We are proud that we have the exclusive for Adult Time‘s Lady Gonzo Volume One. It is the perfect entry point into a new series of titles focusing on artfully shot, hard-edged gonzo by the Lady Gonzo herself, Joanna Angel. It’s a bit of a departure for Adult Time, which tends to focus on more story-based content… but Joanna is a hell of a director, and her vision is long-established as one of the best and most creative in all of the adult industry. To celebrate the exclusive, we decided to go down memory lane a bit and focus on the pornographic career of the Queen of Alt Porn.
After graduating from Rutgers in English Lit (with a minor in Film Studies), Joanna began dancing in strip clubs. She soon formed a revolutionary website called Burning Angel along with her partner Mitch. Alongside Suicide Girls and God’s Girls, it ushered in the era of alt porn, which has a healthy community of stars and fans to this day. What helped Burning Angel stand apart was that it depicted hardcore sex instead of what amounted to pinup photography. Joanna, apart from being the founder, was the star attraction of the site.
It was soon after that Burning Angel got into the DVD business with a pair of titles that would set the tone for the titles to come: Burning Angel.com – The Movie, which featured gorgeous alt models having sex, along with Re-Penetrator. Re-Penetrator especially captured the imagination of porn fans, winning a couple awards and firmly entrenching Burning Angel as a player in the parody game at the height of the genre’s popularity. Re-Penetrator is a send-up of the 1985 cult-classic horror-comedy Re-Animator (by Stuart Gordon based on an H.P. Lovecraft story). It was just one scene (introducing us to porn legend Tommy Pistol as the Jeffrey Combs/Herbert West character) and featured Joanna Angel in an over-the-top, gross-out, hardcore gorefest that probably owed more to the Evil Dead series in gnarly fluids than its source material. Coincidentally, Burning Angel would release an Evil Dead parody called Evil Head in 2014 that won a ton of awards and also starred Tommy and Joanna.
That same year the studio VCA, long thought to be a dormant holding pen of classic titles from the Golden Age of porn (who can trace their own punk roots back to the iconic New Wave Hookers series), began releasing new titles featuring the talents of Joanna Angel. The first was Joanna’s Angels, a parody of Charlie’s Angels, featuring a team of butt-kicking/licking tattooed beauties. Not only was Joanna the star and main cover girl, she also showed that she had promise as a film director by helming the title. It was a successful collaboration for Joanna and VCA, and she appeared in and directed several other titles for them. She even appeared in the reboot of New Wave Hookers, entitled Neu Wave Hookers. This was directed by Eon Mckai, whose talent and aesthetic led to him helming a Vivid imprint called Vivid Alt, and subsequently lives on our site under the Vivid Premium banner.
Prior to Angel, girls that were tatted up and part of a subculture were a rarity with big studios. But it was her immense success and popularity that opened the gates for several other performers… many of whom came up through the Burning Angel ranks first. Joanna herself had become a phenomenon, and, as the “it girl” of the business, made the covers of several high-profile releases for various studios, including Adam & Eve, Diabolic, Club Jenna, and Hustler.
All the while, she continued to build the Burning Angel brand and library, partly thanks to a distribution deal with Wicked Pictures of all companies. Burning Angel and Joanna both proved forces to be reckoned with in the industry, and it was not uncommon to see a B.A. title earning nominations or winning awards, like the Joanna showcase Joanna Angel – Filthy Whore (which features a few awesome masturbation scenes in addition to sex).
Joanna’s relationship with HotMovies goes a long way back, too. Back in 2005, when both Angel and our company were new kids on the block, she interviewed for us. Did you know we have a series of video interviews on the site? She also co-hosted a live game show for our 100 Grand Gala in 2008 to celebrate HotMovies adding its 100,000th movie. The game was called “Strip For Pain,” and was followed by a Burning Angel burlesque performance. It can all be seen here.
With over 700 titles featuring Joanna, it might be difficult to pick one. She directed and co-starred in A Trailer Park Taboo for Pure Taboo. It’s a great (and twisted) movie where she has a super-sexy scene with husband and frequent collaborator, Small Hands. In the roller derby epic (it really is epic), Talk Derby To Me she has a super steamy shower scene with fellow porn legend Stoya. Joanna has another brain-bustingly hot lesbian scene with Angela White and Dana Vespoli in I Am Angela. And if she weren’t talented and sexy enough already, Joanna has figured out how to squirt, and totally floods her scene with Mick Blue in Squirt For Me Vol. 5.
And just because Joanna is turning out trophy-level content for other studios doesn’t mean she’s resting on her laurels with Burning Angel. Both Jews Love Black Cock and Dirty Grandpa were award winners that were directed by and feature Joanna. Angel also launched a new studio called Joanna Angel’s Sex Unfiltered to explore her own sexual tastes further (and allow us to enjoy even more Joanna Angel in the process), and all of those are 100% worth watching. And as if she didn’t already have enough on her plate, she is now working with Adult Time on the Lady Gonzo series. It truly is a great time to be a Joanna Angel fan! And if you’re not already, watch these movies and catch up to the rest of us!
Watch Lady Gonzo Volume One exclusively on HotMovies!
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