Treasure Island Media


Treasure Island Media is a U.S. gay pornographic studio founded in 1998 by Paul Morris that primarily produces bareback films. It was the first commercial producer to specialize in bareback films as part of the emerging 1990s underground interest in the pre-condom era of gay porn that was concerned with the freedom of the sexual experience. The studio is named after Morris's favorite childhood book, Treasure Island. In addition to the original San Francisco office, TIM has production offices in New York, London and Mexico City.

Motivation

Morris said Treasure Island Media was established for "preserving the integrity of pornography and the honest representation of male sexual behavior. When I started producing porn, the genre had become depressingly corrupt, representing only a small subset of sexual behaviors I wanted to capture the kind of sex that has meaning for me and I wanted to do so as accurately and honestly as possible. I also wanted to document the men. I wasn't interested in what they looked like, I was interested in what they understood regarding the complex behavioral language of sex among men." He added, "Most recently, I've been motivated to produce pornography to directly address the appalling phenomenon of the HIV 'closet'."

Sales and popularity

According to XBiz, TIM's best selling video to date is Dawson's 20 Load Weekend, which stars Dawson.

Controversy and criticism

Treasure Island Media has been involved in several incidents due to its product line:
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation tried several times to have California's Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health's Appeals Board force companies in the pornography industry to treat actors and actresses as employees subject to occupational safety and health regulation; in a 2014 case brought against Treasure Island Media an administrative judge found that the company did have to comply with regulations.

Awards and nominations