Pornhub has a new movie out, but not the kind you might be expecting.
Shakedown, a feature-length documentary about Los Angeles strip club culture, is Pornhub’s first non-erotic film. According to Variety, the film from filmmaker and conceptual artist Leilah Weinraub takes a serious look at the lives of LGBTQ men and women on the LA strip club scene in the early 2000s.
The film has been shown at the MoMA and the Whitney Museum, but will now be available on demand for the first time. The project will even be available in a dedicated virtual space where viewers can watch the doc and discuss it with each other and Weinraub, who will reportedly make weekly appearances. According to Weinraub, this virtual space is meant to appeal especially to women and to serve as a space where viewers can “be alone, together.”
Shakedown will be free to watch throughout the rest of this month, before heading to TV through the Criterion Channel. A copy of the doc will be available through the iTunes Store this summer.
Pornhub says the film marks the beginning of a broader trend for the platform. “This film is part of a larger general commitment Pornhub has to supporting the arts,” Pornhub’s brand director Alex Klein told Variety. “We want to be seen as a platform that artists and creators can use. We’ve seen artists in general upload content to the site, that might not have a home at places like YouTube or Vimeo, who don’t permit nudity. For us, premiering a feature length film is a first. We’re very excited about it.”
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