Morgana Muses might just be the ultimate late bloomer.

Divorced at 45 after years of miserable marriage, at 47 she had her first encounter with a male escort and discovered sex wasn’t so bad after all. In 2012, she turned that encounter into the stuff of a pornographic movie in which she starred. She’s since gone on to write, direct and star in many more. She is now, at 54, a revered, respected and much-awarded "icon" of the porn industry, with a day job in a sex shop in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs.

Adult movie star and director Morgana Muses (seated), with Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess, co-directors of the documentary about her life, at Passionfruit Sensuality Shop. Credit:Justin McManus

She is also the star of Morgana, a documentary about her life – at once both remarkable and remarkably ordinary – which has its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival on Friday, followed by a panel discussion featuring comedian Judith Lucy, the film's co-directors Josie Hess and Isabel Peppard, Reason Party (formerly Sex Party) MP Fiona Patten, and feminist film academic Deb Verhoeven, as well as Morgana herself.

It's a big moment for this mother of two, whose daughters have some idea of what she does but whose wider family have disowned her. "I've put my heart and soul into this film and I don't know how people are going to react," she says. "I'm both excited and nervous about it."