Checking in with Joanna Angel, Pure Taboo’s Newest Director

April 4, 2018
HOLLY-KINGSTOWN

AVN Hall of Famer Joanna Angel has done a really cool looking an intense feature as a collaboration between Burning Angel and Pure Taboo. "A Trailer Park Taboo" is a three-part feature that debuted on both sites this week and stars Angel, Kenzie Reeves, Abella Danger, India Summer, Small Hands and Tommy Pistol. Produced by Bree Mills, this is a much emotionally heavier movie than you normally see from something that Angel directs. The first part in the feature "Existence Is An Imperfection" stars Angel, Reeves, and Hands. "A Trailer Park Taboo Part 2: We are our Choices" stars Angel, Pistol, and Summer and is set for release on April 26th, and "Part 3: Hell is Other People" starring Angel, Danger, Reeves and Hands comes out on May 10th. You definitely should have a membership to one of these sites to watch this. It's really damn good and Pure Taboo scored a ton of awards in January so give this some of your time/cash.

Congrats on your collaboration with Pure Taboo! How did this come about?

"Last year when Aaron [Small Hands] was booked for “Half His Age”, he told me it was for a new Gamma films website. I was nosy and curious so I looked through the script - it got the wheels turning in my head for my own Pure Taboo idea. I pitched that idea to Bree a few months later and she liked it! And that’s how it all got started."

What was the inspiration for "A Trailer Park Taboo"?

"I know with my shimmering personality and my short stubby Jewish body that this might be hard to believe but I’ve actually been dumped and cheated on a lot (pre-Small Hands, of course, who loves me to pieces). I thought back through all my feelings of desperation and all the fucked up things it leads you to do and I wrapped it inside of a taboo/family blanket and viola! There it was."

What did you enjoy most about directing and working with the Pure Taboo crew?
"Craven [Moorehead] and Matty [Holder] are brilliant cinematographers and the style they developed for shooting this particular site is so beautiful! I loved being able to see my vision come to life with this aesthetic."

Did you find that Bree Mills' work for the site inspired what you made here? It definitely seems darker in tone than your Burning Angel fare.

"Yeah I followed suit with the tone/style that Bree created for the site. In my last Burning Angel movie Kenzie Reeves turned Tommy Pistol into a piñata by stuffing him with candy and wrapping him in wrapping paper and in this Pure Taboo movie, Kenzie Reeves is desperately trying to get pregnant so her stepbrother won’t leave her and they can live happily ever after in the trailer park. Two very different scenarios but I really enjoyed doing something different. I love a challenge and I love creating things and I enjoyed going to a place in my brain I don’t normally go."

Whose performance in this surprised you most? Who took their performance in this to another level?

"Definitely Kenzie. She beyond impressed me. I can’t even find the words to describe how incredibly talented she is. Nothing I say will do it justice so just watch her in the movie and see for yourself!"

How would you describe your character in "A Trailer Park Taboo"?

"I’m a rich college brat who is engrossed in her own #firstworldproblems and doesn’t understand what real problems are."

What do you enjoy most about the Pure Taboo site as a whole?

"The way it’s shot, and the way it’s edited. It’s really well done. It’s so well done it actually makes me angry!"

Congrats on your book tour! What has the reception to your book been like?

"It’s been amazing! It all feels very surreal. I can’t believe I actually wrote a book and I can’t believe people are actually reading it- and liking it."