The New York Post ran an article in which reporter Heather Gilmore blasted Black Mirror for “filming their sickening scenes in public places.”
“On sidewalks and in alleyways, these pornographers are breaking the law by making ‘gonzo’ porn videos under the noses of public authorities,” Gilmore wrote.
Gilmore cited one Black Mirror movie, “Ultra Vixens NYC,” which she claimed was filmed on Manhattan streets in the middle of the night, an act that is illegal, as is the filming of any movie without prior permission from the city’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting.
For its part, Black Mirror boasts on its website, “We shoot all over town, on an ongoing basis. On the street, in clubs and bars, rooftops, gyms, EVERYWHERE!!”
The studio’s owner and noted director, Joe Gallant, added, “When we go to hotels, I tell the cast to dress like you’re on a business trip to Chicago. They can’t look like porn stars. You don’t want to attract too much attention.”
Earlier this month, LFP Video Group’s revamped VCA Pictures division announced it would be distributing Black Mirror’s “Contract Girl,” the first of what the company estimates will be a half dozen Black Mirror features it will distribute this year.
True to Black Mirror’s promise of “smut from the streets,” much of “Contract Girl” was shot in and around Manhattan during last year’s Republican National Convention.
Gallant, who teaches a class on porn production at the Learning Annex, has said his goal is to evoke the intense, hard-edged realism of 1970s New York hardcore, and he’s willing to take some chances to achieve it — even going so far as to film in a real crack hotel.
In addition to skirting New York’s film production laws, Gallant also has taken on the federal government, at least artistically. In 2002, he produced a sci-fi adult drama for Manhattan public access cable called “Black Mirror Vol. 1 — Arise and Tell the World,” a series that showed a bleak future following the official corporate buyout of the American government.
