Founding Story
In 2016, Grace Van Ness and Christopher Holloway worked in post-production at Kink.com, housed in the San Francisco Armory—a gothic castle in the Mission District. The Armory was a vibrant hub of sex workers, performers, and creatives. At the time, the adult industry was shifting, with big production companies giving way to independent creators and platforms like OnlyFans. Everything felt like it was changing.
Failed Films emerged from that upheaval. Originally called “Stupid Broken Fucking Failures,” it reflected the emotional wreckage Grace and I were experiencing—heartbreak, estrangement, and nothing left to lose. We decided, “Fuck it.” Let’s put our failures, pain, and dreams on screen. The festival became a space where risking failure was embraced and celebrated. It was a place to put the things that weren’t for sale.
Our first show took place in a West Oakland warehouse. Grace and I had never produced an underground art and film festival before, so I called Jonah Strouse, a dear friend who had produced countless underground rock shows. Together, we captured the raw, underground energy that has defined the festival ever since.
Over the past eight years, Failed Films has been my most successful failure. With the edition of Antone Martinez and Lauren West, the show has continued to be a place where sex worker, queer, and misfit communities come together to bear witness to each other's beautiful failures. It has become more than a film festival; it is a permission structure to risk failure. It is a container that holds all the lube, glitter, and cum spilled for your art.
Christopher Holloway
Christopher Holloway is an Oakland-based content creator with over a decade of experience producing things for the internet. He was the founding producer for The Whorecast, a podcast that chronicled the stories, art, and voices of American sex workers. He cut his production teeth on the stone walls of the SF amory for Kink.com. It was in that castle that Failed Films was birthed. Whether you find him peddling smut or a SFW production, Christopher brings a vision, steadiness, and problem-solving that makes him invaluable to any production. He is truly a keystone to the failed film experiment.
antone
is under construction.
Lauren West
is a multidisciplinary artist focused on collage, film & fashion. She has proudly produced and curated the current and previous three iterations of Failed Films in Los Angeles. Her first self directed film, The Empress, debuted at Failed Films 2019 & was featured at the 2021 San Francisco Porn Film Festival. Her film ἌΦΕΣΙΝ followed suit in 2022. Lauren has also performed in the Antone directed film Collage Daydream inspired by Lauren’s collage work. This work, which largely centers vintage Playboy models as subjects alludes to themes of feminism & sexuality. In this regard, Lauren has worked with publications such as Playboy & the Los Angeles Times. Her ongoing goal is to fuse art and sexuality.
Spike
Spike is a queer, latinx, multi-medium artist and performer. An native of Southern California, Spike is involved with live-event hosting, drag performance, and with the leather and fetish community in and around the Los Angeles area. In both life and art, Spike explores and blends traditional dichotomies of light and dark, masculine and feminine, rage and joy. His raw, unconventional, yet inviting work reflects his view that expression is existence. No Fears. No Regrets. Just Life.
Rea Threat
Rae Threat is a queer Thai-American artist, photographer, filmmaker, and activist. She is renowned for her alternative approach to photography, stemmed from her desire to invert stereotypes and challenge views.
She is a member of the BIPOC Adult Industry Collective, a Collective Leader at Level Ground, and the August 2024 Community Partner for Streammate’s Elevate Program, a program that highlights advocates within the adult industry.
Rae’s work includes #TheUntitledBodyProject, a 3D gallery show created as the 2018 artist-in-residence at Level Ground. She was a featured contributor in the Spring 2020 issue of Duke University Press’s Transgender Studies Quarterly: Trans Pornography, appeared in the season two premiere of the Epix docu-series Sex Life, was a guest on Nico Tortorella’s Space Between The Sheets, and is an adult industry event photographer for LA Weekly.
Rae was the first photographer to feature adult industry performers in lookbooks for skatewear clothing line Mishka (Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014). Past projects also include producing and photographing Fleshbot’s iconic photoset featuring genderqueer advocate Jiz Lee and Stoya (2011), Mad Decent Records’ first fashion lookbook featuring Skrillex and Diplo (2014), and a design collaboration with Actual Pain Clothing (2013).
Rae has exhibited in galleries internationally from L.A. and San Francisco to Turkey, Vienna, and Berlin. Her first curated art show, “ALT to the ALT”, which featured artists Eon McKai, Kimberly Kane, Carlos Batts, and Steak Mtn, was a highlighted exhibit with Month of Photography LA (2011). Her street photography work with GroupLA was a featured showcase at the LA ART Show (2009) and installation at the San Diego Lafayette Hotel (2013) before being archived as a permanent exhibit at the USC Library (Los Angeles).
As a filmmaker, Rae explores challenging views and thought-provoking subjects. Her projects include a feature film documentary about Thailand’s Trans activists and their fight for equal rights, co-producing a Bye Felipe / Change.org video campaign to help end unsolicited dick pics on the internet, and exhibiting in an art show advocating for sex workers’ rights at SOMArts in San Francisco.
Rae currently works as the Head of Creator Outreach for APClips.com and freelances as a photographer/videographer in the adult industry.
DeVaughn Taylor
DeVaughn Taylor is a creative director, writer, and photographer/videographer. He has a special background in horror & provocative filmmaking through his movie podcast "Specter Cinema Club" and editorial articles in various horror publications such as Dread Central and Horror Press LLC. Most of his directed works have come in the form of bringing a cinematic flair to music videos and intimate live performances done with the BetaWave media collective. DeVaughn has a passion for independent artists, whether it be through 2 years of contributing to the Moonrise Campout Music Festival or his own mini-documentary series "The Hunger". DeVaughn's main creative goal is exploring the line between beauty and disgust through boundary-pushing filmmaking that makes people feel something visceral.
Saint
Saint is, without question, the greatest artist and sculptor the world has ever seen—though his unmatched brilliance is rivaled only by their deep humility. Saint’s work obliterates boundaries, whether through towering sculptures that reshape space or brushstrokes that capture the human soul—though Saint would never boast. Every creation is a masterpiece that redefines humanity itself, yet Saint remains grounded, even as art history is now divided into two eras: before Saint and after Saint. While no one can replicate their genius, Saint is far too modest to claim it. When future generations speak of art, they will speak of Saint—and Saint will graciously allow it.