Pornhub is making its first-ever non-adult film about Black lesbian strip club culture.
Pornhub will be highlighting the Black lesbian culture in a new documentary film called “Shakedown.” The new film will be released on Wednesday, and Variety reports the project comes as streaming sites are looking to switch up their content. The film came from filmmaker and conceptual artist Leilah Weinraub and was first seen in exhibits at the Whitney Museum and MoMA over the last three years, according to variety.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The publication reports that the film will depict the thriving queer community of men and women who made up the lesbian strip club culture in Los Angeles in its early years. Footage from the film spanned back 15 years and was shot by Weinraub throughout her adult life. The film is reportedly meant to educate viewers and bring to life a subculture within the Black community.
The film will stream on Pornhub for all of March for free. However, the Grasshopper distributed film will be broadcasted on Criterion Channel and will be added to iTunes by this summer, Variety reports. “There’s a cool opportunity right now to present films in the art space; there’s more openness to diversity and content and a different sort of storytelling,” Weinraub said. The filmmaker hopes to bring more female viewers on to the site.
“This film is part of a larger general commitment Pornhub has to supporting the arts. We want to be seen as a platform that artists and creators can use. We’ve seen artists in general upload content to the site, that might not have a home at places like YouTube or Vimeo, who don’t permit nudity. For us, premiering a feature-length film is a first. We’re very excited about it,” said Pornhub’s brand director Alex Klein.
Weinraub says her goal is to add to the variety of Black cultures and subcultures. “I feel like it complicates the history of subcultures, like Los Angeles. It reorients your placing of things in that history. I feel like that was my goal, not to put a finger on it, but complicate and add to that richness,” Weinraub said.
