EXPLOSIVE RELEASE OF ORGASM INC. AT 2009 HOT DOCS FILM FESTIVAL
04.21.2009 – Chicken and Egg Pictures, Astrea Media, Inc. and Ro*co Films International are pleased to announce that award-winning filmmaker Liz Canner’s documentary Orgasm Inc. had its world premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. 600 free vibrators were handed out (generously donated by Come as You Are) to the 1,000 people who attended the screenings. Needless to say, the audience was satisfied.
The press responded glowingly to the movie. Variety called Orgasm Inc. "buzzworthy". The Toronto Star described it as a "sexy feature-length indictment of big pharma" that gives "a lot of great laughs". Pop Journalism gave it 4 stars and Rabble named it one of "Spring 2009''s Don''t Miss Documentaries".
The blogosphere gave Orgasm Inc. hot reviews as well. Blogger Matthew Brown from tederick.com said, “Orgasm Inc. becomes quite thrilling, often distressing, and more often than not, inspiring and fun. This is required viewing for anyone with genitals, of either denomination.” Crane and Matten called it “a brilliantly shot, researched and told story” that is “highly recommended”. Medbh on Dante and the Lobster wrote, “Canner’s film is brilliant. I hope a studio picks it up for wide release.”
A week after the premiere, Director Liz Canner was honored with the Visionary Award from Dartmouth College for her creation of Orgasm Inc. (past recipients include Eve Ensler, Odetta and Winona LaDuke). The school planned to hold only one screening of the movie. However, the documentary created a frenzy on campus. After playing to a standing room only crowd, The Dartmouth Center for Women and Gender ended up screening Orgasm Inc. 8 more times to meet the demand.
All in all, Orgasm Inc. had an explosive release. Those of you who made it to one of the screenings: thanks for coming :) and showing your support! Those of you who couldn’t attend: we hope you’ll have a chance to experience the documentary soon.
Orgasm Inc. Synopsis
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.
The Film’s Story Line
With unique access and a deft style of interviewing, filmmaker Liz Canner embarked on what proved to be a nine-year odyssey following pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers as they raced to get their pill, patch, device or nose spray to be the first to win FDA approval to treat FSD. The promised cure: "normal" sexual function and orgasm. The prize: billions of dollars in profits.
Along with meeting drug company CEOs, field testers, and number crunchers, she encounters doctors, scientists and psychiatrists who are resisting the pharmaceutical industry''s notion that sexual dissatisfaction is a "disease" that needs to be treated with a drug. Most of women''s sexual problems, they believe, are due to cultural conditions -- relationship issues, sexual abuse, poor sex education and stress from overwork. Their goal: stop corporate medicine before it is too late.
Throughout Orgasm Inc. important revelations are made and compelling characters are encountered who claim to hold the key to women''s orgasm. We meet a doctor in Winston Salem, NC, who is testing an Orgasmatron -- electrodes inserted into the spine and activated at the press of a button. We encounter Lisa, a medical device marketer, who is deep in the process of launching Designer Laser Vaginoplasty surgery to "help" women look and feel young again "down there.” Ambivalent about the disturbing effects of cosmetic genital surgery, Lisa haltingly admits that she needs to quit her job on-camera. As Orgasm Inc. goes deeper, it reveals that many of the so-called "treatments" for FSD have potentially dangerous and life-threatening side effects, including genital mutilation, breast cancer, and dementia.
Fortunately, all is not bleak on the sexual frontier. Liz also uncovers inspirational pioneers committed to leading others to true erotic fulfillment: a sex shop owner who crashes pharmaceutical conferences to educate the doctors who attend, a vintage vibrator collector who provides insight into the history of female "hysteria," and a professor at Harvard Medical School whose class on human sexuality is intended to counter the drug companies’ model. These visionaries believe that the key to sexual satisfaction is to change not just our sex lives but also our society.
As the film nears the finish line, Procter & Gamble pulls ahead of the other pharmaceutical companies. Its drug Intrinsa, a testosterone patch, touted to be the first drug to treat women with low sexual desire, goes before the FDA. At the heated hearing, activists face off against Procter & Gamble, battling not only over the drug’s FDA approval but ultimately our future cultural and scientific understanding of sex.
The world is beginning to be saturated with ads for sex treatments for women. Drug companies and medical device manufacturers have already begun spending millions of dollars on marketing not only their treatments but also the ''disease.’ The existence of both ''disease'' and ''cure'' is beginning to dominate all discussion of sexual dissatisfaction, conveniently sweeping major contributing factors under the rug. Orgasm Inc. offers an antidote to drug company marketing and scientific distortion. The goal: to help protect women from being deceived into undergoing unnecessary and possibly unsafe medical treatments.
The running time of Orgasm Inc. is 80 min. The film was completed in April 2009, and made its world premiere at Hot Docs.
For sales inquiries, contact Annie Roney, Ro*co Films International, 415-332-6471, annie@rocofilms.com.
For more information about Orgasm Inc visit the film’s website, http://astreamedia.org/orgasminc/, or email izcanner@astreamedia.org.
Liz Canner’s Biography
Orgasm Inc. is award-winning director Liz Canner’s first feature documentary. Canner was recently named one of the top ten independent filmmakers to watch in 2009 by The Independent Magazine and honored with a Visionary Award from Dartmouth College for the movie. Since earning her BA with Honors from Brown University in 1991, she has received more than 45 awards, honors and grants for her innovative documentary projects on human rights issues. Canner’s documentaries have been broadcast on PBS, cable stations and internationally in many countries. They have screened at festivals like The New York Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. For her contribution to the field, Canner has been honored with a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Bunting) Fellowship from Harvard University and a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship.
Credits for Orgasm Inc.
Director/Producer/Camera: Liz Canner
Executive Producers: Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand of Chicken & Egg Pictures and Marc Weiss
Consulting Producer: Doug Block
Associate Producers: Jane Applegate and Sarah Canner
Editors: Liz Canner, Sandra Christie, and Jeremiah Zagar
Animation: Jay Beaudoin and Nicholas Fischer
Original Music: Stephanie Olmanni, Alex Barnett and Don Glasgo
Legal Services: Robert Bertsche
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- Twitter Pitch
- Orgasm Inc. premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival on May 2nd and 5th.
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- News Facts
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- LibiGel and Flibanserin - potential drugs to treat female sexual dysfunction - are awaiting US FDA approval.
- Rabble.ca names Orgasm Inc. one of "Springs 2009's Don't Miss Documentaries"
- Procter and Gamble said it is considering the sale of it's pharmaceutical division.
- Dartmouth College honors director Liz Canner with The 2009 Visionary Award for her documentary Orgasm Inc.
- The Independent Magazine names director Liz Canner one of the top 10 indie filmmakers to watch in 2009 because of her doc Orgasm Inc.
- Resource Links
- Cinematical reviews Orgasm Inc.
- City News reviews Orgasm Inc
- Dante and the Lobster blog hopes Orgasm Inc. gets wide release
- Independent Magazine names "10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2009"
- IndieWire on Hot Docs “09: Growing Up, Confronting Reality,
- LA Times on the Visionary Award
- Newswire Rabble.ca says "don't miss" Orgasm Inc.
- Popjournalism reviews Orgasm Inc
- Seven Days on Orgasm Inc. at the IFP Market
- Tederick.com blog reviews Orgasm Inc.
- The Globe and Mail, Canada's national paper, interviews Director Liz Canner
- The Toronto Star on Orgasm Inc.
- The Valley News reviews Orgasm Inc.
- Tags
- documentary, Liz Canner, sex education, feminism, FSD, Female Sexual Dysfunction, Orgasm Inc, Hot Docs, Astrea Media, clinical trials, health, pharmaceutical, drug, Viagra
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