Max Hardcore Ready to Surrender: 'I'm Not Down, I'm Up'

ALTADENA, Calif. — Producer/director Max Hardcore will surrender to federal authorities in downtown Los Angeles next Thursday to begin his 46-month sentence after his obscenity conviction in October.

"It's an administrative facility. It's a big mystery why the Bureau of Prisons designated me to go down there," Hardcore told XBIZ. "You're locked up inside the facility all day long, and there's only one balcony for recreation. It's pretty cramped."

Hardcore said he is hoping to get assigned to the federal correctional facility in Lompoc, Calif.

"Some veterans of our business have gone there to serve their sentences in the '80s," Hardcore said. "There's a lot of opportunity to work, there are a lot of jobs available. They don't even have a fence around it, you literally can just walk away if you want — but if you do, they'll make it unpleasant for you. The people there don't want any problems. It's not a bad place to go."

Hardcore told XBIZ he will continue to fight the conviction.

"I am going to stand and fight, not only for me, but for the entire industry — the video side and the Internet side," Hardcore said. "Just a couple of days ago, we submitted an appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The charges never should have been filed, and if they were filed, I should have been acquitted. It's a pretty hard sell for the government to convict somebody based on movie trailers.

"We remain hopeful. It could be a couple of months, it could be up to a year. The appeal would be considered by three judges, and Lou Sirkin is ready to go there and make oral arguments. We believe that the 1st amendment gives us the right to express our sexuality and to be able to sell a commercial product as a form of expression. We believe that we can do this between consenting adults, and the government has no business interfering. "We'd like to get the government out of the business of enforcing morality."

Hardcore remains optimistic in the face of his upcoming incarceration.

"I'm not down, I'm up, man," he said. "This is a challenge I've got to face, and face it I will. I know that our industry has been accepted by the public."

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