Good Vibrations Magazine

Sugar High Glitter City is the sweet (bet you saw that coming) new feature by dyke duo Shar Rednour and Jackie Strano, otherwise known as SIR Video. “Sugar High” features a sex-crazed world where sugar is outlawed. Thus, it creates all the normal problems that happen when you make something illegal — the big one being crime. Sugar Hos who have to work for their saccharine fix, Sugar Pimps (naturally), a Sugar Vice Squad (which can always be bribed) and Anti-Sugar Religious Sects (you’ve never seen soul savin’ like this). The loose plot is hysterical and a strong statement about the ridiculousness of rules. But this is porn, so more important than the plot is the fact that the sex is steaming hot. The fantasy/role-playing quotient is high and guaranteed to get everyone, no matter gender, or sexuality, off. In each sex scene there are real orgasms: the Sugar Hos really come and the Sugar Daddys really make them. I got the chance to talk to Sugar Mama and Daddy Shar and Jackie and see what they were up to and how life as big porn producers was treating them.

Good Vibes: Why did you make this particular movie? It seems that you broke into the mainstream porn market with Hard Love and How to Fuck in High Heels and Sugar High seems very edgy. Why did you decide to make such an edgy film? What do you think the reaction will be?

Shar: We make movies from our own turn-ons and experiences. Hard Love is a universal experience — fighting and fucking your ex. High Heels came from an orgy when Jackie and I were tag-team-topping but she was in boots and I was doing the same job only in six-inch acrylic mules. Hello. Then our new lovely baby Sugar came from a real fantasy that we’ve played many times “Sugar Pimp & Candy Ho.” By the way that was the original title.

GV: How has the reaction been so far?

Jackie: The San Francisco film festival sold out, great sales, and hot fan mail so that’s looking good. Lesbianation.com called it “hotter than an atomic fireball…” we liked that.

GV: Sugar High seems to make some drug references. How does this fit with the sex-positive communities philosophy of making sure that drugs are not seen as an impetus for having sex? Was the drug use a conscious decision based on the avoidance I mentioned above?

Shar: Well it was fat lines of pixie stick sugar off pussy and ass not coke on mirrors. We like mirrors on the ceilings. I mean Jackie only did Red Bull drinks while everyone else was “totally off their tits on eckies” (US translation: “high on ecstasy”) at Sydney Australia Mardi Gras. I of course am just a high-wired insomniac who needs no drugs at all. Seriously, sex is our drug of choice and we’re pleasure activists (thanks Annie!). We don’t condone doing anything where you have to check out in order to be sexual but when you want to consciously and responsibly add layers to your love fests, who are we to judge?

GV: Okay. Then what’s your obsession with sugar?

Jackie: It is sweet, sticky, yummy and it tastes so good being licked off of skin. It is made from sugar cane which along with tobacco was/is one of the major exports from the New World that contributed to the imperial colonization and subjugation of indigenous peoples and the slaves transported here — sugar means money and money means controlling politics — from the Republicans fixing elections in Florida, to anti Castro Cubans mixed with old Havana gangster money, to the puppet dictators in countries like Haiti… if only we had had more of a budget we could have gotten into the political ramifications and historical implications of that evil white controlled substance… alas we boiled it down to a short narrative about what happens once it is outlawed and hitting the front lines in the streets.

GV: You know, I totally didn’t even get that that was insulin in the beginning.

Jackie: What else would it be?

GV: There’s lots of sugar and lots of dick sucking in your new film. Can you explain this? Is it part of a new gender bending community? It seems that a dyke porn would have more pussy licking than dick sucking. Can you tell me why you chose to focus the sex the way you did?

Shar: You know where we have great cock-sucking? In Bend Over Boyfriend 2. Those boys couldn’t get enough of it. I would say “cut” and they just wanted to keep on sucking their girl’s babe-dick. Cock-sucking is a role-playing act that can also feel fabulous for the suckee besides giving the sucker a sense of power or submission depending on what button gets pushed and what fantasy works for both. Gender-bending can be a big part of role-playing. SIR always prides itself in featuring a lot of dirty-talk and fantasy-play. We want you to be turned on watching us but we also want you to indeed try this at home! We love hearing from fans that tell us they played sugar pimp last night and loved it.

GV: You are representing the San Francisco dyke community. How do you think people in the “mainstream porn biz” will respond to these “real dykes”?

Shar: Well we already experienced what they think with Hard Love which has been out for a year and won Best All-Girl Feature 2001 from AVN [Adult Video News], the traditional LA porn industry’s trade magazine who hosts the Porno Awards each year. We shall see how they respond to Sugar High Glitter City — who knows? So far we were reviewed by Playboy.com and the biggest thing they like to talk about is butches.

Jackie: Speaking as a butch dyke, I explain that my sexuality has a lot in common with straight male fantasy except one major exception — I make sure the girl comes by getting fucked and that the scene doesn’t culminate in her face getting splattered with ejaculation. I think that if you are a sexual person who enjoys hot sex, role-play, chemistry, and dirty talk — you will enjoy our movies regardless of orientation, we also have a lot of humor in our videos, which folks seem to respond well to across the board.

GV: What do you think of the portrayal of lesbians in mainstream porn films?

Shar: Mixed reaction. They don’t have sex the way that we do. They are getting better though. Also we know many of the actresses absolutely love having sex with women despite their long nails and tanning bed looks. There’s a big difference between girl-on-girl scenes and ours. Their scenes are to give the viewer two-pussys-not-one! Ours is to show hot dyke sex.

GV:What is your favorite porn film?

Shar: Oh unfair. Insatiable as an overall flick but really I love Chloe and Jeanna Fine. I love Jeanna’s parts in Cafe Flesh 2 and I love Ooze. Chloe in Masseuse 3 and Sean Michaels in Who’s Coming to Dinner?

Jackie: Jeanna Fine and Chloe scenes, no real complete fave, what really gets me going is anal scenes with a big guy and small woman who is really getting off on it. (Chloe!) I also like really nasty skanky gay male porn. I can’t think of a favorite because I usually like one scene or two not the whole thing.

GV: What’s your favorite lesbian porn film? (Not including your own!)

Both: Well that means we are choosing from Fatale titles and I like them all.

Shar: Safe is Desire or Clips.

Jackie: Suburban Dykes.

GV: How has your life changed since winning the AVN award for Hard Love?

Shar: Mmmm, not much just more work but we love our work so that’s great.

GV: What is your next project?

Jackie: The video version of Staci Haines’ remarkable book Survivor’s Guide to Sex.

GV: What is the best thing that has happened to you, either personally or professionally, since you started making porn movies?

Jackie: Going to Sydney, Australia where we were the special guests for their Film Festival and Mardi Gras festivities, that was a high point. Also getting feedback from dykes across the USA who thank us and bless us for doing what we do and for putting those images out there for them to enjoy and relate to.

GV: I’m sure people wonder if it’s hard on your relationship to be in the porn biz (especially being in porn). Can you say a bit about this? Has it been good for the two of you? How do you deal with it?

Jackie: It just so happens that we run a video production and distribution company that produces adult material, I mean running your own business is hard enough, the porn element is not the big deal. We are proud of our tapes — for me running my own business ties into the immigrant work ethic I was raised with (both sides are from somewhere else) I don’t do well working under other people and at 34 I retired from all that to start my own business with Shar who is my life partner, wife, soul mate, partner in crime, best friend, and fellow dream chaser. We trust each other completely and work together like a well-oiled piston pumping machine. The hard part is stopping yourself from working seven days a week. We get to play secretary and boss (ha ha). The biggest key to dealing with it all is our sense of humor that always pulls us through. I told Shar from day one that her Midwest Calvinistic work tendencies had to mesh with my Mediterranean lifestyle (work, siesta, work, take a month or so off each year) and we have done pretty darn good. We kick each other’s butts when needed then kidnap each other to jump in the van and drive up to the river or have a margarita or go for a swim.

GV: Has anyone asked either of you to sign their tits yet?

Jackie: No, but we have gotten requests for more than just signing something. Heh heh.

GV: What was the best thing that happened during the making of Sugar High?

Shar: Seeing my sugar fantasies come true — like being a little kid on the playground and all the other kids want to play your game. The scenes where the actors really got into their sugar acting like in the beginning of the movie where Blue and Bitta Honey struggle over the sucker — that gave me the biggest hard-on. Or when Charlie Skye (playing high-end hustler Rock Candy) really takes a minute to appreciate the sugar she just licked off Miss Goldie Icing’s pussy before kissing Goldie. I thought I would have to remind everyone that “sugar is outlawed and really get into it this precious commodity” but I didn’t have to at all. They loved playing our game and sooooo got into it.