JM Productions - History

History

The company was founded by Jeff Steward. Previously he had worked for Legend Video. The first film it produced was The Violation of Rachel Love, in 1995.

On 21 May 2001 the company's offices were raided by twenty officers from the LAPD. The officers confiscated several bukkake-themed videos. In response Jeff Steward stated, "Some guy swims in feces on MTV, and that's OK? But for a girl to swallow 80 loads of cum is obscene? I dont think so." On the evening of the raid, Jim Powers was in North Hollywood filming another bukkake film. In reference to what he considered the injustice of the raid, he announced to the men involved, "We're doing this for all of America".

On 31 May 2006, the company, Jeff Steward, Mike Norton and distributor Five Star Video were indicted for distribution of obscenity by the Department of Justice. The named JM movies were American Bukkake 13, Gag Factor 15, Gag Factor 18 and Filthy Things 6. In Gag Factor 15 Ashley Blue performs a throat fucking parody of the torture at Abu Ghraib prison. The defendants faced a maximum sentence of five years for each of the obscenity counts. Jeff Steward was defended by lawyer Al Gelbard, who also represented Evil Angel in their obscenity trial. In his opening arguments at the trial, the prosecutor cited "the sacred place of mothers in society", in reference to the treatment of the film's actresses. On 16 October 2007 all obscenity charges against JM and Jeff Steward were dropped, due to lack of evidence that JM had sold the films to Five Star. Cast interviews demonstrating that actresses appearing in roles that simulated abuse or degradation did so willingly played a role in the acquittal. A Phoenix jury later found Five Star guilty of interstate transportation of obscene materials, due to it having posted “Gag Factor 18” to an FBI agent in Virginia. The jury acquitted Five Star on charges related to “Filthy Things 6” and “American Bukkake 13.” In an embarrassing revelation for the prosecutors of JM, during the legal proceedings it emerged that the U.S. Trustee’s Office of the Justice Department had previously supervised the sale of the same films involved in the case, while administering the bankruptcy of Arizona-based Castle Megastore. After the trial a juror said the jury had great difficulty deciding on the "community standard" section of the Miller test used to judge obscenity, and that the jury thought prosecuting obscenity crimes was a waste of time and FBI resources.

JM started filming in high-definition in 2006. It released its first Blu-ray Disc in 2008, The Violation of Trina Michaels.

In February 2008 a bukkake shoot directed by Jim Powers was subject to an armed robbery. An armed man held a gun to the head of production manager Johnny Thrust and demanded money. The shoot featured actress Ami Emerson eating 71 men's semen, which had been mixed into an omelet. The men involved were to be paid $75 each, making the total amount stolen around $3,500. Powers offered a $1000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. After the robbery the shoot went ahead.