L.A. Courts Literally Go To Shit As Notorious Director Faces Obscenity Trial
Posted by Defamer Hollywood at 7:25 AM on May 8, 2008
Defamer would like to take just a moment to salute a true American hero — a local filmmaker whose vision, dedication and utter depravity have resulted in some of the bravest and most honest films of our time. His name is Ira Isaacs; you may know him as the maker of such "shock art" (i.e. fetish porn) masterworks as Laurie's Toilet Show, Gang Bang Horse (Pony Sex Game) and Hollywood Scat Amateurs No. 7, and soon you may also know him as the man sent up the river in what Radar today describes as perhaps "the most extreme obscenity trial in U.S. history."
Correspondent Susannah Breslin has Isaacs' noble and only mildly revolting story via Q&A, hopefully in a disinfected room or on a phone with a condom pulled over it:
ISAACS: I was one of the first to do this. Getting actresses to participate in this art venture is not the easiest thing in the world. Picasso had problems as well. And [Marcel] Duchamp with the toilet [Urinal, a signed urinal exhibited in an art gallery]. [James Joyce's] Ulysses was up for obscenity. I felt like I'm never going to be a great musician, I'm never going to be a great oil painter. Here, I had a chance to shock a lot of people. My movies that I make, there's a lot contrast, there's a lot of social commentary. How people deal with taboos. How people see something so mundane. The contrast between feces and a beautiful girl. Good and evil. ...RADAR: Were you worried about getting busted?
ISAACS: January 17 [2007], I'm going to my office in Koreatown, and there's 20 to 25 FBI agents. They're in my office. They're in my hallway. There's these two big guys. "Are you Mr. Isaacs?" they say. "Come with me." They walk me down the hallway, into my office. There's FBI all over the place. But I'll tell you, they were very, very pleasant people. They were really nice. Those guys would rather be fighting terrorism than being the sex police. The FBI guy was as curious as you are. He asked me, "Off the record," he asked me, "How do you convince girls to do this kind of stuff?" I said, "I do it very well."
Transfixed as we are by the concept of "good and evil" as represented by a dump on someone's face, we're afraid we must sit this trial out at risk of our own standards-and-practices violation and/or years of nightmares. You are in luck, though, dear reader, as indefatigable Huffington Post legal correspondent Allison Hope Weiner will be moving on to this shitty case upon the end of jury deliberations in the Anthony Pellicano trial. Good luck to Mr. Isaacs; may we never know first-hand what a true master he is.
[Photo Credit: Getty Images]
- But Is It Obscene? [Radar]
Tags: dirty justice | getty images | ira isaacs | porn | radar

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Tim
Posted May 8, 2008 12:36 PM
It's only obscenity if the judge gets a hard-on watching it. In the case of the I Spit on Your Gravy CD many years ago the judge decided against an obscenity charge as it would make it too popular.
Whiteboyfunfark
Posted 8:13 AM 8/5/08
Freedom of speech gives us the option to turn off the TV, to try to ignore Paris and Britney, and to not watch 'Two Girls: One Cup.' If this filth is worthy of the Idiot-in-Charge's administration wasting our tax dollars then maybe Wesley Snipes was right after all.
Whiteboyfunfark
blackheartededitor
Posted 8:11 AM 8/5/08
So you're saying there won't be a "Gang Bang Horse (Pony Sex Game) 2"?
There went the value of my Hollywood Stock Exchange profile.
blackheartededitor
crackbabyjesus
Posted 7:56 AM 8/5/08
I hope this story ends with Ms. Hope Weiner being Mr. Isaacs' new muse. Truly, it is only right.
crackbabyjesus
Shumina
Posted 8:39 AM 8/5/08
I like Ira's style. Put it to the man, bro. Make him earn it.
Shumina
Plankton420
Posted 8:25 AM 8/5/08
Damn! I'm scheduled for jury duty [*giggle!*] in two weeks!
Knowing I could have been put on a jury for a trial as interesting as this obscenity one is going to be is sure to make the eventual landlord dispute trial I usually get put on seem even more boring than ever...
Plankton420
Whiteboyfunfark
Posted 9:56 AM 8/5/08
@Desk_hack: That, or Ella Fitzgerald night on American Idol....
Whiteboyfunfark
Desk_hack
Posted 9:37 AM 8/5/08
Hollywood Scat Amateurs No. 7 is a vocal jazz documentary, right?
Desk_hack
Cacafuego
Posted 10:40 AM 8/5/08
A lot of the "scat" artists from the late 1970s & early 1980s contracted AIDS and Hep C, so I guess there is something of a public health concern, outside of the obscenity issue. When I was growing up in the 1960s/1970s this element of the porn industry--scat and beastiality--was so underground it seemed almost apocryphal. Now it seems to be part of every online hardcore website. Ugh.
Cacafuego
hurdygurdygirl
Posted 3:24 PM 9/5/08
Um, wow. I can't believe he compared himself to Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and James Joyce.
I'm not crazy about censorship either, but that doesn't mean that everything deemed offensive is actually a work of art.
hurdygurdygirl
josefk
Posted 11:50 AM 9/5/08
Thanks for all your support good and bad
The fact we are all starting to debate "art"
only can be positive outcome of my work
ira isaacs
josefk
josefk
Posted 6:15 AM 10/5/08
I would like to clear up a miss understanding about what I said in Radaronline interview
I've Have NEVER compared my work or self to any
of the great artist, mention in the Radaronline article
In fact the opposite is true. What I said, is I could never compete
with the masters, because of my LACK of Talent, so I decided
to explore the edge
You have to understand, that I'm facing up to 30 years in prison for my work.
and I must prove that these films have "Serious Artistic Value" to be found not Guilty.
I use some of the masters like Duchamp for reference purpose only, not comparative ones
I need to prove that even what we consider to be great works of art in todays standard.
once was considered to be obscene, like Lawrence and joyce
Furthermore, I think my work is not very good, however I think it does have serious artistic value.
If I'm guilty of anything its bad taste. not obscenity
IRA ISAACS
josefk