Orgasm Inc. (Director: Liz Canner): Nine years ago, director Liz Canner was hired to curate some “erotic footage” for drug company Vivus, who were conducting trials for their competitor to Viagra. The hook was that they were testing it on women. Canner has been following the story of the quest for a female Viagra ever since. Although it’s not surprising to hear that the pharmaceutical industry is always pursuing new markets for their products, Canner has done a great job of tracing this particularly disturbing campaign.
In order to receive FDA approval in the US, drug companies must prove that their product is treating a definable disease. Hence, impotence was rebranded as “erectile dysfunction.” Similarly, women’s sexual difficulties, no matter what the cause, were gathered under the dubious moniker of “Female Sexual Dysfunction,” despite the fact that there was no new medical evidence that any such thing existed. And these difficulties included a wide range of issues, from low sex drive to discomfort during sex to inability to achieve orgasm during intercourse (even though 70% of women report that they can’t achieve orgasm without direct clitoral stimulation, something that intercourse rarely provides). That was enough to get the drug companies off and running.
Canner’s film doesn’t stop with the drug companies. The latest craze is cosmetic surgery to make women feel better about their labia. Despite the health risks involved in any kind of surgery, women are being encouraged to undergo this completely unnecessary procedure, just to try to make their genitalia conform to some standard which actually doesn’t exist.
The key message of the film is that women are being preyed upon due to a lack of proper sex education and the greed of a health care system that is supposed to be encouraging healthy sexuality. Instead, as a tool of Big Pharma, it is giving women the message that there is something wrong with them, and that a pill or some surgery can fix it.
Many women have difficulty with sex (achieving orgasm or just low drive) for completely non-physical reasons. The biggest factor is likely stress and overwork. Body image issues and past abuse may also be factors, not to mention a bad relationship or a clumsy lover. The good news is that the “cure” can be completely natural. Sex therapists like Leonore Tiefer of the New View Campaign are fighting what they call the “medicalization of sex” with good old-fashioned education. Women need to know how their bodies work, and how to figure out what works for them individually. Toronto sex shop Come As You Are handed out mini-flashlight keychain vibrators to everyone on the way into the screening. On the way in, I found that amusing. On the way out, I was grateful.
Canner has made an important film that should be required viewing for all students. That being said, I did have some issues with the filmmaking itself. I found the animations cheesy, and didn’t enjoy the music. In general, the production values were rough, and although it covered a lot of important ground, I felt the project probably grew a bit out of control over the years. The title isn’t particularly accurate, either, since the drug companies’ quest isn’t to provide a pill that gives women orgasms, merely one that increases their sex drive. Despite these weaknesses, I am grateful that the film alerted me to some important voices on this issue like Leonore Tiefer, as well as Ray Moynihan, co-author of Selling Sickness: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients.
Official site of the film
Here is the Q&A with director Liz Canner from after the screening:
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Duration: 21:04
(7/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs09,
corporations,
pharmaceuticals,
sexuality
Food Inc. (2008, Director: Robert Kenner): In this comprehensive and yet compelling film, director Robert Kenner, along with authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Nood Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) indict the American (and by extension, global) food industry. Just the fact that we call the producers of our daily bread an industry at all shows what sort of major changes have taken place in the worlds of farming and raising livestock in the past century. The explosion of fast food in the 1950s brought factory methods to the production of food and the ensuing consolidation among corporations has resulted in an increasingly monopolistic marketplace. To save costs, the size of farms and feedlots and slaughterhouses has escalated and safety standards and working conditions have plummeted.
This wide-ranging film touches on almost every conceivable issue that has affected our food supply, from new bacterial organisms that threaten our health, to deteriorating goverment regulatory bodies, the widespread use of illegal immigrant workers, and the explosion in diabetes rates among the young. And yet we’re still sold an image of American’s agrarian past, and we believe it. None of the big food producers were willing to talk to Kenner, and so he spoke to others: to the woman whose 2-year-old died from an E. Coli infection, the chicken farmer who refused the demands of one of the big corporations and lost her contract, the man trying to fight for slaughterhouse workers’ rights, and the articulate organic farmer who’s simply trying to fight the good fight for honest and healthy food. And more than just talking heads, there are some eye-popping images from slaughterhouses and some incredible overhead shots of the vast feedlots where the majority of our food comes from.
Most disturbing, or at least problematic, is the recent phenomenon of small organic food companies being bought up by the large corporations. Is this a legitimate attempt to “green” their businesses, or is it just “greenwashing”? Is the fact that Stonybrook Farm, the largest organic food company, is now selling its products at Wal-Mart a good or a bad thing? The film touches on the subject but leaves the conclusions to us. That’s a bit symptomatic of a film which brings up so many serious issues, but doesn’t have time to tackle them all. I’d recommend the two books above as a starting place, and the film’s accompanying web site also promises to be a useful resource, not just for educating ourselves, but for taking some action.
It’s a little difficult for me to be objective about this subject, because I’ve read the books and have seen a number of documentaries over the past few years on this subject, but I am hopeful that this film has the potential for mass appeal where others have not. After our screening, there was a long ovation and some insightful questions. It remains to be seen whether this film will catch the imagination of the mainstream (non-film-festivalgoer) population. I desperately hope so.
Official site where you can find next steps
Here is the Q&A with director Robert Kenner and author Eric Schlosser from after the screening:
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Duration: 12:59
(9/10)
Tagged as:
#tiff08,
corporations,
environment,
farming,
food,
globalization
Shadow of the Holy Book (Pyhän kirjan varjo) (2007, Director: Arto Halonen): I read about this film when it played at IDFA in Amsterdam and was so intrigued by the premise, I emailed Hot Docs programmer Sean Farnel immediately to ask him to bring it to Hot Docs. He emailed me back to say that he and the director had been drinking vodka the night before and that it would likely be screening here. What had me so excited? Here’s the premise: Turkmenistan is a central Asian country with huge reserves of oil and natural gas. It’s also one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world. After ruling since 1985, dictator Saparmurat Niyazov declared himself “President for Life” in 1999 and published a book called the Ruhnama in 2001. Turkmens are overwhelmingly Muslim, but Niyazov placed the Ruhnama above the Koran as a holy book and required all citizens to study it. So far, so bizarre, right? But the really interesting thing is that the filmmaker found that foreign corporations doing business in Turkmenistan had gained favour by “sponsoring” translations of the book into their own languages and by otherwise promoting Niyazov’s strange cult of personality. At least, that’s how they portrayed themselves to Niyazov. In reality, the companies kept all of this quiet in their own countries, not wanting to be seen as bribing a dictator just to gain lucrative contracts.
Despite the fascinating concept of exposing corporate mischief in a strange and repressive country, the film frustrated me at every turn. Finnish director Halonen enlists the help of American journalist Kevin Frazier and the two make an odd couple. The dour Finn and the nebbishy American with the slight lisp set out to contact many of the corporate villains but are hopelessly inept. Much of the film’s running time is footage of the two of them in hotel rooms in various cities failing to get through to the right corporate contacts. As well, the use of several tacky sound effects (a cash register “cha-ching” each time a corporation’s profits are mentioned, a typewriter introducing every on-screen title) drove me to distraction very quickly. By the time the filmmakers arrive in America to track down executives from Caterpillar and John Deere, the film enters Michael Moore territory, except without any of Moore’s (debatable) charisma. One baffling Moore-like stunt has Frazier reading Ruhnama excerpts on the New York City subway, after referring to America’s constitutional right to freedom of speech.
Overall, the travelogue approach wears thin pretty early. More promising were interviews with some Turkmen human-rights activists and political dissidents. Unfortunately, though, far too much use is made of some crude Flash animations created by the son of one of the activists. By the end of the film, we realize that the pair have not been able to put together a single substantial interview. Though they do get to travel to Turkmenistan on two occasions, they have to film clandestinely and are really only able to show us some of the massive construction projects awarded to the foreign firms. We learn later that the numerous English-language Turkmen “newscasts” and Ruhnama “reading circles” were re-creations.
There were some important allegations uncovered by the film, and some brave and dangerous undercover work was performed by a Finnish diplomat. Hopefully, some of the material uncovered in the film will lead to changes in corporate behaviour. But as a documentary film, I think Shadow of the Holy Book is a bit of a missed opportunity.
Here is the Q&A with director Arto Halonen and writer Kevin Frazier from after the screening:
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Duration: 16:36
Official site for the film
Trailer
Freedom for Sale, established by the directors to focus attention on human rights and free speech issues in different countries, starting with Turkmenistan.
(6/10)
Tagged as:
#hotdocs08,
corporations,
humanrights,
turkmenistan
Blue Vinyl (Directors: Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand, USA, 2002): After seeing and enjoying Helfand and Gold’s latest film Everything’s Cool at Hot Docs this year, I was looking forward to seeing this, their first film. Let’s just say that the pair have developed quite a bit as documentarians in the past five years. Though the film explores an important subject, the toxicity of the vinyl used in siding and other products, the tone and production values were ultimately distracting for me.
Helfand is very much involved in the film, since the project grew out of her concern that her parents’ installation of vinyl siding on their house would lead to health problems and other environmental damage. She does a decent job investigating the vinyl industry’s record of deception and coverups, but she’s just a little too gimmicky. She reminded me too much of Michael Moore, putting herself into every scene, and even carrying around a piece of vinyl siding throughout the film. In a few places, her inexperience as an interviewer is obvious, and although she tries to play it for laughs, it falls flat.
One subject that I wanted to hear more about was the search for alternative building materials. She does talk to a number of people at a California convention, but doesn’t provide enough information about the innovation going on in the construction industry. The film aims for a light tone but has a hard time maintaining it when we hear about how many people have become sick or died from working with vinyl and PVCs. This is a decent first effort, but I’m glad that in their latest film, Helfand generally stays off screen. As well, they chose to make a more positive film focussing on solutions, which suits their style better.
Note: Ironweed featured this film on their April 2007 Earth Day edition. They’ve posted a good collection of resource links about vinyl siding.
Official site for the film
(6/10)
Tagged as:
corporations,
Documentaries,
DVD,
DVD Clubs,
environment,
Ironweed
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Director: Alex Gibney, USA, 2005): It took a little while for me to get around to seeing Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) but it was worth it. Everyone knows something about the collapse of Enron but how much do you know about “the smartest guys in the room” — Jeffery Skilling, Kenneth Lay, Andrew Fastow and Lou Pai.
Alex Gibney’s film provides a great overview of the Enron scandal by giving us a glimpse into the lives of some first class weasels. Lou Pai is by far the luckiest and the smartest of the weasels. He left the company with $280 million, became the second-largest land owner in Colorado and married the stripper girlfriend who had his love-child.
Without being too ‘preachy’, Gibney’s documentary shows how these guys thought they could outsmart the system. Their incredible greed and their willingness to rip off their stockholders and customers is legendary. There is a lot of information to absorb in this film but it does a fabulous job of explaining the whole scandal.
Tagged as:
corporations,
Documentaries,
DVD
