February 28th in Amsterdam (or via a live stream near you), “Blue Artichoke Films Presents: Adventures In Intimacy” will be, according to the event’s press release, “a celebration of sex-positive, p*rn-positive, queer-friendly culture as explored by p*rn performers, scientists, and sex educators in their own work.” Organized by the feminist force behind Blue Artichoke Films (which will simultaneously celebrate its platform launch) Jennifer Lyon Bell, the evening’s quartet of speakers, including the host herself, are an international array of notable thinkers on the subject of erotica in cinema. The Netherlands Ellen Laan, a sexologist and “pleasure […]
by Lauren Wissot on Feb 26, 2020 -
“… When you’re a Niche Filmmaker in a World That’s Not Always as Openminded as You Might Like”: CineKink Artist Spotlight Award Recipient Jennifer Lyon Bell on Her Art Porn Career
This year CineKink NYC will be celebrating its upcoming sweet sixteen edition of the fest (April 3-7) by adding something new: the CineKink Artist Spotlight award. And in town to receive the honor — and premiere her latest Adorn, along with its making-of documentary, as well as host her “From Fantasy to Film: Design Your Own Porn Film” workshop — will be Amsterdam-based Jennifer Lyon Bell, no stranger to the kinky fest. Indeed, Bell has been screening her work at CineKink since 2006, racking up awards while making connections she cites as integral to her longevity in a notoriously difficult […]
by Lauren Wissot on Apr 5, 2019 -
“Sex-Positive and Non-Exploitative, with a Big Piece of Questioning who is getting Representation”: Lisa Vandever on Celebrating CineKink NYC’s Sweet Sixteen
For the past 16 years CineKink NYC co-founder and director Lisa Vandever has been on a mission to not only showcase the best in sex-positive films — from narrative to nonfiction, features to shorts, high camp to deep drama — but also support their brave indie creators (who are very rarely straight white males). To that end, the upcoming edition (April 3-7) will see its first CineKink Artist Spotlight award bestowed on feminist pornographer Jennifer Lyon Bell, whose erotic work Vandever has been continuously championing since 2006. Filmmaker was fortunate that Vandever found time for a brief chat in the […]
by Lauren Wissot on Apr 3, 2019 -
“We Have Only Scratched the Surface of What is Possible in Erotic VR Media”: Jennifer Lyon Bell on Her Fantasy Film Workshop and Creating Erotic VR
The last time I interviewed veteran filmmaker Jennifer Lyon Bell for this site topics ranged from “fair trade” porn to the inaugural Holy Fuck Film Festival in Amsterdam (where the expat feminist pornographer has long resided). And now Bell, recipient of both the Feminist Porn Awards 2014 Movie of the Year (for Silver Shoes, which premiered at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts) and a psych degree from Harvard, continues to expand her mission of providing sex education for those behind the lens, while also exploring the new media horizon through her own artistic work. I caught up with Bell to […]
by Lauren Wissot on Mar 21, 2018 -
Remembering Candida Royalle, 1950 – 2015
Filmmaker Candida Royalle, who was interviewed in just the third issue of this magazine back in Summer of 1993, passed away this week. Below she is remembered by CineKink founder and occasional Filmmaker contributor Lisa Vandever. — SM A pioneering feminist filmmaker and prominent figure in the world of adult cinema, Candida Royalle died earlier this week, at the age of 64, after a lengthy fight with ovarian cancer. Candida and her work made many appearances at CineKink over the years, and we were grateful for the opportunity to present “A Tribute To ‘Club 90,” an evening honoring Candida and […]
by Lisa Vandever on Sep 12, 2015 -
Feminist Pornographer Jennifer Lyon Bell on Silver Shoes, PinkLabel.tv, and the Holy F*ck Film Festival
I’ve known Amsterdam-based, San Francisco-bred, Jennifer Lyon Bell ever since we met over half a decade ago at Brooklyn’s much beloved Monkey Town — back when a DIY, Williamsburg performance space could afford to host a Sunday brunch for CineKink Film Festival award winners. (Bell’s Matinée took the Best Narrative Short prize, while Un Piede di Roman Polanski, an homage to Roman Polanski’s foot fetish I co-directed with Roxanne Kapista, nabbed Best Experimental Short.) Since then Bell’s films have been both banned (Matinée from the Melbourne Underground Film Festival by the Australian Film Commission in 2009) and celebrated, most recently […]
by Lauren Wissot on May 29, 2015
