| Shakedown | |
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| Directed by | Leilah Weinraub |
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| Country | United States |
Shakedown is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Leilah Weinraub. The film centers around a Los Angeles black-lesbian strip club of the same name in its heyday from 2002 to 2004. [1] The film premiered in 2018 and was screened at film festivals throughout North America and Europe. In March 2020 it was released via digital streaming on Pornhub as the first non-pornographic film on the website. [2]
The film documents a black lesbian strip club called Shakedown in Los Angeles from 2002 to the time it was shut down by police in 2004. It follows the staff including Ronnie, the club's owner and promoter, and some of the dancers.
The film premiered at the 2018 Berlinale [3] and was later screened at various art institutions and film festivals including the Tate, London; ICA, London; MoMA PS1, New York; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; True/False Film Festival, Missouri; Sheffield Doc/Fest, England; Images Festival, Toronto; Frameline Film Festival, San Francisco and Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York. [4] A shorter version was screened as part of the 2017 Whitney Biennial. [5]
In March 2020 it was released by the pornographic website Pornhub as "the first ever non-adult film" available on the site. [6] It will be available on Pornhub throughout the month of March 2020 only. [7] Starting in May 2020, Shakedown started streaming on the Criterion Channel as part of its “Tell Me: Women’s Stories, Women Filmmakers” series. [8]
Weinraub began shooting the film in 2002 when she was 23 years old. She was initially brought to the club by a friend and was so amazed by it that she asked for a job there, eventually being hired as a photographer and videographer. She shot over 400 hours of footage. The film shows the strip club's heyday, between 2002 and 2004 when the club's main venue was shut down by Los Angeles police who cracked down on nude performers in the city. [1]
Devon Yarbrough of Vox magazine called it "an honest, multi-faceted film about freedom, strife and human connection" and noted that while the film contains funny moments it maintains a serious tone. [9] Steve Erickson of Gay City News compared the film to Paris is Burning and Derek Jarman's Will You Dance with Me? [8]
Rape pornography is a subgenre of pornography involving the description or depiction of rape. Such pornography either involves simulated rape, wherein sexually consenting adults feign rape, or it involves actual rape. Victims of actual rape may be coerced to feign consent such that the pornography produced deceptively appears as simulated rape or non-rape pornography. The depiction of rape in non-pornographic media is not considered rape pornography. Simulated scenes of rape and other forms of sexual violence have appeared in mainstream cinema, including rape and revenge films, almost since its advent.
Shakedown or Shake Down may refer to:
Pornography has been defined as sexual subject material "such as a picture, video, or text" that is intended for sexual arousal. Made for the consumption by adults, pornography depictions have evolved from cave paintings, some forty millennia ago, to virtual reality presentations. A general distinction of adult content is made classifying it as pornography or erotica.
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The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), previously known as Morality in Media and Operation Yorkville, is an American conservative anti-pornography organization. The group has also campaigned against sex trafficking, same-sex marriage, sex shops and sex toys, decriminalization of sex work, comprehensive sex education, and various works of literature or visual arts the organization has deemed obscene, profane or indecent. Its current president is Patrick A. Trueman. The organization describes its goal as "exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation".
The Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
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Pornhub is a Canadian-owned internet pornography video-sharing website, one of several owned by adult entertainment conglomerate Aylo. As of February 2024, Pornhub is the 13th-most-visited website in the world and the second-most-visited adult website, after XVideos.
Ángel Muñoz García, better known as by his stage name Jordi "El Niño Polla", often shortened to Jordi ENP, is a Spanish pornographic actor, producer and YouTuber who rose to prominence after working with the production company Brazzers.
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Leilah Weinraub is an American filmmaker, conceptual artist, and the former chief executive officer of the fashion brand Hood By Air. In 2018, she was named a Sundance Institute Art of Nonfiction Fellow.
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