EROS, the Center for Safe Sex is described by its principals as "a San Francisco based, safe sex, educational and porn production company bringing together a diversity of trans and other queer men. We believe men are hot. After all, we are men who have sex with men. Our models are in various points in their transition, and we support guys who don't want or plan on being on hormones or don't want any surgery, as well as those who do. Thus, our films have diverse men with diverse body types.We are creating porn that presents safer sex practices as the norm."

EROS member Ian Sparks points out their influence from Christopher Lee's groundbreaking legendary "Alley of the Trannyboys" and Morty Diamond's "Trannyfags", but also cites bear porn companies and Pink and White Productions as influences.

We caught up with Sparks for a chat about the new Trannywood release, Couch Surfers, and about FTM porn in general.

Eros Zine: How did Trannywood Pictures originally get started? Whose brainchild was/is it, and who are the principles involved in making it happen?

From Couch Surfers

Ian Sparks: Trannywood Pictures comes out of EROS-the Center for Safe Sex in San Francisco. Two and a half years ago, the Senior Management purchased the business from the founders. EROS has always had a model of being a sex positive community center, with art gallery, classroom rooms and lounge events for all genders. Early on, there were pan and queer parties, but over time, it was clear that gay men were the core constituency to make the business sustainable.

Eros has always been open to trans men, and in recent years many of our staff and managers have come from that community. For a number of years we hosted an FTM open mic night, called Retool & Grind, our classroom has been used by Screwup: BDSM for Trans & Queers, and for other trans inclusive groups. When we, the new owners started, we wanted to branch out based on asset based planning.

Our building has been used by many porn companies as a set, many of our staff have behind the camera or in front of the camera experience, so it was natural that one of our first projects was to create safe sex porn for an underserved community. Our first idea was real bears of color or a gay trans film. We thought we could blend the two ideas and thus Cubbyholes, our first film began to come together. In the end we learned, you can only shoot who shows up, so while Cubbyholes has bears of trans and non trans types, and certainly has at least one bear of color, the ratio was more in line with what you see in other gay trans films, like Morty Diamond's Trannyfags.

From Couch Surfers

Folks who were there at the beginning were Dex Hardlove, Ian Sparks, Mark Van Helsing, Frat Boy, with camera and editing by Chopper Pierce and Prince Warren and Lou Fannon. SF locals CJ Cockburn and Marlow Davis rounded out the cast and crew with the addition of Ian Foxe from the East Coast.

Eros Zine: What is the connection between Trannywood Pictures and Eros, the sex club in San Francisco? Does the work you do at Eros inspire the Trannywood Pictures project? How about your concept of man-on man sex in general, particularly as it relates to transmen?

Ian Sparks: As our website, www.trannywoodpictures.com, states, we think men are hot, so we shoot gay porn, that happens to include trans and non trans guys. Definitely our work and experience at EROS shows in our commitment to safe sex, harm reduction education, and diversity of body types. We plan on developing another line of films that reverses the ratio of trans/non trans men, but we always expect to keep trans men in the mix, to normalize different body types to the public but also keep representing images of safe sex for all men.

Eros Zine: Your safe-sex guidelines and emphasis on distributing safe sex information with your products makes which make Trannywood somewhat unique in the industry even beyond what you're portraying with FTM sex. Have you experienced any resistance, either in the community or on the part of performers or fans, to the safe-sex guidelines followed in Trannywood projects?

Ian Sparks: Yes and no. We definitely stand out in all aspects of the porn industry for how much emphasis we put on safe sex information. It's important to us to portray real sex, that includes showing condoms rolling on, negotiation when appropriate, and generally show how long it takes to do some activities. In real life, big objects, whether flesh or strap on cocks, fists or what ever, don't just slip into whatever hole being used. It takes time, lots of lube, and patience. Some fans have commented that we used more barriers in Cubbyholes than most people use. We don't think that's a bad thing. In our new film, Couch Surfers, there is more negotiation around those issues and more entry points in the harm reduction spectrum. I'm sure we'll get some complaints in both directions on that, but we also get complaints that we don't address heterosexual trans partnerings in our films. We may in the future, but right now we are focusing on what we know how to do, and that's man on man sex.

From Cubbyholes

Eros Zine: How has the response been from the initial Trannywood project from the FTM community at large? Is there any resistance to showing such explicit sexual images of FTMs -- either for fear that it's a fetishizing influence or simply debaucherous or whatever? Or are people in the community by and large down with this sort of project?

Ian Sparks: We are clear that we are community based porn. Nearly all our actors, camera crew and editors are involved in the trans community. We are a sponsor of the SF Trans March, support independent queer and trans film fundraisers, and probably most importantly, support other FTM grassroots fundraisers (for top surgeries, etc). When I look at the films out there that portray FTM sex, they fall into two rough categories. One is portraying sex and the other is performing sex. The portraying sex group tends to be more grassroots, and its viewers are primary trans men and allies. The performing sex group tends to be influenced more by mainstream porn and uses many of the same techniques to create the images we then see. Those images seem to be focused on views outside the trans community. I'm really careful as I discuss future development plans to check in with local community members as well as communities online to make sure we aren't fetishizing or over commercializing aspects of a community that has been very supportive of this work. We've received nearly universal support and encouragement from the community for our projects. Almost every week, I get other film makers, retailers, editors, actors, designers offering their time and support.

Eros Zine: What do you think of the other work being done in the FTM video erotica genre out there -- for instance, Morty Diamond's work, Buck Angel's work? Are there other artists doing this sort of erotica that you feel strongly about either positively or negatively?

From Couch Surfers

Ian Sparks: We really see ourselves in the line of films such as Christopher Lee's Alley of the Tranny Boys, and Morty Diamond's Trannyfags. I think that genealogy can also include Luke Woodward's Enough Man. As a business model, we are trying to keep costs down and serve an underserved population, and in that way, the various Gay Bear porn companies have been influential. When I look at community support and excitement, I look to Pink & White Productions and love their style and humor. We've been able to take advantage of folks who have worked with Morty as well as mainstream gay porn in SF. I'm hoping to have a little talent swap with Pink & White in the future.

The only person out there with a body of work that can be analyzed is Buck Angel. His business model is definitely different than ours, but I know we wouldn't get as much attention as we do if it wasn't for Buck and all the work he does in the public eye. It will be interesting to see how his projects develop since Buckback Mountain has gotten so much attention at the GayVN's. I do think it helped having two gay FTM films in the public eye this year (Cubbyholes and Buckback) that allowed both of our films to get GayVN nominations.

Eros Zine: Do you have an opinion on why there's such an enormous genre of MTF video erotica -- much of it generated by commercial considerations rather than from the community directly -- but so little representation of FTMs in porn? Do you think that's going to change in the next ten years as more and more people get video cameras in their hands and it gets easier to distribute erotic video on the web, or do you see it continuing to be a challenge?

Ian Sparks: One of the most common networking questions I get from retail stores is "do you know any MTF porn that is more feminist or women centered?" There's not a lot out there. There are a few exceptions, or notable scenes, like a great scene from Pink and White's "The Crashpad Series" . It's always economics and I hope what we do and what Pink & White does, as well as what Morty Diamond is doing, will provide some models as to how MTF porn can be made for the gaze of the community and not just for straight men.

From Couch Surfers

Eros Zine: Do you believe in the premise that it's always radical to portray trans sex in a sex-positive light? Do you feel like the world at large, while increasingly comfortable with porn overall, still freaks out at the idea of FTM sex in particular? And do you think increased FTM sexual visibility will help counter that?

Ian Sparks: I think it's radical to portray anything that is underserved, and to show it in a normal light, instead of for shock value. I don't think the idea or reality of FTM sex freaks people out, I think FTMs are relatively invisible in our society, intentionally and unintentionally, so to have FTM sex portrayed at all is an eye opener for many people, inside and outside the Trans community. I think increased visibility will increase acceptance, but only by empowering people to be more comfortable and out. I know lots of trans guys that rely on using "Buck Angel" as short hand or code in their online ads to help the reader know they don't mean MTF. That code is problematic in that not every trans guy looks like Buck or used the same language. I think Trannywood Pictures helps add visibility and increases the ways that masculinity can be portrayed in porn and in real life.

Eros Zine: What projects are upcoming for Trannywood pictures?

Ian Sparks: Couch Surfers was just released, and we are editing Couch Surfers 2, which focuses on couples. Couch Surfers 2 should also be released in 2008. We are filming scenes for Trannywood Gone Wild, but don't have a completion date for that yet. We are always searching for ideas on how to create more projects that we can succeed in doing. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to find us on our www.trannywoodpictures.com website or on MySpace.

Eros Zine: If you could do absolutely anything with Trannywood, budget no object, what would be your dream project?

Ian Sparks: We don't worry about budget, but I'd love to be able to shoot on location. We have some actors that can travel to us, such as Ian Foxe and Cupid, but if we could travel, I know plenty of interested actors that just can't afford to come to us.


Eros Zine: Thanks, Ian! Readers can get Cubbyholes and Couch Surfers at www.babeland.com, Smitten Kitten, and via other retailers listed at TrannyWoodPictures.com.

Ian Sparks - by Zach Addams

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