AMSTERDAM — British creator and host Josh Pieters traveled to XBIZ Amsterdam to film a documentary about the annual European adult industry conference.
Titled “Inside Europe's Largest Porn Convention,” the film follows Pieters through three days of programming, framing a candid look at the adult industry.
Pieters sat in on panel sessions and workshops, and spoke with a range of attendees – including performers, producers, therapists, and filmmakers – to examine stigma, ethics, and mental health.
“My name is Josh Pieters and I watch pornography,” he confessed early on. “I have done so since I was 12 years old, which sounds like a really strange thing to say out loud. I still don’t think I could look my parents in the eye and tell them that same thing. And I don’t know why.”
Framing the film with that candor, Pieters illustrates porn’s ubiquity.
“What once lived in magazines and VHS tapes is now in our pockets. Now new government regulations, including stricter censorship and mandatory age verification, are set to change how people access porn online,” he says.
Arriving in Amsterdam, Pieters disarms viewers with curiosity and humor as he casually strolls the cobblestone streets.
“On arrival, with an almost corporate comfort, XBIZ felt like any other conference, except with a different dress code,” he says, adding, “Someone has to think about the food, and whoever did has done a fantastic job. It’s excellent.”
Inside the seminars and hallways, he spoke with industry veterans and mental-health advocates about craft, consent, and the gap left by inadequate sex education. Psychologist and sex therapist Dr. Paula Hall states it plainly.
“We need to talk about porn. Porn is part of life now. It is part of society. We need to acknowledge that, accept that, and just be more open about it.”
Industry veteran “Porno Dan” Leal offers behind-the-scenes realism and a communication-first message for viewers.
“Every single porn performer is on performance-enhancing drugs. Everybody,” he says, before pivoting to on-set norms that should translate off-screen. “Talk to your partner. Ask them what they want. Communication is the key. And that’s what we do before a porn scene. I communicate with the actors. What do you want to do today? What sex are you comfortable with? Do the same when you’re having sex at home.”
Performers echo the gap between on-camera spectacle and real-life sex.
“What looks really aesthetically pleasing on a camera doesn’t feel very good to be up and over like this and stretched out like, you know?” Leal confesses.
Performer Atlanta Moreno adds, “I don’t know if the issue is actually with porn, but with sex education. I think if we had good enough sex education, then porn would be fine.”
The documentary also highlights efforts to reduce stigma. Pineapple Support founder Leya Tanit explains the nonprofit’s purpose.
“The stigma that society places on this industry I see as the root of all problems. If there wasn’t such shame around porn, Pineapple Support wouldn’t need to exist.”
She adds that many performers still face bias in clinical settings.
“People could just go and see any therapist, to then have that therapist tell them that ‘you’re struggling with your mental health because you’re in the adult industry.’ That’s treating someone’s career choice rather than addressing the mental health struggles.”
Filmmaker Erika Lust argues for conscious consumption and industry standards.
“Our culture is still today quite sex negative, because of that shame that people feel sharing their habits, so many people think that they are doing something wrong when they’re watching porn,” she says.
Asked about free tube sites, she draws a consumer-ethics analogy.
“The same is happening when you’re buying clothes or when you’re going to the supermarket. What products do you pick? Do you care about the production process behind the product?”
Hall underscores how definitions of “ethical” vary across audiences and genres.
“Ethical porn is great. The definition of ethical is going to vary from one person to another. So one person’s ethical porn might be something that somebody else would just consider to be very vanilla and to somebody else it might be something they consider extreme. So ethical porn, brilliant. But who defines ‘ethics?’”
Throughout, Pieters lets contrasting perspectives stand while keeping the tone humane. He hears performers celebrate agency.
“Consenting adults are choosing pornography as a career. That is a perfectly legitimate choice for them,” adds Hall.
By the time the XMAs rolled around, “the Oscars of porn,” as Pieters called it, his initial apprehension softened into curiosity about a future where better education and ethics lowered the temperature.
“Before coming to XBIZ, I assumed I would be an outsider with granted access, maybe even seen as judgmental, but what I found was something quite different. I discovered conversations about a future where pornography could play a positive role in society,” he said. “Even posing the question with proper sex education, could we imagine a world of safer sex, where intimacy is shared without shame?”
He closes with an invitation to dialogue, not dogma.
“While the government has started this conversation about porn, I want to encourage you, the viewer, to start your own,” Pieters says. “One thing is clear. This is an industry still wrapped in secrecy, yet impossible to ignore. Neither the industry nor the desire to engage with it is going away. So why pretend it doesn’t exist? It’s time to talk about it openly.”