Kristen Bjorn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kristen Bjorn | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birthdate: | October 12, 1957 |
| Birth location: | London, United Kingdom |
| Birth name: | Robert Russell |
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Weight: | 175 lb (79 kg/12.5 st) |
| Eye color: | brown |
| Hair color: | brown |
| Orientation: | Gay |
| Ethnicity: | Caucasian, Western European, Celtic, British, English |
Kristen Bjorn born Robert Russell (born 12 October 1957 in London, England) is a director and producer of gay pornographic movies and a former pornographic actor (porn star).
At one time, he was considered by some critics to be the world's foremost porn director. His productions feature decidedly masculine, amply muscled Latin-American and European men, and are often filmed in exotic locales around the world. Bjorn's movies are distinctive in their hands-free cum shots as well as in multiple cum shots per scene.
Contents |
[edit] Career as a porn model
Kristen Bjorn (a pseudonym that was picked for him by Falcon Studio because they thought he had a passing resemblance to then reigning tennis champion Björn Borg [1]) was very briefly an actor in gay pornographic films. When Kristen Bjorn moved to San Francisco in the late 1970s, he first modeled for photographer Fred Bisonnes[2] [3] for photo layouts marketed to gay pornographic magazines such as Mandate. In 1981, Kristen Bjorn appeared in three scenes that were separately released in two "videopacs" by Falcon Studio in 1982 and 1983.
[edit] Career as a photographer and director
In 1982, before his films were even released, Kristen Bjorn moved to Brazil, which he would call home for the next eight years. Upon arriving in Brazil, Bjorn began pursuing his life-long dream of becoming a professional photographer and made a living by taking nude male still photographs (mostly of lighter-skinned Brazilian models[4]) that he sold to American gay pornographic magazines. In 1985, his friend Fred Bisonnes, who was then working for Advocate Men, encouraged him to submit his work to that magazine.[3] During the next several years, again at the urging of Bisonnes, Bjorn expanded his photography skills by filming soft-core video segments for the Advocate Men Live series.[5]
In 1988, Kristen Bjorn directed and produced his first full-length video, Tropical Heatwave, which consisted of six masturbation scenes featuring handsome and muscular Brazilian men in outdoor settings. In this film, Bjorn established his trademark of having his multi-racial cast of actors ejaculate "hands-free."
It wasn't until the next video, Carnival in Rio, that Kristen Bjorn first directed hard-core "male-on-male" sex. In addition to the hands-free ejaculation segments, Bjorn also filmed scenes in which his models ejaculated multiple times. His first three videos were not released until 1989, but Bjorn had begun to perfect his "all-male" sex camera work by 1988. He typically hired models to work for three to four days on a single scene. The actual filming of a scene takes place on the first two to three days of the schedule, with the third or fourth day reserved for still photography.[6]
Bjorn's style of directing and filming was due to economics and his artistic intuition. Because Bjorn initially often worked by himself, he was the producer, director, and cinematographer of his early videos. As a director, Bjorn's intention was to create a scene that reflected fantasy (hence the exotic scenery and the rather seamless transitions to a variety of positions and multiple ejaculations in a single sex scene). Bjorn, the photographer, also preferred that the penis be shown rather than covered by hands (thus, the hands-free ejaculation). Kristen Bjorn's early films are also known for their lack of dialogue; they instead have voice-over narrations that were added later. Again, this was partly economics. As the only production person on-hand, Bjorn's role as director and cinematographer prevented him from being the sound person during filming.[7]
For actors, Bjorn preferred to use relatively unknown models that fit his definition of attractive men and he didn't care whether they were straight-identified or gay-identified as long as they're willing to participate in an all-male sex scene.[8]
Bjorn filmed four videos in 1988 and 1989 in Brazil. In 1990, the deteriorating economic and social conditions in Brazil led to Bjorn's decision to immigrate to Australia. On his way to Sydney, he stopped in New York with the intention of just editing the films he made in Brazil, but he then decided to film a video there (Manhattan Latin) and in the Dominican Republic (Caribbean Beat). After New York, he moved to Australia where he filmed three videos and discovered two Australian models — Foot-long Sean (a.k.a. Sean Davis) and Hogan Maloney (a.k.a. Alec Campbell) — who eventually became major porn stars for Falcon Studios. Although filming in Australia, Bjorn continued to use several non-Caucasian models in his videos. Bjorn claims that the videos he made in Brazil and Australia were the first gay porn videos made in those countries.[9]
In 1992, Bjorn uprooted himself once again, and briefly went to Canada to film two videos featuring Canadian men of various ethnicities. He would eventually set base in Miami, Florida, USA, where he once again focused on filming videos featuring Latin American and Caribbean men.
Robert Russell currently lives in Barcelona, Spain.
[edit] Kristen Bjorn Production
| Kristen Bjorn Production | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | Brazil (1980s) |
| Headquarters |  Florida, U.S. |
| Industry | Gay Pornography |
| Products | Gay porn movies and sex toys |
| Website | http://www.kristenbjorn.com |
By the early 1990s, Kristen Bjorn Production's videos had become very popular and had gained world reputation for their uncompromising quality and eroticism. Kristen Bjorn hired a full-time assistant and still photographer Barry Gollop (popularly known only as "The Bear")[10] so he could concentrate on directing videos and growing the business.
By the mid 1990s, Kristen Bjorn Production crossed the Atlantic to search for models and new locales for its videos. Beginning in 2000, Bjorn started Sarava Productions in recognition of other directors ("The Bear" and Lucas Kazan) who would film videos for Kristen Bjorn's expanding company. In addition to producing movies, Kristen Bjorn Production publishes and markets photo books, calendars, and audio CDs of music originally composed for Kristen Bjorn movies. As of 2006, Kristen Bjorn Production and its Sarava Productions division have released over fifty videos.
[edit] Selected videography as porn star
- Biker's Liberty
- The New Breed
[edit] Selected videography as director
[edit] Kristen Bjorn Productions
- Tropical Heatwave (Solo)
- El Rancho
[edit] Sarava Productions
- Making It (Documentary)
- Isle of Men
[edit] Major photo books by Kristen Bjorn
- Men of Kristen Bjorn, Publisher Distribution Company, 2003 (ISBN 3-86187-282-X)
- Men of the World, Publisher Distribution Company, 2002 (ISBN 3-86187-241-2)
- Stallions, Bruno Gmunder Verlag Gmbh, 2005 (ISBN 3-86187-682-5)
- Body Heat, Bruno Gmunder Verlag Gmbh, 2007 (ISBN-10: 3861878607)
[edit] Kristen Bjorn Productions/Sarava Productions porn stars
- Mark Anthony
- Dex Brown
- Arpad Miklos
- Sean Davis
- Matthieu Costa
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Wash West for Naked Highway |
GayVN Awards for Best Director for Man Watcher (tie with Gino Colbert & Sam Slam for Three Brothers) 1998 |
Succeeded by Jerry Douglas for Dream Team |
[edit] References
- ^ Jamoo, The Films of Kristen Bjorn, (Laguna Hills, Calif., Companion Press, 1997), p. 18.
- ^ "Fred Bisonnes" is an anagram of "Dennis Forbes"; who used it as his pseudonym.
- ^ a b Fred Bisonnes @ Gay Erotic Archives
- ^ Bjorn says that he photographed different types of models, but his publishers told him to use "American-looking" models and to avoid "ethnic-looking" models (Jamoo, 1996, p. 40)
- ^ Jamoo, 1997, pp. 20-21.
- ^ Discussed by Bjorn in Jamoo, 1997, pp. 21-22. Porn film actors Chuck Barron and Alec Campbell also discuss this grueling schedule in David Kinnick, Sorry I Asked: Intimate Interviews with Gay Porn's Rank and File, (New York, Masquerade Books, 1993), pp. 57-59.
- ^ The behind-the-scenes work of filming a Kristen Bjorn video are subjects of two Sarava Production releases: Making it with Kristen Bjorn and Behind the Curtain: Making of Moscow
- ^ Bjorn says that ninety percent of his models in his early videos claim that they are straight, even those who are anally receptive in the sex scenes (Jamoo, 1997, pp. 19-20, 104-106, 110-111). Arpad Banfalvi, an actor who appears in Kristen Bjorn's Thick as Thieves, says that "... my lifestyle is heterosexual. In the films, my job was to act out a role, and that's exactly what I did. What I did in the films didn't strike me as pleasant or unpleasant; it was just a job." Ask the Stars: Arpad Banfalvi, retrieved 08 July 2006.
- ^ Bjorn's intended audience were mostly North American gay males, and although his Brazilian and Australian videos were never intended to be officially released outside of the American and European markets (mainly due to distribution difficulties and US system (NTSC) and non-US system (PAL) video differences), his early videos nonetheless found an underground distribution system — either by piracy or just non-commercial duplication — and wide-following in the urban gay communities of those two countries (Jamoo, 1997, pp. 41, 74-75).
- ^ The Bear - Barry Gollop @ Gay Erotic Archives, retrieved 08 July 2006.
