THROWBACK THURSDAY–Christian Mann Owned Video Team

Many of you reading this as porn fans might not know who Christian Mann was, but the adult entertainment business will not be the same without him.  He lost a hard fought battle with cancer yesterday and knowing that he is gone just is a hard reminder of something that I know if very, very true.  Life is really good but it is not fair.  No one ever has to have a fair day.  They tell you to have a good or a nice day.  Fair in life doesn't exist and good men die medicated deaths to spare them from the pain that they really do not deserve.  

Mann was the owner of Video Team, a company which produced excellent ethnic-themed porn, with the occasional outing into other things.  The late David Aaron Clark was a Video Team director and director Van Styles got his start in adult after Mann met him at a skateboard park that Mann's son liked to go to.  

I personally had a lot of interactions with Mann when I was on staff with AVN as I handled assigning who reviewed a lot of his company's product when I was there.  Mann was always so kind and a true gentleman and he did everything to make sure that the people around him were treated as kindly and fairly as possible.

The thing I will remember most about him comes from an assignment I had to cover the set of "No Man's Land: Legends". It was directed by Bionca Seven--wife of the late director Bruce Seven--and starred a pantheon of female porn stars.  The women on set that day had me gobsmacked by how much erotic history was all around me.  Here's the cast--Asia Carrera, Amber Lynn, Christi Lake, Jeannie Pepper, Jeanna Fine, Teri Weigel, Kim Chambers, Porsche Lynn, Nina Hartley and Sharon Kane.  I did everything I was capable of to capture the awesome of that day into an article but the thing I remember most from that day, I have never told anyone about until now.

One of the performers was a recovering addict who came into town just to be there to do the scenes that day and then to go home because being in Los Angeles was a huge trigger for her habits.  I am not going to out which legend it was but she was frail in her own way and Mann cared for her and did everything he could do to make sure that she did not relapse during her time making this historically huge movie.  He protected her in every sense.  He protected her health and her future and when he became aware that I knew about what was going on with her, he had a conversation with me to make sure that I wasn't the kind of writer who would out her.  I am not and won't ever be.  The way he as a recovering addict did everything he could to keep her safe from herself moved me and I always respected and loved him for that.

He sold Video Team and went on to manage Evil Angel and from what I understand, he made that company stronger than it has ever been and every porn fan should be grateful to him for that.  

The scene above is Nyomi Banxxx, Imani Rose and Evil Angel performer/director Lexington Steele from Video Team's "Desperate Blackwives 6" and fuck, I hate that Mann had to fight so hard at the end.  

Watch some porn today and remember that life is about capturing moments sometimes.  That's why I love porn so much.  The moments are true and naked and real and they will never change or get old.  Those moments will fuck and suck and get each other off forever and they won't hide behind anything.  Those moments are incapable of lies or falseness.  

Love to Mann's wife and family.  Thank you, Christian.