Director's Statement - P$RN STAR University

I didn’t set out to make a documentary about porn. I set out to make a documentary about work.

We’re living through a moment where the ground keeps shifting beneath all of us. Rising costs, shrinking stability, AI accelerating job loss and reinvention, and a global anxiety that’s quietly asking: What will I do to survive? What am I willing to do to stay afloat? In that context, the adult industry isn’t a sideshow. It’s a mirror. It’s one of the most honest places to examine hustle culture, entrepreneurship, identity, and the price and the power of reinvention.

P$RN STAR University is not a salacious exposé. It’s a film with big heart, big laughs, and genuine respect for the people at its center. It follows Irish content creator Andy Lee, a cheeky disruptor with over 15 years in the industry and a wildly successful OnlyFans empire, as he scales his studio into a high-functioning content hub; part production company, part mentorship program, part found-family circus.

Andy’s world is funny, fast, and full of personality, but it’s also deeply human. The men stepping into his “university” are not punchlines or props. They’re predominently straight-identifying guys navigating boundaries, curiosity, performance, ego, fear, ambition and the complicated math of modern masculinity. Some arrive for quick cash. Some arrive for opportunity. All arrive with something to prove. And what emerges is a surprising story about intimacy: not just sexual intimacy, but emotional intimacy; trust, consent, communication, and the strange vulnerability of being seen.

At its core, this film is about entrepreneurship in a taboo economy. These performers are building brands, creating jobs, and generating income in an industry that is constantly judged, shadow banned, legislated, and stigmatized yet endlessly consumed. They are doing what millions of people are being forced to do right now: pivot, monetize, adapt, and invent a future from scratch.

As Andy grows, the stakes grow with him. Scaling a business means scaling pressure. It means navigating drama, managing personalities, protecting boundaries, and trying to stay authentic while becoming a brand. The question that drives the film isn’t “how far will they go?” it’s: what does it cost to build something for yourself when the world keeps telling you your work shouldn’t exist?

My hope is that audiences come into P$RN STAR University expecting one kind of film and leave with something much richer: a story about survival, identity, ambition, and unexpected tenderness. A documentary that doesn’t look down on its subjects or sensationalize them, but meets them where they are: working, dreaming, laughing, building.

Because in the end, this isn’t just the business of pleasure. It’s the business of possibility. I invite you to sample the first few minutes of the film and I hope to share it with you at a film festival in your area.

Charlie David

Director, Producer, Writer