What do you get when you cross a documentary with the world of pornography? Well, Austrian writer-director Rosa Friedrich (Wander) has done it, and the hybrid doc result is called My Friend the Porn Star.
If you are scratching your head in confusion now, let me back up and explain. My Friend the Porn Star, from Vienna-based production company Kacerovsky (formerly known as ostblok), will world premiere in the Proxima competition program of the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Tuesday, July 7.
The film was produced by Dominic Spitaler for Austria’s Kacerovsky. Laura Ettel is the director of photography on My Friend the Porn Star, while the editor is Melanie Schmidt. New Docs is handling sales, with Stadtkino Filmverleih being the distributor in Austria.
In case you worry about telling friends you are going to see a new film but feeling embarrassed to mention its title, maybe this will put you at ease. Friedrich was never that interested in porn, according to press notes for My Friend the Porn Star. That is, until her friend Timo expressed the wish to star in an “artistic erotic film.” So, the friend that Rosa is agrees to help him get a movie project off the ground, find a co-star and document the process along the way.You probably know that this is the time when either another shoe drops, or clothes drop. Well, could it maybe be both!? “The closer it gets to the shooting date, the more Timo feels embarrassed and doubtful about having involved himself in the first place,” a summary on the KVIFF website teases. What’s Rosa to do? Easy! “His face is ultimately replaced with the help of AI, and Rosa, together with a dominatrix, three trans women, a food-porn creator, a sex coach and other protagonists, continues with the film.”
