Anna Span

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Anna Arrowsmith (born 1972), who works under the pseudonym Anna Span, became Britain's first female porn film director in 1997.[1] She is also a public speaker on sex, pornography, and feminism.[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life

The daughter of Finance Director Clive Thompson, she was born and raised in Kent. [3] A graduate of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in Fine Art (Film & Video),[1] her films are female friendly based on her ideas first outlined in her 1997 dissertation 'Towards a New Pornography' but also sell to men too.

[edit] Career

She had her first film aired in 1999 on UK porn channel Television X and has made over 250 scenes to date.[4] Although some women have directed scenes of sexual education for such films as The Lovers' Guide, Anna was the first UK woman to direct films with a clear pornographic intent. There were American women such as Candida Royalle who started filming porn in the 80's, however.

Her films focus on women enjoying sex including lesbian sex and heterosexual sex, with some bisexual sex. Other themes include sex toys, everyday objects (such as a chocolate bar or orange) being used as sex aids, threesomes, group sex and gang bangs. Role playing and fantasy are also common. Sometimes a character from one of her films appears in another. There is a big emphasis on reality both in script and actor performances. In her films she includes a much higher than average percentage of shots which look at the men, which she has termed 'female point of view' shots.

Anna Span was the 2007/8 and 2008/9 Best Director at the UK Adult Film & TV Awards, where she also won four other awards for her DVD "Hug a Hoodie". She won Best British Film Brand at The UK's trade awards - the ETO Awards in 2008. In 2007 she won 'Indie Porn Pioneer' at The International Emma Feminist Porn Awards, in Toronto. Her film Be My Toy Boy is nominated for best Film at the 2009 ETO Awards.

Since 1998 she has run her own production company, Easy on the Eye productions, which also releases work of other female porn directors that she has trained. These films are being released under the brand 'Women Love Porn' in August 2009. She is the author of Erotic Home Video now called Shoot your Own Adult Home Movies, a manual on how to shoot one's own home porn films which has sold around 23,000 copies to date.

Since June 2009 Anna has run a unique sex toy site called www.annaspansextoys.com in which each sex toy has its own 'fake DIY infomercial' made for it, which is the first time sex toys have been sold using individual humorous adverts.

UK men's magazine Arena called her 'Britain's hottest porn director'.

In September 2007, she was the focus of a TV documentary entitled "Sex Films For Girls", made by Five, which captured her views on pornography and her film approach and featured on-set filming during the making of a film. Her father also appeared in the documentary, expressing a negative view of pornography but a very supportive view of his daughter, nevertheless.

Span identifies sexually as bisexual.[5] and has said, "I'm bi and looking at two women together turns me on."[6]

Anna regularly tours the world giving talks about pornography and feminism. In 2008/9 she spoke at Glasgow University, St Andrews University, National University of Ireland, Galway (University College Galway(UCG)),[7] Sunderland University as well as at film festivals in Amsterdam, Canada and Norway.She has also participated in past years in University College Dublin's (NUI,Dublin)[8] Literary & Historical Society's "The Porn Debates".[9]

Anna has been a regular columnist of The Daily Sport newspaper every Thursday (talking about the humour and frustrations of her job) and Scarlet (Britain's best selling women's sex magazine).

Anna has been an active member of Feminists Against Censorship since the late 90s.

In September 09 Anna won an important battle against censorship from the British Board of Film Classification. The DVD 'Women Love Porn' was passed with a scene which clearly shows female ejaculation in it, when previous submissions failed to be passed uncut. Anna argued that the view the BBFC held - that the liquid was urine and therefore the film fell foul of the Obscene Publications Act - was untrue and sexist, as male ejaculate is allowed at R18 certificate. The film passed uncut when the BBFC took legal advice in the face of considerable scientific evidence that the model ejaculated, supplied by Anna Span. Since this release, the OPA is now used differently with respect to female ejaculation although the BBFC refuse still to admit its existence, even though the film was passed uncut and they have not suggested what the liquid is, if it isn't either ejaculate or urine.

[edit] United Kingdom general election, 2010

Nick Clegg: "She cares passionately about her area."

Arrowsmith has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham in Kent to fight the 2010 general election.[10] The seat is currently held by Conservative Adam Holloway.

She explained her move into politics in The Observer[11] Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said Arrowsmith's previous profession was "not exactly my cup of tea", and she was certainly no "cardboard cut-out Westminster politician". But he said it was important that "people like her" who care about their local areas put themselves forward.[12]

Arrowsmith lives with her husband in Groombridge near Tunbridge Wells.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Wilkes, David (12th March 2010). "'From porn to Parliament': Woman adult film-maker to be election candidate (surprise, surprise, she's a Lib Dem)". www.dailymail.co.uk. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257210/Porn-film-director-Anna-Arrowsmith-selected-Lib-Dem-Parliamentary-candidate.html. Retrieved 2010-03-13. 
  2. ^ "Anna Span", ShowStudio, http://showstudio.com/contributors/5885, retrieved 2007-09-17 
  3. ^ "A woman's touch", The Observer, 2003-07-20, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1001733,00.html 
  4. ^ Maguire, Rob (2007-07-03), "Global Feminisms: The End of Radical Feminist Art?", Art Threat, http://artthreat.net/2007/07/global-feminisms-the-end-of-radical-feminist-art, retrieved 2007-09-17 
  5. ^ AJ (2007-01-24), "Anna Span", Strictlynews.com, http://www.strictlynews.com/sbn/live/interviews/directors/annaspan.html, retrieved 2007-09-17 
  6. ^ Lovegirls.co.uk interview
  7. ^ http://www.galwayindependent.com/local-news/local-news/nuig-to-debate-porn/
  8. ^ http://annaspansdiary.com/home.php?post_id=33
  9. ^ http://www.ucd.ie/lnh/debates/15402porn.html
  10. ^ "Female porn director to fight Parliament seat in Kent", BBC, 2010-03-12, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/8563214.stm 
  11. ^ Why I've gone from porn to politics, Anna Arrowsmith The Observer, Sunday 14 March 2010
  12. ^ Nick Clegg defends former porn director standing for Lib The Guardian, Friday 12 March 2010

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Span"
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