If you air it,
will they come?

With the country’s panties in a bunch over a new Edmonton-based, Can-con porn channel, Montreal’s producers aren’t yet convinced it will fly

PROFESSIONALS AT WORK:
Kelly Summer (R) and Juicy Pearl on
the set of Party de filles vol. 2

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

There’s a wide variety of porn out there, from high-end, big budget films by Michael Ninn or Paul Thomas to ultra-low end, poorly lit MILF clips on PornoTube. The industry’s a huge moneymaker—estimated at generating between $4-billion to $18-billion (U.S.) in revenue every year—and a lot of people want a piece of the action.

While horny Canadians can watch almost anything produced anywhere in the world in any format—vigilant Canada Customs agents notwithstanding—Shaun Donnelly, of Edmonton’s Real Productions, believes there’s a niche out there for homegrown talent. Three weeks ago, Donnelly received the go-ahead from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the federal broadcast regulators, to start up an adult cable channel that would feature up to 50 per cent Canadian content (normally a new channel requires only 15 per cent). It created a media sensation at the time: Dailies churned out headlines (“Debbie does Flin Flon” etc.) that tired very quickly, and Fred Henry, the Catholic bishop of Calgary, thundered in a Calgary Herald op-ed that the channel was an “abomination.”

But controversy and giggling media types aside, one issue lies over the channel’s success: if you air it, will they come? (read that one however you like.) Montreal being an acknowledged leader in the Canadian porn field, it’s a question that matters here.

Swingers, students and pizza boys

Donnelly already has some experience in TV. His made-in-Canada The Boy Nexxt Door series is already available to Canadians on the Playboy channel, and his approach to the industry, he claims, is different.

“We do funnier stuff,” he says. “At the root of it, we have very funny shows.” (The Boy Nexxt Door, for instance, follows the travails and pratfalls of Danny Vegas, a 20-year-old pizza delivery boy trying to break into the adult industry. The show is set in Milwaukee, but shot in Edmonton.)

ALL CANADIAN:
Real Productions title

Northern Peaks will also contain a lot of amateur content. “We tend to work with first-timers, people who want to make an adult film but who don’t want to make a career of it.” Swinging couples and students make up the majority of his performers. The rest of the programming will, he says, be American-made films. He says he’s in conversation with several carriers, and hopes to begin broadcasting by early-to-mid 2009.

Canadian porn is already making a fair bit of money. Daniel White, of Montreal-based Productions Erobec, says he already has a good distribution via pay-per-view and video on demand (PPV and VOD), and most of his product is seen courtesy of Bell ExpressVu. He says Northern Peaks is a good idea, and CRTC approval of Canadian content for porn channels is already in place—as are certain stipulations regarding hair-pulling, smacking, spitting or choking. Certain cable providers, he says, prefer softcore—he mentions Vidéotron speficially—although Bell ExpressVu is more tolerant.

The 25 films White says he produces a year are certified Canadian content by the CRTC, which helps him enormously with the PPV and VOD providers here. Since the DVD market is “losing market shares every day” to PPV and VOD, he says, providers have to seek out producers like him to fill their Can-con quotas.

He also thinks Northern Peaks’ reliance on amateurs will help, at least in terms of providing reliable performers. Even though Quebec has its budding porn starlets like Kelly Summer (Swallow My Rod and Share the Wad Vol. 2, Fetish Finishing School), Zophya (Swallow My Rod 3, Girly Gang Bang 5) and Eddie X (Black Velvet: Montreal), he says off-set life often interferes with their careers. “You have to work hard for several years if you want an international career,” he says. “Producers won’t want to invest in a girl who’s in and out of the industry because they’re always wondering if she’s going to disappear.” Since most of the girls that will be appearing on Northern Peaks will be amateur, that isn’t an issue.

Peeking into the bedrooms of the nation

But will people flock to watch Canadian amateur porn? There’s certainly a market for it, but local freelance film/Web pornographer (and Montreal’s self-proclaimed “king of porn!”) Vid Vicious has his doubts. “Am I really going to want to pay to sit on my couch and watch my neighbours fuck?” he asks.

Vicious says he’s already spoken to Donnelly about providing him with content, but came away with serious reservations about the channel’s long-term viability. He simply doesn’t believe hard-working and horny Canadians will shell out whatever fee Northern Peaks will demand to watch amateur-quality porn.

“But I wish him the best of luck,” he says.