PinkLabel.TV’s PORN CLUB is like a book club for porn nerds. Each month, we offer a selection of titles in our new adult film review series in efforts to encourage discussion about porn as an indie film genre, reviewing of classic and contemporary titles available on our streaming network. Topics span technical aspects of how a movie was made, directorial influences, perceived social or historical impact, and other aspects of interest to the reviewer.

We’ve covered Radley Metzger, Wakefield Poole, Fatale Media, and Peter Berlin. Now, we turn the focus on Pink & White Productions director Shine Louise Houston’s newest short film, Camera and I.

Camera and I (2020)

Make love to the camera! The distinctions between the 4th wall and the gaze are blurred as the camera explores new facets of its own vision in this quirky yet sexy short film by Shine Louise Houston starring Jasko Fide. Camera and I is porn for cinephiles.

PORN CLUB Reviews

“The juxtaposition of the lens with her face, the opening and closing of the aperture with her increasing excitement, the viewer is drawn into and out of the vision—into and out of the aperture. With the climax, Fide’s and the movie’s, the lens is redirected to her body.”

— Nancy Jainchill

“In the four decades since Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle, creative license in the industry of porn continues to expand. A consistently jarring flow of notions and images to exist, inspire, and impact both creators and viewers in an overstimulating cinematic thrill ride. However, in blending literalism with irony, Shine Louise Houston has stunningly discovered a barrier that had remained unseen. In Camera and I finding and celebrating the unique erotic beauty of making love with a camera, a refreshing take excites and invites the present and future of pornography’s creative art.”

— Marcus K. Dowling

“Camera and I is a surreal fantasy adult short film with a sense of humor from writer and director Shine Louise Houston. The concept behind the short film is that Jasko Fide is leaving a set after a shoot, and the Sony camera (voice of Shine Louise Houston) on the set starts talking with her. This concept is so bizarre it could never work, except it does.”

— Flash, AdultDVDTalk

“Kudos to Jasko Fide for not only executing a hot scene, but for bringing the viewer directly into their experience of pleasure. The best thing about watching porn is when the actors are not acting, but enjoying themselves. This film went from funny, to sexy, to romantic with a post-coital scene unlike any other. Sometimes you watch a film and you hope that no one ever tries to remake it or change it in any way because it was perfect in its execution. Camera and I is one of those works. (I’d totally watch a sequel to see what “Panasonic” could bring to a scene, just sayin’.)”

— Jet Noir

“I like it when you pull my focus,” says the camera to Jasko Fide, stroking its lens. The camera introduced itself as a late model Sony… who has never done this before. Jasko, who had made love on camera but never with a camera, offered a kiss. For the first few minutes of queer porn icon and director Shine Louise Houston’s 14-minute film, Jasko discovers what the camera likes, what kind of caresses, modeling the kind of conversation we should all be having with our partners, and how hot that conversation it. Jasko’s joy of discovery is so sweet. We find out about the camera’s sexuality and emotional state, a tender conversation about boundaries and pleasures. Then Jasko begins to masturbate…with a Hitachi…I wonder if the camera is jealous and what the Hitachi’s sexuality is. When the camera has seen its fill, light reflects off the lens and dances in Jasko’s skin. The camera’s erotic gaze envelops her. It’s beautiful. A gorgeous, funny xxx short about desire and shifting the role of the gaze. After the credits role, we find out what else in the studio has been left wanting…and it turns out they speak Swedish. New work by Houston is always an event, and this short showcases everything there is to love about her directing: the playfulness, authenticity and the way she rewrites so much of what the world porn evokes in the service of genuine, diverse expression of pleasure.

— Saskia Vogel

PORN CLUB is an adult film review series presented by PinkLabel.TV. Tune in next month for our next set of reviews, spanning classics to contemporary.