by SARAH ROWLAND

Plucked from a suburban strip club, Malezia is fast-tracking it to online stardom. And thanks to her shrewd manager Dugmor, there’s even talk of an exclusive contract with Vivid Entertainment, which may include a line of personalized toys patterned after her genitalia. While Malezia dreams of customized bobblecunts, gay porn stud Dave Angelo and his wife search for a gas station that doesn’t reek of trucker dung so they can film a bathroom stall jerk-off sequence for his new Web site.

Meanwhile, Katrina is enjoying her local celebrity as a freelancing porn star. She doesn’t want any contracts tying her down, and save for the controlling boyfriend who seems to be pulling all the strings and never leaves her side, she is fiercely independent.

These are the Montrealers who directors Joshua Dorsey and Ziad Touma followed for their 10-part docu-soap series Webdreams. And according to Touma, the fact that all the on-camera personalities pursue their respective careers with dogged determination is no accident.

“I guess I had some very PC views leftover from my very feminist Concordia education, because concerns about how the porn industry can be exploitative and abusive were still in my mind when we were casting,” says Touma, from his Mile-End office. “So we consciously chose to work with characters who never questioned what they did for a living—whether it was moral or not. They are very proud of what they were doing. They’re just young entrepreneurs vying for fame and fortune.”

Post-modem romance

You’d think that after directing a season of the fetish docu-series Kink and his ode to gay club culture Saved by the Belles!, Touma would have a very relaxed attitude toward the multibillion-dollar industry. Not so. His exposure to the women’s lib movement in university combined with his ultra conservative upbringing made enjoying XXX-rated entertainment a personal challenge.

“I used to consume porn like many of us do: not very openly,” admits Touma. “It remained a really taboo thing that was only interesting as long as it lasted. You know, like ‘You jerk off then you turn it off.’”

Eventually though, curiosity got the best of him. “I wanted to know more about these people who can somehow separate their personal sex lives and their online personas and just go, ‘Okay I’ll go fuck for money but I’ll make love for intimacy.’”

One of the best examples of this professional phenomena is Katrina. The icy-blue-eyed Russian is fully committed to her boyfriend and has no problem bouncing on other men’s cocks under his watchful eye.

“I want to be famous. That’s my number one priority in life. Money is second to that and porn is the easiest way to achieve my goals,” says Katrina.

The same goes for Angelo. As we learn in episode five, he puts his nuptials to the test with other men.

“In the middle of servicing the client as an escort, Dave turned to us and asked what I wanted him to do,” recalls Touma. “And I had to say, ‘I can’t tell you; we’re just here as flies on the wall. You just keep continuing what you’re doing.’”

Extreme overload

As intense as it was filming ass-pounding and DPs, it was the non-sexual scenes that proved to be the trickiest shooting days for Touma. For example, when one of the recurring characters gets into a huge fight with her two-timing boyfriend, Touma found himself biting his tongue.

“One of the most difficult things about directing docu-soaps is being non-judgmental,” he says. “With friends, you just want to step in and say, ‘Hey, get out of this relationship.’ But in this situation, if you do that, then you’re directing their lives, which is not our mission. Our mission is just to portray how they’re living as authentically as possible. So if I had given any advice, I’d have been fucking with reality.”

With so much intimate experience exploring sexual identity, one has to wonder if crossing over to hardcore filmmaking is the next step for Touma? In a word: no.

“Not that I haven’t had offers,” he says. “But I really like being on the fence of the extreme. I like looking at stuff up close but not necessarily being part of the action.”

In fact, he’s thinking of taking a break from all sex-related projects.

“I think I’ve had enough,” he says. “I’ve explored all aspects of it thoroughly—answered the questions I wanted answered and showed the things I wanted to show. The only taboo thing left for me to explore through television and film is virgins.”

Webdreams premieres on Showcase Friday, Sept. 2, at 10 p.m.

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