This last year was truly a year of change and growth. We moved into a new San Francisco studio, hired Jiz Lee on as full-time Online Marketing Director, rejuvenated our Affiliate Program and updated our Advertising and Sponsorship program, and we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of our newest site in Shine Louise Houston’s Porn Empire, PinkLabel.tv with new films from independent filmmakers including Cheryl Dunye, Nenna, and Marit Ostberg. We helped crowd-fund a number of films, and also sponsored over 20 charities and causes, from surgeries to projects like TransHack, Girl Sex 101, Woodhull Freedom Summit, and the Queer Women of Color Film Festival.
2013 was the year of Feminist Porn. In January we saw the release of The Feminist Porn Book (edited by Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Celine Parrenas Shimizu and Dr. Mireille Miller-Young), Cosmopolitan Magazine felt the buzz, XBiz produced a special magazine feature and added Feminist Porn to their awards category, and the 1st annual Feminist Porn Conference, where Shine Louise Houston premiered Shiny Jewels.
There were highs and lows. Highs include Erika Moen’s comic review of CrashPad and our own co-director Alexa premiering Valencia: the Movie(s) at Frameline. Sadly, our low included the loss of friend and filmmaker Carlos Batts. Carlos lived and dreamed big—let’s do what he did each day and make it count.
And we saw lots of press! Some highlights: one of the biggest stars in porn, Stoya, gave a shout out to Shine and Pink & White Productions in her appearance on Huffington Post Live. Shine also appeared in the NY Times, in an article about Blue is the Warmest Color. And both PinkLabel and CrashPad were highlighted in Cosmopolitan Magazine.
We worked hard. We rolled up our production sleeves and released OCCUPIED: a queer hardcore romance for the 99%, and sent our works to international film screenings, including Berlin Porn Film Festival and SF Transgender Film Festival’s Tribute to the late trans porn pioneer Christopher Lee. We saw the 165th episode of CrashPadSeries.com and 148 movies on PinkLabel.tv, and those sites, OCCUPIED, and many of our performers honored by nominations in Los Angeles porn industries including XBiz, Grooby, and AVN. We gave CrashPad members access to Pink & White films in the Keymaster Collection, and brought our process out in the open by letting members watch us while we film for CrashPad via a live-streaming voyeur cam. As if that weren’t enough, we finalized three new project to launch in 2014. We’re putting on the finishing touches as we speak!
Finally, we introduced CrashPad star Rizzo Ford to the deliciousness that is Indian Pizza. #sorrynotsorry