San Francisco – from www.sfbaytimes.com – Good Vibrations’ 5th Annual Indie Erotic Film Festival exalted gay porn on Sept. 19 with “A Celebration of Sleaze” clip show, gay porn panel, and hot erotic show by star performer Michael Brandon [pictured] at San Francisco’s legendary Nob Hill Theatre.

We got to sit back and enjoy a hot collection of steamy scenes from the leaders in gay porn, then find out what’s going on in the industry with a fascinating panel featuring directors, stars, and visionaries from three industries: Titan, Naked Sword, and Heavenly Spire, porn reviewer John Karr of B.A.R.’s “Karnal Knowledge” column , and executive director of Center for Sex & Culture and Good Vibes’ sexologist Dr. Carol Queen as moderator.

Following the panel, we got hot and bothered with a live performance by Nob Hill Theatre alum and gay superstar Michael Brandon.

At the VIP pre-party, Good Vibe’s sexy events manager Camilla Lombard introduced us to the panel. Brian Mills is director of production at Titan Media, who began working in the business in 1993 as a freelance still photographer.

“My work conveys primarily fantasy-based scenarios,” he said. “I love creating beautiful images of men together.”

Paul Wilde is director and studio operations for Titan since 2007. His own experience and understanding of the rigors of fetish play is evident in his style. Patrick O’Connor is Titan’s creative coordinator. His personal experience in front of the camera gives him a higher level of empathy for performers and the challenges of the work.

Tim Valenti is co-founder and CEO of NakedSword.com. He sits on the board of directors as Vice President of the Free Speech Coalition and also co-hosts the porn-centered The Tim and Roma Show. He is a leader in the video-on-demand industry. Jack Shamama is product manager at Naked Sword and has been editor of “GayPornBlog” since 2004. He has written over 15 screenplays, including the GAYVN (Gay Video News) Award-winning soap opera porn series, Wet Palms.

Shine Louise Houston is director and producer of Heavenly Spire. During a five-year position at the women-owned Good Vibrations, she recognized an underserved demand for authentic woman and queer made porn and is now pioneering new territory into representations of masculine sexuality.
The first set of clips boldly stated: “Enter the land of pulse and desire.” It was a veritable montage of pornage from Titan – especially Mills’ Overdrive, Summer Blaze, Reflex, Slick, and the “Rough” line of fetish movies with fisting, pissing, and urethra play. Ow! I tend to cross my legs tightly when I think of the latter one – but to each his own.

The second clip was from NakedSword’s I Want Your Love with Travis Mathews. It featured a lot of making out before making love, punctuated with lots of friendly shared laughter, and absolutely no “bom chicka wawa” porn background music. There was an accent on realism in this flick, without a lot of glitz and gloss, and just two regular guys getting it on.

The third series, from Heavenly Spire, had candid interviews of the actors before they played together. Some of the actors were bois, some were trans, and some were queer men.

The panel discussed what made porn really hot for the viewer, and what was important about porn. They came up with a variety of answers to the first question: real men actually connecting; realistic sex; real people in realistic situations; an extension of what goes on in the viewer’s bedroom or playroom; passion happening in real time; good visuals; a sense of voyeurism; background music not overriding the actual sexual sounds and phrases; eroticizing safer sex; getting to watch some act you might not ever actually engage in yourself; bringing fetish into the mainstream; the illusion of spontaneity and true contact; legitimizing and broadening our sexuality; the models shown obviously enjoying themselves (especially those gay-for-pay alleged “straight” men who happen to accidentally show their distaste in their actions) and displaying that joy in their expressions; and not always being perfect body fascists in the process of the selection of actors.

The panel discussed the value of porn as educational; validating other people’s activities; pushing the free speech boundaries; allowing for uncensored expression; making an opportunity to show on film how safer sex can still be hot sex (not to mention that watching porn is the very safest form of sex); the fact that whatever is on film can help future generations in their acceptance of their sexuality; and finally, gay porn has helped advance our culture.

After the panel was dismissed, Brandon’s show began. Brandon got his first taste of the industry in the late ‘80s, but a life of drugs took him away from hardcore sets for ten years. Thankfully he made a stunning recovery and March of 2000 he was back and better than ever. Not satisfied with just being a porn star, he has also become a very successful producer.

Investing and becoming part owner of both Monster Bang Videos and Raging Stallion Studios, he has had a big part in hand selecting the models. He has earned many awards, including 2003/2004 Cybersocket Best Porn Star Site; 2002 Grabby Performer of the Year and 2003 Hall of Fame inductee; Free Speech Coalition’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the only model in the gay porn industry who has won back to back awards in 2002/2003 as GAYVN Performer of the Year.

Brandon was joined onstage with fellow actor Gabriel to do a sizzling live sex show, featuring Brandon’s well known prodigious member known affectionately as “The Monster.” Brandon was dressed in doctor’s scrubs and checking audience member’s pulses as he walked down the aisle. He found quite a quickened pulse in Sister Dana’s jeans, especially as he appeared in my favorite fetish: wire rim glasses and facial hair. Yum! He stripped off the scrubs to Madonna’s “Erotic.” Then Gabriel licked Brandon’s ear lobes and nipples to Madonna’s “Fever.” Gabriel dropped to his knees to hungrily devour The Monster. Brandon then licked Gabriel’s pink puckered hole and probed the rosebud with his tongue as Madonna was singing quite appropriately “Deeper and Deeper.” Applying a battery powered pump, Brandon “pumped up the volume” of The Monster, and for the climax, he climaxed! A veritable explosion of jizm! The audience shouted and clapped most enthusiastically – that is, if they had their hands free (if you know what I mean). What a hot scene!!!