Black Mirror has just secured its first national distribution deal, shipping out 1,400 pre-sold copies of "Wild in the Streets," a new release that includes outdoor sex scenes performed during the protests at last May's World Economic Forum meetings in New York. The distribution deal represents more than just money coming into the business. It signifies shelf space in adult-video stores and a chance to turn people in Kansas on to "real New York porn."

"To me, 'New York porn' implies a certain grit, and a sense of humor about what you're doing," Gallant says. "With the old '70s stuff, you could almost see the dust on the lens. The girls didn't shave much. The guys certainly didn't shave much. It was a time of intensity and hard edge in the city, and that comes across in the films. But once you get to the '90s and the L.A. porn scene, it becomes very formulaic. Those guys were making a fortune, and they didn't want to mess with the formula.

"In my films, I want you to see that same dirt on the lens. That's why we leave the butt-spooge in. I just like it -- it's real. I like for chicks to spontaneously pee, fart, whatever. To me that makes it not sterile."

Black Mirror's videos push boundaries most people don't even recognize: Butt-painting, ass-to-mouth play and a signature move known as the Gatorade enema. But there's more involved than just going hardcore. Each film captures a real moment in time, warts and all; the girls are real, the sex is real and the editing is rough enough around the edges to put the flesh-pounding into perspective, to make it human.

As one of the few porn producers working in New York these days, Gallant also feels a responsibility to lead the vanguard of the city's sexual aesthetic. He films on rooftops, on side streets and in bathroom stalls. He's even gone "on location" to the neighborhood crack hotel. So when things get a bit too warm in the apartment/studio, the three of us head outside on a quest for some old-fashioned Times Square adventure.

It's a beautiful evening, with a light breeze that feels great on bare skin, but the notorious Times Square of William S. Burroughs and "Taxi Driver" has vanished, the hookers and "Live Nude Girls" pushed out by aggressive urban renewal, corporate development and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's prudish zoning laws.

We browse the few remaining peep palaces on Eighth Avenue, and Joe points out his videos. They're displayed next to titles like "Ho' Town Girls" and "Amateur Plumpers." At each stop we chat for a few minutes with the Middle Eastern owners, all of whom ask for more product.

"That's my butt," Erika tells one of the young clerks, pointing to her likeness on the back cover of "Times Square Trash 2." "You should watch this video."

Next we do some location scouting among the bright neon lights of Broadway -- testing the locks at two different construction sites before trying to bribe the security guard at a third. He won't let us in, especially after Erika explains exactly what kind of a movie we're making. So we move on to the infamous Show World Theater, where Joe makes us stand in the lobby while he tries to talk our way upstairs. The plan is to film in one of the old burlesque rooms.

Erika and I get to chatting while we wait. We discuss the poetry she publishes online, and her old job painting houses. She giggles nearly constantly, especially when claiming to be the freakiest girl to ever come out of Troy, Mo.

I ask, "Is there anything you won't do?"

"I have a strict policy of no more than one dick per hole. Also I won't wear panties, unless that's what the shoot specifically calls for." Erika giggles again, but I can tell she's not kidding on either count. "I really enjoy everything that there is to enjoy about the body, and to other people a lot of that is dirty. It's licking butts and licking balls and pulling hair and slapping asses."

Erika first met Joe while they were filming a "smothering" scene (i.e., a girl sitting on a guy's face) for a different company. Now she's a Black Mirror regular, and has a starring role in the ongoing sci-fi cable-access epic. I inquire how she prepared for her first dramatic performance.

"I asked Joe to send me the script a day or two beforehand, but I didn't get it till that night. So I took five or 10 minutes before each scene to memorize my lines. Also, he told me it was futuristic, so I went out and bought a little futuristic outfit with black vinyl, because I figured in the future we'd all be wearing black. That was the basic preparation."

After much searching, we end up filming our outdoor encounter on 27th Street, just past 10th Avenue, between two giant garbage dumpsters. The sickly sweet scent of real New York refuse hangs thick in the air. Erika puts one foot up on some construction scaffolding and Joe goes to work on her from behind.

This time I'm holding both the digital camera and a small floodlight. Joe and Erika are both completely naked except for his thick, bright yellow sweatsocks. I truly feel like one of the underground sexual revolutionaries in Gallant's cable-access opus.

I've seen an advanced screening of the first volume. It's an interesting experimental work populated with dark truths, soft porn and amateur acting, but not something that's going to fit in with the other Black Mirror titles or make any money. So why devote valuable time and resources to it?

"I see the bleak vision depicted on-screen as right around the corner," Gallant says. "The so-called USA PATRIOT Act shows that America will bend over and gladly get fucked up the ass at the first sense that our little scene might be disrupted. If I can help in any way to make people start questioning that, I'll do it. That's what my cable show is all about. And if I can entertain people and let them know it's all right to have real hot sex with butt gunk and piss and kissing and joy and release -- that's my mission for the porn side of it."

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