AORTA Films Founder on the ‘Golden Era’ of Indie, Queer Porn

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In 2016, Mahx Capacity founded queer indie porn company AORTA Films, along with co-founders Parts Authority and Ginny Woolf.

“We wanted to make porn that we weren’t finding in the world—lusty, gorgeous, HD, experimental, hardcore, campy, artistic, porn featuring queer and trans performers,” says Mahx, who is Creative Director and Co-Producer at AORTA Films, and the sole co-founder who remains today.

With nearly a decade of experience in the adult industry, Mahx has lots to share on the recent history of the indie porn scene.

SexForEveryBody.com interviewed Mahx to learn more about their motivations for starting AORTA films. They also shared their insights on branding content as ethical and considers what is ethical porn for consumers and creators.

Readers of SexForEveryBody.com can use code FIRSTTASTE23 for 25% off any membership at AORTA Films.

What is AORTA Films

“We wanted to make the porn that we wished we’d been able to see when we were younger, and we wanted to make films that folks who feel under- or misrepresented in mainstream porn could see themselves in. Most of all, we wanted to explore what it would mean to make pornography from a feminist, queer, trans perspective.”

“AORTA films is an internationally award-winning indie queer porn studio based out of We make “lusty, opulent, ethical fuckery”—short and feature films that burst with pleasure and send cultural fault lines out into the world to disrupt it for the better! Our membership site has 75+ short and feature films, as well as a growing clip library of content curated from independent makers, a semi-annual watch-at-home film festival, and more!”

On the indie queer porn scene and working in it

“It’s amazing! We’re in a golden era of indie and queer porn, both in terms of studios and independent content creators. Let’s see, how do I describe the scene…

“First of all, I’d say it’s welcoming, and incredibly collaborative. I think since we’re all fighting against the same stigma and marginalization, there’s an eagerness to build our ecology through mutualism and collaboration rather than feeling like it’s intensely competitive between each other.

“I’d also say it’s always hustling and innovating and evolving—there’s not a lot of traditional support like grants or bank loans available for adult projects, so people are being really inventive in terms of figuring out how to create work and build their practices.

“I feel so lucky to be making work in this community—it’s full of brilliant, pervy, amazingly creative performers and collaborators, and for the large part, it’s also folks who are really great communicators and have developed really amazing self-knowledge and boundaries.

“Porn performers are virtuosic—both with what they can do with their bodies, and how good they are at negotiating scenes and tuning in to their own needs and desires! We get to collaborate on bringing something into the world that (hopefully, if we’re doing our jobs right!) makes people feel seen and powerful and turned on, and there’s not a limit on how creative or boundary-pushing we can be with the content, as long as we’re working from a foundation of ethical agreements. It’s really inspiring and liberating.

“I wake up every morning with a mile-long to-do list from the business side of the operation, but a lot of gratitude and excitement about what it is we’re doing. And when we actually get to shoot, the moments where everything comes together and something truly exceptional happens, or when we get feedback from a viewer that they’ve never seen themselves on screen like that before, or that our work helped them realize something about themselves—there just aren’t words for how amazing that feels.”

On holding down the queer porn fort with the AORTA Films team

“We’re tiny but mighty—currently myself as Creative Director/Co-Producer, Papi Femme as Co-Producer/Curator, and Ginger Hollander as Social Media Manager!

“Most of the US porn scene is West Coast-based (industry pioneers PinkLabel.TV and TroubleFilms in particular!), but the East Coast scene is growing too!

Some of our contemporaries like Colorblock Films, MondoFetiche, HotBits Festival, and Drip Films are East Coast folks, as well as lots of amazing independent content creators, so we’re in great company.”

Related read: Adult Film and Ethical Porn Festivals

What does the phrase ‘ethical porn’ mean to you?

“Ethical Porn” describes the labor conditions at play in the creation of the content. On a basic level, it means that performers are treated with care and respect—they’re contracted transparently and paid fairly for the work they’re undertaking, the conditions on set are safe, sanitary, and free of coercion.

“The scenes are negotiated in advance, and with transparency, performers are free to set and revise boundaries for the scene that they’re shooting, and they can call stop at any time and know that their boundaries will be respected. It also means that performers are credited for their work in the way they see fit, and spoken/written about with respect, with copy free of stigmatizing or offensive terms.

“Additionally, I think a lot of indie and queer productions also incorporate a lot of collaborative working practices into the way they work. While this is an additional practice (productions can certainly be ethical even if it’s a set call and script and the performer is only involved while shooting), I think it’s an additional way in which many studios are choosing to work in a way that incorporates performers’ desires and interests and invites them to co-author what’s being created.”

On swapping ‘ethical’ for ‘glorious’ in the AORTA Films tagline

“This has been an ongoing internal debate for quite some time! When we founded AORTA films our tagline was ‘lusty, opulent, ethical fuckery’, which I quite like because I feel like it really speaks to what we do.

“As ‘ethical porn’ began to get more mainstream, we started to have lots of dialogue within the queer porn and indie porn communities about the ways in which ‘ethicality’ was starting to be a branding approach rather than practice for some companies, which I think is a really dangerous trend.

“The second ‘ethical’ starts to be shorthand for ‘indie’ or ‘HD’ or ‘for women’ or ‘for couples’, or even just as a category that sits opposite from ‘mainstream porn’, we’re in really dangerous territory. There’s a large amount of mainstream porn that’s ethically made, even if the content that’s being produced might feel regressive or heteronormative or patriarchal.

“I think we need more literacy around what ‘ethical’ really means in porn—it’s about the labor conditions, transparency of agreements, set safety, etc rather than the content itself. So we switched ‘ethical’ to ‘glorious’ in an effort to take a stand against ethicality being used as a marketing tagline.

“However, as we’re trying to grow the business and reach more viewers, we’re seeing that the dominant narrative and publicity around indie porn all use the language of ‘ethical porn’ as a way to signify that it’s ‘non-mainstream.’

“We desperately want to connect with viewers who are looking for non-mainstream, ethically-made content, because that’s what we’re making! If they’re taking their first steps into checking out what’s available, chances are they’re searching ‘ethical porn,’ and we need to show up in those searches if our business is going to be sustainable. So we want to reach those folks (thus adding ‘ethical’ back into the tagline), but hopefully, that’s the first step into a larger conversation about how that label of ‘ethical’ needs criticality around it, and awareness of how it’s being positioned and used vs. what a company’s actual labor practices are.

“Short answer: I’d love to see “ethical porn” decommissioned as a category title/marketing term, but while it’s in use, I feel that we have to be in relationship to it and adopt it, even as we call for criticality around its use!”

What does it mean to be a creator of ethical porn?

“For me, it means that my responsibility is to create a set and way of shooting where performers feel respected, secure, and resourced. In the early days of making films, we did a lot of asking performers for feedback (both directly and with anonymized options), and have been in a constant process of tweaking and adjusting how we shoot to ensure better support.

“For me, an ethical practice means that we of course hit all the basics of ethical shooting that I listed above, but also that we really prioritize making a safe space for performers to thrive, even above and beyond that.

“For us that looks like continually raising our rates, having a cook on set to make sure performers are well fed, making sure our process is collaborative so that performers are genuinely really excited about what they’re shooting, etc.

“Saying that performers can call stop or make adjustments at any time is one thing, but with the pressure of a shoot and a crew, it’s another to actually call stop. My greatest pride in AORTA films’ work is that we have shoots where performers do call stop, or revise what they’re able to do, or communicate that they need to change something. If we’re making space for that, we’re doing something right.

“On top of that, I think running any porn studio that makes ethical work opens you up to think about ethical working conditions more broadly—for our team as well as our performers. I’ve worked at so many toxic non-profits in the arts. My dream for AORTA films is to build it into a great place to work that’s as innovative and support-focused with its business structure and staff culture as it is on set. There’s so much innovation happening in queer porn, and I really believe that the sector can drive new modes of thought not just within porn, and not just within the adult industry or sextech, but within the industry as a whole.”

What does it mean to be a consumer of ethical porn?

“I think first and foremost, it means that you pay for your porn! It doesn’t mean that you can never look at tube sites or mainstream porn again—I do, often. Instead, it means that you’re understanding that creating innovative films shot with safe and supportive conditions on set requires money, and that you’re deciding to financially support indie makers where and when you can!

“You’re understanding that by paying for content, you’re funding the creation of more porn that you’re drawn to, and ensuring that the performers featured within scenes are being hired and worked with care and respect.

“I think it’s also worth saying that there’s also no immediate quick and easy way to tell if something is ethically made. It’s just like the fair trade sticker on coffee—it’s an indication that it holds values that you might be aligned with like ethical pay and worker safety, but if you really wanted to look into the actual labor practices you’d need to do a bit more research. I think being a consumer of ethical porn means that you’re aware that ethicality is an important value, but also that you’re developing a literacy about what that actually means past the sticker label.

Readers of SexForEveryBody.com can use code FIRSTTASTE23 for 25% off any membership at AORTA Films.