Orgasm Inc. by Liz Canner2 min read

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Orgasm Inc.
Producer/ Director/Editor/Camera: Liz Canner
USA | Documentary | 2009 | 78 mins | English | R21
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011, 5.30pm
ONE SCREENING ONLY.
**Free Workshop Talk on 10 Dec 4.00pm to 5.00pm. RSVP required.

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In the shocking and hilarious documentary Orgasm Inc., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. Orgasm Inc. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire — and that ultimate moment: orgasm.

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QUOTES

“Orgasm Inc. is a terrific new documentary that delves into designer vaginas and other true life tales of the commodification of women’s pleasure centers.” -JoAnn Wypijewski, The Nation Magazine

“Orgasm Inc. is one of the best documentaries on both sex and the medical field ever, witty, clever, informative and timely.” -Firedoglake.com

“Named one of 2009’s Noteworthy Documentaries” -Dox Magazine, European Documentary Network

“Orgasm Inc. hits female erogenous zones that pharmaceutical fixes can’t find: your brain and your funny bone. ” – In These Times

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE

After over a decade of producing documentaries on human rights issues such as genocide, police brutality, and world poverty, the violent images from my movies were giving me nightmares and making me depressed about the state of humanity. In order to change the script in my head, I decided my next project would be about pleasure, specifically, the science of female pleasure.

Then, strangely, while I was in the middle of shooting the movie, I was offered a job editing erotic videos for a pharmaceutical company that was developing an orgasm cream for women. The videos were to be watched by women during the clinical trial of their new drug. I accepted the job and gained permission to film my employers for my own documentary. I thought the experience would give me access to the secretive world of the pharmaceutical industry and insight into the latest scientific thinking about women and pleasure.

I did not set out to create an exposé, but what I uncovered at work compelled me to keep filming and investigating. This insider perspective allows the film to scrutinize the everyday patterns of pharmaceutical company work in order to explore a culture that has been perverted to place the drive for profit above our health. So much for pleasure”¦