What do you get when you cross a documentary with the world of pornography? Well, Austrian writer and director Rosa Friedrich (wandering) has done so, and the result of the mixed document is called My friend is a porn star.
If you’re scratching your head in confusion right now, allow me to go back and explain. My friend is a porn starfrom Vienna-based production company Kacerovsky (formerly ostblok), will have its world premiere in the Proxima competition program of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Tuesday 7 July.
The film was produced by Dominik Spitler for the Austrian company Kasierowski. Laura Eitel is the director of photography at My friend is a porn starWhile the editor is Melanie Schmidt. New Docs is handling sales, with Stadtkino Filmverleih being the distributor in Austria.
If you’re worried about telling your friends that you’re going to watch a new movie but are embarrassed to say its title, this might put your mind at ease. Friedrich was never interested in pornography, according to press notes for My friend is a porn star. That is until her boyfriend, Timo, expressed his desire to participate in a “sexy art film.” So, Rosa’s friend agrees to help him launch a film project, finding a co-star and documenting the process along the way.
You probably know that this is the time when another shoe falls or a garment falls. Well, could it be both!? “The closer the filming date gets, the more embarrassed and suspicious Timo feels about getting involved in the first place,” teases a synopsis on the KVIFF website. What’s Rosa to do? easy! “His face is eventually replaced with the help of artificial intelligence, and Rosa continues in the film, along with a dominatrix, three transgender women, a food porn creator, a sex coach, and other protagonists.”
Or as press notes for My friend is a porn star “His last-minute withdrawal turns the project into a collective experiment about desire, visibility, and the fear of being seen,” he says of Timo. After all, it leaves Rosa with a camera full of footage and a lot of questions.
By embracing his decision, and the artificial intelligence, “the director turns his withdrawal into the film’s central theme: the desire to appear versus the desire to hide,” according to press materials. Rewatching her material, it becomes clear that this struggle is not Timo’s alone. Participants in Timo’s erotic film auditions also move between curiosity, self-determination, and doubt. Rosa invites them to remake the film together.
Among what promises to be a colorful array of characters we meet in the film are the likes of Alice Moe, better known as Eric Big Clit. Or as the press reports: “What follows is a collective experience: a dominatrix, three trans women, a non-binary food porn creator, a fashion designer, an actress, a sex coach, and a chef, each bringing their own vision of erotica to the project. Moving between playful acting and intimate documentary, a comic emerges that is constantly reinventing itself – just like its heroes.”
Friedrich shares this in a director’s statement: “I never expected to find myself involved in making a porn film. But when Timo – my friend’s stage name – told me about his long-standing dream of making an artistic erotic film with himself in the lead role, the story wouldn’t let me go. When we started working together, I realized that I was less interested in whether Timo’s film would actually get made than in what would happen along the way. What struck me was the contradiction at the heart of the film.” “It is: the desire for vision, and the fear of being held accountable for it.”
“When Timo left, I decided to stay with the material and find a new approach,” the writer-director recalls. “This led me to anonymize his shots using artificial intelligence and continue the film as a collective process, shaped by the different points of view of the people who came to the casting. In the end, the film became a result with its own purpose: not a provocation, but an invitation to think differently about visibility, shame and self-protection.”
If what you’ve read so far doesn’t quite interest you, THR The trailer can be premiered exclusively, and it’s the ultimate teaser, so to speak, for My friend is a porn star here. Get to know Rosa and Timo as they explore what people find sexy. For added safety, you may not want to watch this video in a public place…
