Dr Anna Arrowsmith Email and Phone Number

Alongside my 20-year practical film-making experience I have extensive knowledge of Gender Studies including both women and men (something which is rare in the field). I also have a comprehensive understanding of other studies based on equalities such as race and sexualities. My recently completed PhD focused on men’s experiences in dating women, including how they perceived women to have power. Previously to this, I learned how to understand gender in film during my first degree in film and video. How gender is represented in the media is something that has become increasingly important in recent years (Girls, Orange is the New Black, Gravity, etc.) and will become of paramount importance in the next decade as underrepresented voices will become the areas of exploration and expansion, due to there being so much left unsaid. This is true for how men are shown as well as women, something I have a specific advantage in with my knowledge about masculinity; as well as how different racial and sexual opportunities remain unexplored in the media. What has historically been missing from much of entertainment now presents as exciting opportunities now that the internet has raised awareness and interest in a multitude of vibrant perspectives. It just remains for a company/ies to explore the possibilities that are abound. I am uniquely skilled to help a company achieve the most of this expansion as I have both the academic knowledge, the practical film-making and scriptwriting experience alongside a history of making films that don’t shy away from entertaining, sexual and liberal themes.

Under the pseudonym Anna Span I have written, directed and produced over 250 professionally released scenes (satellite television and DVD release) and spearheaded a feminist porn awareness campaign (as well as exploring the female gaze), which successfully changed public perceptions of women in the adult industries as consumers, producers and performers.After graduating from my first degree in film and video in 1998 I worked as an editor at soft-core adult channel Television X in the UK, which involved the daily operation of digi-beta and analog editing suites, as well as subtitling machinery and Final Cut Pro. Here I learned all aspects of postproduction and soon grew to understand how a television company works. Alongside my editing work I began making professional programs of an adult nature, which soon became highly influential both in content and style within the industry. I used my experimental arts background to reinvent the adult genre, reworking it laterally and emphasizing character development, fashion sense, comedic dialogue and realistic contexts. I became very well versed in the use of digital and high definition cameras and in managing the professional lighting and sound in my productions, as well as overseeing DVD artwork including the use of Photoshop and Illustrator.Flexibility of mind is one of my greatest assets. Throughout my career I have had to think on my feet and deal with all potentialities that may or do occur, including last minute no-shows of talent or crew resulting in on the spot rewriting or rejigging of production schedules. This was the stuff of my daily work as I was often dealing with younger and therefore arguably unreliable talent, which resulted in my developing skills and foresight that would ensure ongoing production. Having to balance creative ideals with pragmatic necessities is something that has become second nature to me. In other words, I always get things done, and to standard.

Because I wanted to encourage women to explore adult fiIms I understood it was necessary to maintain a constant and public high profile in the media. I therefore have been interviewed about my work in every national newspaper and women’s magazine in the UK as well as others from Germany, Spain, France, Norway, South Africa, Brazil and Australia. Media appearances include every major and many local BBC Radio channels, all of the major terrestrial TV channels including Channels 4 & 5 who both aired two different, one-hour documentaries about my work as the acceptable face of adult film. Alongside this, every national newspaper and major women’s magazine in the UK, including appearing on the front page of The Times newspaper, have interviewed me. I am well versed in dealing with all types of press and media with over 16 years’ experience.I have also delivered lectures and partaken in debates in various universities, both in the UK and abroad over the past 15 years regarding my career as an adult filmmaker and my PhD research. These include Oxford University, Cambridge University, Manchester University, Malmo University (Sweden), University of Turku (Finland), University College Dublin, Edinburgh University, Glasgow University and St Andrews University, Scotland. I participated in numerous discussion panels and gave presentations in film and culture festivals worldwide including Oslo, Amsterdam, Turku (Finland), Maratea (Italy), Berlin, Canada, Manchester and London. My Ph.D. research involved interviewing men about their dating anxieties, some of which were very acute. It was noted by the examiners that I achieved highly candid responses, which are rare from men in the field. I put this down to my ability to quickly make people relaxed in my company, something I learnt through directing adult performers over many years.

After 3 years at Television X I left to concentrate on my own production and distribution companies Easy on the Eye Productions and Endurance Media. I took sole responsibility for the production and distribution of my titles internationally, setting up trade links with shops, distributors, television companies and video on demand websites. I developed a small team of production and sales staff whom I managed on a day-to-day level, something that required my undertaking further training to develop my management and sales skills. At this time I was both sourcing and developing relationships with customers and suppliers from all over the world, alongside the further creative development of my product. I have also successfully challenged The British Board of Film Classification twice, to include hitherto censored work. These experiences have helped need to develop a broad understanding of the needs of customers, the practical issues in delivering a product and the importance of maintaining quality of output.

I have had these works published to date:'Rethinking Misogyny: Men's Perceptions of Female Power in Dating Relationships'​ Is to be published by Ashgate in September 2015. Described by the publishers as "path-breaking'​ and as having "political worth"​. You can find out more about it at their website.‘Erotic Home Video’ (now known as ‘Shoot Your Own Adult Home Movies’) I wrote this as a manual in 2003 for non-professionals to learn how to make adult movies at home. To date it has sold over 22,000 copies.‘My Pornographic Development’In 2013 wrote a chapter on my aesthetic philosophy, which was published in the book ‘Pornographic Art & The Aesthetics of Pornography’ available through Palgrave Macmillan

I was appointed as Chair of the UK trade association for the UK’s erotic industries for two years until I stood down to allow time to study my PhD. This position involved reconciling necessarily opposing entities within the industry (such as buyers and sellers of products) and maintaining a public presence in the media and the wider industry. I chaired meetings and public discussions, keeping control of all campaigns undertaken. I have developed considerable social and diplomatic skills through my various roles throughout my career, especially with young people, professional business people, creatives, the media and politicians and am very confident of my ability to work well with different types of people and in different contexts and to take control of difficult situations and to make the necessary decisions when they arise. For instance, in 2010 I became the first member of the adult industry to run for parliament (for The Liberal Democrats), which required a wealth of social skills that were needed with a broad range of people hitherto unknown to me, who were often difficult to deal with.