Annie Sprinkle… Porn Star, Art Star, Author, Ecosexual Activist, Goddess

Dr. Annie Sprinkle earned her place as a legend of the ”Golden Age of Porn”, but did not let that alone define her. Her career is not easy to summarize. She has been rightly described as a sex educator, feminist stripper, prostitute, performance artist, post-porn modernist, photographer, and film maker, and her resumé continues. She has the distinction of being the first porn star to earn a Ph.D., and is the author of 5 books. Early in her career she became an advocate for Sex Workers rights, and when the AIDS epidemic broke out, she used her talent and celebrity to spread awareness about Safe Sex. She survived cancer, and turned the experience into art.

When Annie first met my father in an Arizona courthouse in 1973, while Deep Throat was being prosecuted. They were both called in as witnesses, (he for writing and directing the film, and she, for merely selling tickets at the Tucson movie theater, where it was showing). They were instantly attracted to one another, and began a relationship which lasted for years. This brought Annie to New York City, where she would live for the next 22 years.

Today she is married to artist and UCSC professor Beth Stephens. Their wedding itself was a work of art, getting married more than 14 times, during their seven-year project, Love Art Laboratory. Identifying as “ecosexuals”, they use their creativity AND sexuality, to raise awareness about critical environmental issues. Their latest collaboration, which is currently in production, Water Makes Us Wet draws attention to Water, the lack of which, is a crisis in their home state of California, at this very moment.

We visited Annie and Beth, at their country cottage, in Boulder Creek, California, literally surrounded by Redwood Trees, where they spend time away from their home in San Francisco. Annie spoke to me candidly about her relationship with my father. I learned that she actually worked behind the scenes in more of his films, than she appeared in. We spoke about her cameo in Throat: 12 Years After, and her controversial scene with then boyfriend Mal O'Ree, in The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue, which is still as hot and edgy today, as it was when it was shot in 1983. My father directed Annie in Consenting Adults, a film that she conceived of, in which she documented her friends and their real life sexual escapades, in a kind of hardcore “reality show”. She never pretended to be an actress, but rather let her genuine sexual nature, be captured on film.

After our interview, Larry Revene and I followed Beth and Annie to San Francisco, to document their performance at SOMArts Cultural Center. The time-lapse video below, shows them performing water rituals, inside and outside of their “Pollination Pod”, a sort of mobile ecosexual laboratory. Currently Annie and Beth are on tour in California.

To learn more about about their project, visit: www.theEcosexuals.org
Visit Annie's website at: www.anniesprinkle.org
Follow her on Twitter at: @AnnieSprinkle
Follow her on Facebook at: facebook.com/pages/Annie-Sprinkle
Learn more about the Sexology at: sexecology.org
See Annie and Beth's latest film "Goodbye Gauley Mountain-An Ecosexual Love Story"

Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens perform Water Rituals, both inside and out, of their Pollination Pod at SOMArts Cultural Center “Shaw ’Nuff” performed by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie