Nicky Miller is a Berlin-based gender fluid artist and filmmaker. We caught up with them to talk about porn, porn music, and what to expect from this year’s Berlin Pornfilmfestival.
The following explicit interview and trailer have been rated NSFWHBP (Not Safe For Work, Homophobes, or Boring People).
Nicky: Well, first I’m an artist. I never studied filmmaking, but I consider myself a filmmaker because I use the process of filmmaking and I’m a fresh pornographer.
Nicky: I was inspired by my nightlife. I was inspired by the people I saw in sex parties and gay clubs. I never had the intention to talk about sex. It was just a part of my life.
It’s only since Oh!Socks! in 2014 that I released my first film about men in the darkroom and started going to the Pornfilmfestival. It motivated me to go on because I was thinking, “Oh, the Pornfilmfestival is so fun I want to go back next year!” So I started to do porn like that.
Nicky: Everything is about the smell of sex or the touch of it or the feelings. It’s not obvious and explicit all the time. It can be about the dress code. It’s all about codes when you’re going to a sex party or a fetish party. It’s all about codes of gaze, of consent, of understanding each other in a free space for sex. I wanted to represent what we live today here in Berlin. I was searching and then it came to me like that. “Let’s talk about it!”
Nicky: I think it could work, yes. My friends founded Pornceptual, a party which is open to everyone. There are codes, but they put the codes in the event and they welcome a lot of people who first don’t know where they are or who they are. We can teach them, of course. It’s important to teach. I think I was taught by probably many people too. It’s all about transmitting what we know about the love we want to share.
Nicky: Yeah! Respect each other and then we can have a fun party. Consent is the main rule.
Nicky: “Lemon Taste” is like lemonade. It’s juicy!
It’s my first explicit movie and I’m very happy. It was my first crew in Berlin and everything was new. Usually I do everything by myself, but for the first time I delegated the camera and the editing. I wrote the script and I directed and I produced.
It’s a much better work, I think, for me. Another level. Not better because I don’t judge what I did before, but it’s another level for me because my crew was more professional. I don’t neglect the past work I did because I love working with non-professional people, but all the actors were porn actors or involved in porn or activists in porn or producers in porn.
Nicky: Yeah! I know a lot of musicians because I love dancing and I’m partying a lot!
For “Oh!Socks!” I met DkA, a producer from Brussels. He’s mainly a DJ and I loved his sets. Then I learned he wasn’t only a producer, he’s also a composer so I asked him, “If I give you my images do you want to compose some tracks for me?” And then we started to compose together while drinking tequila and talking about porn. We collaborated for all my movies except this one.
“Lemon Taste” was Deepneue. He’s a DJ and a composer and a friend too because we met in the collective TrashEra. We are a collective of artists working together and supporting each other in this big city.
Nicky: It’s true that there is a lack of music, but I like the kitsch of the old 70s porn. It could be nice to make a DJ set of all these tracks.
Nicky: It’s my third festival this year. Everything is good. It depends on your sexuality because there is something for everyone. Every body, every gender, every sexuality is represented so I don’t know what to recommend.
The parties are great at Ficken3000 because you can meet all the crew and the staff. And you can talk about porn and watch it together. This is the main thing that’s important for me, watching porn in the same room with everyone. I also love the Kino Moviemento because it’s an old historic underground cinema from Berlin.
Nicky: Well, I would be the first to apply!
I don’t know how it works really, a fluffer. I never observed from the outside another filmmaker or director doing porn, so I’m interested. Probably I will try to find a fluffer for the next one. Thank you for the tip!
You can follow Nicky on Vimeo and sometimes on Instagram or Facebook when they aren’t blocking their account.
*If you want to help on set, a fluffer gives male porn stars blowjobs to get them ready to perform. #yourewelcome #DADDYknowsbest
The 13th Berlin Pornfilmfestival runs from 23–28 October.
This interview has been edited and abridged.
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