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Orgasm Inc. | |
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Directed by | Liz Canner |
Produced by | Liz Canner |
Edited by | Liz Canner, Sandra Christie, Jeremiah Zagar |
Music by | Alex Barnett, Don Glasgo, Gusano, Stephanie Olmanni |
Distributed by | First Run Features |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 min |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Orgasm Inc. (2009) is a New York Times "Critic's Pick" and the first feature documentary by award-winning director Liz Canner. It premiered at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. [1]
In the documentary, filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic movies for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company called Vivus. 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's work in general 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.
The film continues from Vivus onto the more general question of whether there is a solid scientific foundation to medical industry claims about what constitutes "healthy" female sexuality and whether drugs and surgery are a suitable first-line approach to obtaining it. The film documents an emerging medical industry intent on convincing as large a market of women as possible that they have medical problems, and that those problems are best solved by expensive and dangerous medical treatments. Orgasm Inc. is presented as a look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping the public's lives concerning health, illness, desire, and orgasm.
Orgasm Inc. premiered at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in 2009. It has shown in over 70 film festivals all over the world, including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and the Independent Film Festival of Boston. The film has also been broadcast on national television in Canada, Finland, France, Italy, Brazil, Israel, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, United States and Japan. It streamed on Netflix internationally (Most Popular in the Critically Acclaimed section), on Sundance Now, Fandango, iTunes,and Kanopy (Most Popular in 7 subject areas). The film was picked up by First Run Features who released the movie in cinemas in the U.S. on February 11, 2011.
Since its release in 2009, Orgasm Inc. has received numerous awards, including the Best Feature award at the Vermont International Film Festival, the 2nd Best Feature award at the KOS International Health Film Festival, the Best Documentary Award at the Southeast New England (SENE) Film, Music, and Arts Festival, and the Best Feature Award at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival.
The New York Times named it a "Critic's Pick" and said that it was "as entertaining as it was revelatory". [2] The Hot Docs Film Festival called it an "extraordinary behind-the-scenes access reveals a drug company's fevered race to develop the first FDA-approved Viagra for women — and offers a humorous but sobering look inside the cash-fueled pharmaceutical industry".
Newsweek said "[Orgasm Inc.] is a desperately needed antidote to all the hype generated by pharmaceutical companies pursuing their holy grail: a female Viagra." [3]
The Times called it "an extraordinary, revelatory documentary about female desire and the pharmaceutical industry".
In addition, articles about the movie and quotes from director Liz Canner have appeared internationally in hundreds of articles and blogs and dozens of TV shows and radio programs such as ABC News, Vogue, Newsweek, the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC World Service, Public Radio, the LA Times, the Guardian, Cosmopolitan South Africa, Glamour Brazil, etc. This media attention has helped to raise serious questions about the pharmaceutical industries involvement with creating and marketing diseases. It has also protected millions of women from being misled into believing that they have FSD and they need to be treated with a drug (that could potentially harm them).
Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra, among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is also sometimes used off-label for the treatment of certain symptoms in secondary Raynaud's phenomenon. It is unclear if it is effective for treating sexual dysfunction in females. It can be taken orally, intravenously, or through the sublingual route. Onset when taken orally is typically within twenty minutes and lasts for about two hours.
Tadalafil, sold under the brand name Cialis among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is taken by mouth. Onset is typically within half an hour and the duration is up to 36 hours.
Bremelanotide, sold under the brand name Vyleesi, is a medication used to treat low sexual desire in women. Specifically it is used for low sexual desire which occurs before menopause and is not due to medical problems, psychiatric problems, or problems within the relationship. It is given by an injection just under the skin of the thigh or abdomen.
Female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) is a disorder characterized by a persistent or recurrent inability to attain sexual arousal or to maintain arousal until the completion of a sexual activity. The diagnosis can also refer to an inadequate lubrication-swelling response normally present during arousal and sexual activity. The condition should be distinguished from a general loss of interest in sexual activity and from other sexual dysfunctions, such as the orgasmic disorder (anorgasmia) and hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity for some period of time.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
Flibanserin, sold under the brand name Addyi, is a medication approved for the treatment of pre-menopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). The medication improves sexual desire, increases the number of satisfying sexual events, and decreases the distress associated with low sexual desire. The most common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep and dry mouth.
Phentermine/topiramate, sold under the brand names Qsymia or QSIVA, is a combination drug of phentermine and topiramate used to treat obesity. It is used together with dietary changes and exercise. If less than 3% weight loss is seen after 3 months it is recommended the medication be stopped. The weight loss is modest. Effects on heart related health problems or death is unclear.
Liz Canner is an American filmmaker who makes documentaries, digital public art installations and new media projects on human rights issues. Her documentary Deadly Embrace: Nicaragua, The World Bank and the IMF (1995), was one of the first films to look critically at the effects of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank policy and globalization. In 2009 Canner directed The New York Times Critic's Pick Orgasm Inc.: The Strange Science of Female Pleasure (2009), a feature-length investigative documentary on the pharmaceutical industry and women's health.
Vivus is a small pharmaceutical company headquartered in Campbell, California, working in obesity, sleep, and sexual health. Vivus is developing an erectile dysfunction drug, Avanafil, that has completed Phase 3 clinical trials. The drug has been approved for use by the FDA, and will be sold under the trademark name Stendra. Stendra is the first and only oral ED treatment approved to be taken approximately 15 minutes before sexual activity.
Apricus Biosciences, Inc. is a San Diego–based biopharmaceutical company advancing innovative medicines in urology and rheumatology.
Leonore Tiefer is an American educator, researcher, therapist, and activist specializing in sexuality, and is a public critic of disease mongering as it applies to sexual life and problems.
Love, Marilyn is a 2012 American documentary film about American actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe's writings directed by Liz Garbus and produced by Stanley F. Buchthal, Garbus, and Amy Hobby. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2012 and is based on the 2010 non-fiction book Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters, edited by Buchthal and Bernard Comment. The production firms that produced the film included the Diamond Girl production company, Sol's Luncheonette Production and the French-based StudioCanal production company, whose parent company owns the third-largest film library in the world.
Paul B. Preciado,, is a Spanish writer, philosopher and curator whose work focuses on applied and theoretical topics relating to identity, gender, pornography, architecture and sexuality. Originally known as a female writer, in 2010 Preciado began a process of "slow transition" where he started taking testosterone to medically transition. From this point on he has publicly considered himself transgender as well as a feminist.
Liz Marshall is a Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Since the 1990s, she has directed and produced independent projects and been part of film and television teams, creating broadcast, theatrical, campaign and cross-platform documentaries shot around the world. Marshall's feature length documentaries largely focus on social justice and environmental themes through strong characters. She is known for The Ghosts in Our Machine and for Water on the Table, for which she also produced impact and engagement campaigns, and attended many global events as a public speaker. Water on the Table features water rights activist, author and public figure Maude Barlow. The Ghosts in Our Machine features animal rights activist, photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur.
Nisha Pahuja is an Indian-born Canadian filmmaker, based in Toronto, Ontario.
A Billion Lives is a 2016 documentary film directed and narrated by Aaron Biebert. The film stars "Winston Man" David Goerlitz, former president of the World Medical Association Delon Human, and former executive director at the World Health Organization Derek Yach.
Cindy Eckert is an American entrepreneur known for founding Sprout Pharmaceuticals. She subsequently founded The Pink Ceiling which invests in companies founded by, or delivering products for, women. In November 2017, Eckert re-acquired Sprout Pharmaceuticals as part of a lawsuit settlement, and the rights to its drug Addyi, from Valeant after Valeant's stock collapsed due to insider trading and price jacking allegations.
The Bleeding Edge is a 2018 Netflix original documentary film that investigates the $400 billion medical device industry. Written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering and Amy Herdy, it premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was billed as "the stuff of dystopian nightmares". The film was released for streaming on Netflix on July 27, 2018.
Pailin Wedel is a Thai-American photojournalist, film director and producer best known for directing, producing and co-writing the documentary Hope Frozen (2018), which was picked up for distribution through Netflix in 2020. She served as producer on Operation Thailand, a documentary series that explored Thailand's medical tourism industry, and as a director on 101 East, a weekly current affairs series created by Al Jazeera. Prior to her work in film and video journalism, Wedel created content for multiple publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. With her husband, she also founded 2050 Productions, a Bangkok-based documentary team, in 2016.
The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Maya Gallus and released in 2018. The film profiles several women chefs, exploring the sexist double standards in the restaurant industry that get women sidelined, or stigmatized as "difficult", if they are as ambitious or assertive as their male peers.
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