Lidia Ravviso
Lidia Ravviso
Occupation: Filmmaker and Intimacy coordinator
Location: Between London, UK, and Rome, Italy
The Sex in My Business: Just like fight choreographers orchestrate fight scenes, intimacy coordinators choreograph sex scenes in films, including nudity, masturbation, simulated sex, and real sex. But the job goes far beyond choreography. An intimacy coordinator makes sure everyone knows what they should be doing, sees that the process goes smoothly, and helps the director achieve their vision for intimate or sensitive scenes. Above all, it involves creating a safe environment on set where everyone is comfortable and where consent is clearly given by everyone involved at every step. On the side, I also hold workshops and give public talks about intimacy and consent.
How I Got Here: My background is in mainstream cinema, television, and documentaries as both a director and editor, as well as in curating and organizing film festivals. In the mid-2010s I was living in Rome (I’m from the south of Italy, but moved to London in 2016), and I became interested in porn activism and the politics of porn. I began exploring things like queer porn and got involved in making ethical pornography. I wrote and directed my first erotic film in 2016 called Insight, which won the Best Short Film at the 2017 Hacker Film Festival. I co-founded an Italian adult filmmaking collective called Le Ragazze del Porno (“The Girls of Porn”) to bring a female perspective into an otherwise male-dominated industry, and to introduce more cinematic production value into a genre known for low-budget campiness. This led to collaborations with the producer Erika Lust and her ethical porn platform, XConfessions. While making these erotic films, I’d begun working with an intimacy coordinator — a fairly new position on set that arose in the US around 2019 after the #MeToo movement. I found the work so fascinating that I became certified in the field and started doing it myself. My first big job came in 2023 as an intimacy coordinator on Bruce LaBruce’s The Visitor (2024), which is a remake of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968). As a huge fan of Pasolini and LaBruce, I couldn’t have been more excited, and I’ve been pursuing this exciting new space ever since.
A Typical Day: What a typical day looks like depends a lot on whether or not I’m on set. If I’m on set, I’m having conversations with the director, the producer, the actors, and the crew. I have to coordinate between various departments, including the art department, set designers, costume designers, makeup artists, and so forth, to make sure everything works well together, especially when it comes to specialized garments or other prosthetics that are sometimes used. On set, the days are always very long, often 11 hours. On a given day I might be working with the script, rehearsing choreography with the actors, or doing risk assessment breakdowns and developing plans for what to do if the performers become uncomfortable or if things go sideways. Of course, there’s also a lot of administrative work to be done before the shooting takes place.
So much of what I do on set is case by case because every production, scene, and actor is different. These are very delicate and individualized spaces. Simulated sex, for example, can often be trickier than real sex, not only to make it look real on camera but to coordinate between performers. If I’m not on set, that means I’m usually in between productions, which is mostly just a waiting game during which time I focus on all of my other endeavors.
The Best Part: My favorite part is the relationship you build with and between the actors. I love navigating vulnerabilities and take a lot of pride in facilitating a safe and happy environment on set. The human element is really what I love, and the responsibility of it all.
The Worst Part: Because intimacy coordination is still a new role on production sets, it can be a complicated job that's made more difficult because many people are unfamiliar with it and don’t know what to expect. So the novelty adds another barrier that has to be broken down before trust can be formed and the work can really begin.
What Society Thinks: Since #MeToo, people have been thinking more about what goes on behind the scenes in movies or adult cinema. I’m not sure the public knows much about intimacy coordinators — as I said, it’s still so new — but I think they would generally be supportive. On set, it’s sometimes a different story. Things can get hostile, especially when a director feels you are stepping on their toes, or an actor insists they don’t need support. As time goes by, I think this role on set will become normal and accepted.
When I’m Not at Work: When I’m not working I enjoy traveling, watching movies, and spending quality time with my friends.
For more about Lidia, check out her website.
Published Jul 1, 2024
Published in Issue XII: Cinema