Orgasm Inc. (2009), a New York Times "Critic's Pick" by award-winning director Liz Canner, premiered at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. The documentary follows Canner as she edits erotic movies for a drug trial by pharmaceutical company Vivus, developing a female version of Viagra to treat female sexual dysfunction. Though initially focused on science and pleasure, Canner uncovers concerns that the medical industry may exploit women for profit, pushing costly treatments with questionable scientific grounding. Orgasm Inc. critically examines how pharmaceutical marketing shapes public perceptions of health, desire, and the female body, questioning whether these emerging treatments truly serve women’s well-being or primarily corporate interests.
Release
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.
Critical reception
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).
External links
References
News, Staff (2009-05-07). "Hot Docs 2009 Interview: Orgasm, Inc. Director Liz Canner Talks Sex, Drugs, And The Cure For What Ails You". CityNews. Retrieved 2016-03-11. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help) https://toronto.citynews.ca/2009/05/07/hot-docs-2009-interview-orgasm-inc-director-liz-canner-talks-sex-drugs-and-the-cure-for-what-ails-you/ ↩
Catsoulis, Jeannette (2011-02-10). "The Link Between Female Sexuality and Corporate Profits". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-03-11. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/movies/11orgasm.html?_r=1 ↩
"The Selling of the Female Orgasm". The Daily Beast. 2010-05-22. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/05/23/the-selling-of-the-female-orgasm.html ↩