Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the social and cultural sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Beyond literature, Vidal was heavily involved in politics. He unsuccessfully sought office twice as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the U.S. House of Representatives, and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate.
A mockumentary is one type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a documentary which in itself is a subset of a faux-documentary style of film-making.
Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, and sex film producer and director. In 1996, she became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a PhD in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Identifying as ecosexual, Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornography, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981). Through the production of content, Sprinkle has contributed to feminist pornography and the larger social movement of feminism; she is also known for contributing to the rise of the post-porn movement and lesbian pornography. Sprinkle, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, married her long-time partner Beth Stephens in Canada on January 14, 2007.
The Devil in Miss Jones is a 1973 pornographic film, written, directed and produced by Gerard Damiano and starring Georgina Spelvin and Harry Reems. It is widely regarded as a classic adult film, released during the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984). After his 1972 success with Deep Throat, Damiano shot the film in a converted apple-packing plant in Milanville, Pennsylvania. Along with Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, the film is associated with a time in American culture known as "porno chic", in which adult erotic films were just beginning to be widely released, publicly discussed by celebrities and taken seriously by film critics. The film's plot was inspired by the 1944 play No Exit by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The Devil in Miss Jones went on to spawn numerous remakes and sequels.
Herbert John Streicher, better known by his professional pseudonym Harry Reems, was an American pornographic actor and later a successful real estate agent. His most famous roles were as Doctor Young in the 1972 pornographic cult classic Deep Throat and The Teacher in the 1973 classic The Devil in Miss Jones. Throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, he was one of the most prolific performers in the adult film industry. He became the first American actor to be prosecuted solely for appearing in a film. He retired from the industry in 1985.
Deep Throat is a 1972 American pornographic film written and directed by Gerard Damiano, listed in the credits as "Jerry Gerard", and starring Linda Lovelace. It is considered the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).
Charles Everett Traynor was an American actor, businessman and talent agent best known for having promoted the careers of pornographic film stars Linda Lovelace and Marilyn Chambers, both of whom were also married to him. Lovelace wrote in her autobiography Ordeal (1980) that Traynor was abusive during their marriage and had threatened and coerced her into her role in the pornographic film Deep Throat (1972).
Saul Landau was an American journalist, filmmaker and commentator. He was also a professor emeritus at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he taught history and digital media.
Grizzly Man (2005) is an American documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell and the death of his girlfriend Amie Huguenard at Katmai National Park, Alaska. The film includes some of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with brown bears before 2003, and of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell, in addition to those of professionals who deal with wild bears.
Joseph W. Sarno was an American film director and screenwriter.
Gerardo Rocco "Gerard" Damiano was an American director of adult films. He wrote and directed the 1972 cult classic Deep Throat, which starred Linda Susan Boreman aka Linda Lovelace. He also directed the smash hit The Devil in Miss Jones, which ranked #7 in Variety's list of the top-grossing pictures of 1973. Damiano is one of the seminal directors of what is known as The Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).
The U.S. vs. John Lennon is a documentary film about Lennon's transformation from member of the Beatles to anti-war activist opposing the reelection of Richard Nixon as president in 1972. The film also details the attempts by the Nixon administration to deport Lennon from the US to end his anti-war and anti-Nixon campaigns. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in New York City and Los Angeles, California on 15 September 2006, and had a nationwide release on 29 September. A soundtrack composed of John Lennon tracks was released by Capitol Records and EMI on 26 September 2006.
Bryanston Distributing Company was an American film distribution company that was active during the 1970s. The company was founded by Louis Peraino and Philip Parisi in 1972. It went bankrupt in 1976, amid the company's numerous legal troubles.
Lipstick and Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling is a 2004 documentary film about the early days of women's professional wrestling in North America. It was directed by Ruth Leitman, who interviewed The Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Gladys "Kill 'Em" Gillem, Ida Mae Martinez, Ella Waldek and Penny Banner for the film. The film premiered in 2004 in Toronto and was screened at various film festivals across the United States. The film also had a limited release in theaters in 2005. Reviews for the film were mixed.
The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public. This American period, which had subsequently spread internationally, and that began before the legalization of pornography in Denmark on July 1, 1969, started on June 12, 1969, with the theatrical release of the film Blue Movie directed by Andy Warhol, and, somewhat later, with the release of the 1970 film Mona produced by Bill Osco. These films were the first adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. Both influenced the making of films such as 1972's Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace and directed by Gerard Damiano, Behind the Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers and directed by the Mitchell brothers, 1973's The Devil in Miss Jones also by Damiano, and 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven by Radley Metzger. According to Warhol, Blue Movie was a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released a few years after Blue Movie was shown in theaters.
Mona is a 1970 American pornographic film directed by Michael Benveniste and Howard Ziehm, produced by Bill Osco, and starring Judy Angel, Gerard Broulard, Orrin North, Susan Stewart and Fifi Watson. The film was screened without credits due to legal concerns. It is regarded as the second sexually explicit film to receive a general theatrical release in the United States, after Andy Warhol's Blue Movie (1969). However, unlike Blue Movie, Mona had a plot, though there was more emphasis on the action.
Linda Lovelace was an American pornographic actress who became famous for her performance in the 1972 hardcore film Deep Throat. Although the film was an enormous success, Boreman later said that her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, had threatened and coerced her into participation. In her autobiography Ordeal, she described what went on behind the scenes. She later became a born-again Christian and a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.
VCA Pictures is an American pornographic film production and distribution company. The company was founded by Russ Hampshire, and was formerly a major player during the 'Golden Age of Porn'. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s VCA produced big budget, plot-oriented feature films. In 1982 VCA sold 12,000 units of Insatiable on its first day of release, making it the top selling video that year in America. In the 1990s Hampshire served one year in jail for the interstate transportation of obscene materials. In 2003, VCA was bought by Hustler Video, a subsidiary of Larry Flynt-owned Larry Flynt Publications. VCA maintains a separate identity within the LFP conglomerate. VCA distributed the 1998 documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes, and in 2004 provided footage for the HBO documentary Pornucopia.
Lovelace is a 2013 American biographical drama film centered on porn actress Linda Lovelace, star of Deep Throat, a landmark 1972 film at the forefront of the Golden Age of Porn. Lovelace covers her life from age 21 to 32.
Best of Enemies is a 2015 American documentary film co-directed by Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville about the televised debates between intellectuals Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 United States presidential election. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It was acquired by Magnolia and Participant Media.
