Inside Deep Throat

Title:  Inside Deep Throat

Director:  Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Released: 2005
Plot: Documentary looking at the legacy of the legendry porn film “Deep Throat”

 

Review:  Back in the early part of the 00’s someone had the bright idea of re-releasing several legendry porn films such as “Debbie Does Dallas” and “Behind The Green Door” aswell as “Deep Throat” perhaps hoping to cash in on the kitsch value that “Boogie Nights” had suddenly brought to the 70’s porn industry.  At the same time all of these films back on their original release had for one reason or another managed to break away from their grindhouse roots and achieved mainstream success aswell.

Here Bailey and Barbato attempt to track the making of the film and the fallout from its release which sparked a censorship battle amongst tales of on set abuse and mob involvement, while the film grossed $600 million and going on to become one of the most profitable movies of all time. The pair of course are no stranger to underground and cult subjects having previously given us documentaries on Rent Boys and Michael Alig’s Club Kids (Party Monster) which would also lead them to a misguided stab at a feature film. Here through they once again prove themselves most comfortable with the documentary format even if the end result provides us with more of a timeline for the film than anything regarding an in depth look at its production.

 As for the film in question, “Deep Throat” was directed by former hairdresser Gerald Damiano, who after hearing his clients talking about sex while in his salon, he quickly came up with the idea of making a porn film which had crossover appeal, while advertising the film for couples rather than the usual target audience for such films and inturn ushering in an era of “pornographic chic”. The film itself working with the truly bizarre plot in which Linda Lovelace discovers that her clitoris is located in her throat and meaning that she can only find sexual satisfaction by performing the titular act on various men as she embarks on a quest to find the one she wishes to marry.

Narrated by Dennis Hopper and made up of new and archive interviews and news footage, here they attempt to provide a full picture of the mythos and legacy of this film, though considering the interviews which they get here which include the films director Gerard Damiano aswell as Lovelace’s co-star Harry Reems the documentary far too often doesn’t take full advantage of the subjects that it has access to instead making the bizarre choice it would seem of trying to include as many interviewees as possible, many being little more than social commentators such as John Waters (who as to be expected provides a large number of great insights here) and more randomly Gore Vidal through to adult magazine legends Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt. While all of these interviews certainly bring something to the film its frustratingly at the expense of the film exploring certain aspects of the film or its fallout which are skated over or hinted at.

Unfortunately due to the timing of the documentary Lovelace had sadly died in an automobile accident leaving only her mother, sister and daughter to provide largely bitter commentary on Lovelace's experiences with the film, much like the archive footage included which falls more towards the years when she was being used to boost the careers of several popular feminists who were using her to condemn the film. Sadly as we see here she would be left penniless much like both Gerard Damiano and Harry Reems who would never see any of the films profits, while Lovelace as we find out in the film would equally see nothing for her new found celebrity condemning the film. Reems meanwhile despite his cheery attitude we see here, equally struggled to find work after the film was release, with the scandal surrounding it leaving him blacklisted and sinking into alcoholism and depression.

What the documentary does do right however is to provide us with a rare historic importance for a porn film as its popularity which not only saw it used as a pop culture reference but was seen as a sign that explicit sex would be carried over into mainstream film making, even as the film was being banned and seized in every city it was being shown in as part of raids carried out by the FBI under the orders of the Nixon administration, whose moral censorship would essentially only serve to fuel the porn industry as it maintained audiences curiosity while also one which ironically would only help to further to the popularity of the film.

While it would have certainly have been more interesting if a focus on the making of the film had been covered in more detail, especially with Lovelace making numerous claims of abusive during filming, some of which we hear through the archive footage, but are frustratingly never explored further outside of footage of her bruises, supposedly from this abuse being highlighted to little effect. As such the documentary is left feeling like its only telling you half the story, especially when so much focus is given to the prosecution of the film is given.  At the same time while this might not be their strongest film to date it is still a fascinating watch and one whose energy keeps it moving at a quick place even if your left feeling that you haven’t heard the whole story.

Hot Girls Wanted

Title:  Hot Girls Wanted
Director: Jill Bauer, Ronna Gradus
Released: 2015

Plot: Documentary looking at the "Pro-am" side of the porn industry, as it follows several girls aged 18-19 and making their first films in the industry. 

 

 

Review: A source of much excitement when it received its Sundance premier, especially when it lead to the film being picked up by Netflix. who currently seem to be trying to corner the marker in documentaries about the porn industry, or so it would seem looking at how many they offer on the subject as part of their streaming catalogue. At the same time it’s not hard to understand the buzz after all here is yet another documentary looking at the porn industry in particular the “Amateur” porn industry  better known as “pro-am” as it follows several young girls aged 18-19 many of whom are making their first films in the industry.

The second film by the directing team of Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus, who here don’t stray too far from the source material of their first documentary “Sexy Baby” which featured ex-porn star Nakita Kash / Nichole as one of its trio of subjects as they looked at the culture of sexuality. Now with Rashida Jones joining them as a producer they turn their lense onto what is frequently seen as the entry point into the adult entertainment world. However the documentary originally started off with the idea of exploring the amount of porn watched by male college students, only to change their original plan when they saw that most of them were watching porn featuring young women. I can’t but wonder if it actually more due to their original subject not having enough steam to warrant a documentary.  

So now we have instead a documentary which seems to be aiming for easy scandal especially when nothing gets censors as riled up as young girls doing porn. Still if this wasn’t enough we are also bombarded with factoids whose authenticity is questionable at best thanks to the notable lack of sourcing for any of it. I mean are we to believe that porn accounts for more web traffic than, Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined? Or that three of the top pro-am sites are worth an estimated $50 million? a statement in particular which seems hard to take when most porn companies are struggling to compete with the sites which offer their products for free.

Opening strongly with an overview of the changing attitude toward sexuality, as we regularly see music videos and celebrities blurring the lines between what is considered acceptable and what we consider pornographic and were the quick route to celebrity lies in leaking your sex tape in an attempt to mirror Kim Kardashians sudden rise to the top of pointless celebrity pile after her tape got mysteriously leaked much like Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton.

Focusing on a small group of girls working in the industry which include Tressa who is one month into her career, Rachel who is only a week and half in when we first meet her aswell as Jade who at two years in the industry begs the question as to what point someone can still be considered an amateur? The film also follows agent Riley, who despite being only 23 is already building himself an empire through his agency “Hussie Models” as he offers the girls a place to stay in his house, while collecting rent on top of the 10% he already claims from their work, while strangely coming off like Alien in “Spring Breakers”. Funnily enough that film isn’t far off the image these young girls project as they scoff at the idea of working low wage jobs while harbouring dreams of mansions and porn star celebrity.

The fact that the girls all live together provides several interesting moments, as they trade war stories from their lives in the industry, or joke about creampies and the size of a co-stars endowment there really is a sense of camaraderie between them. Karly meanwhile confesses that she doesn’t have sex outside of porn, due to how she was treated by an early partner and even despite the fact they are essentially in direct competition with each other as they know that the outside world still despite it supposed openness still won’t accept them for who they are because of the fact they work in porn, something seemingly only further highlighted during the scene of the girls watching interview footage or Belle Knox who paid for her college fees by doing porn, rather than raising the funds through some more socially acceptable means, regardless of the fact she is just one of numerous performers in the industry who enter porn for this reason, something the documentary never chooses to mention.  Footage from one of Knox’s scenes is later shown in the film were she proclaims herself a feminist only for the documentary to suddenly smash cut into some of the more abusive elements of the scene, leaving the viewer with a feeling that the scene in some was invalidates her beliefs because of the career choices she is choosing to make.

Another aspect of the film which was fascinating to watch unfold was the relationship between Tressa and her boyfriend Kendall, who when is his first introduced states that the fact that his girlfriend doesn’t bother him, only to radically have changed his tune as the film progresses, interestingly though it is only after one of his friends at a college frat party tries to play one of Tressa’s films for the party that he starts to change his opinion on her work, to the point where when he’s sitting on the couch with her mother he’s defiantly against her working in the industry.  Ironically when she does quit the industry she ends up working in the hooters esq “Redneck Heaven” whose scantily clad staff were memorably featured in the trashy MTV reality show “Big Tips Texas”, which he strangely doesn't seem to mind.

The main issue the documentary has, other than how tedious at time the experience felt, something that you don’t expect yourself to be writing about a documentary focusing on such subject matter, is the frequent attempts to scandalise each new piece of information it provides, with a focus on abuse porn being the direction the career of the girls will take if they want to stay relevant with no note to how these films are just one small aspect of the industry as they instead choose to play it as if there is no alternative path for these girls, with often the girls being the only ones in the film to provide any form of counter argument. At the same time it would rather have you feel that the girls are victims somehow conned into the industry, rather than adults who have made the decision to enter into this world.

While seemingly promising to give us something new, the documentary ends up giving nothing we haven’t seen in other films, only this time with added scandal and unreliable fact checking which only takes further away from the film which is as flawed as it is lacking in depth as it could have gone so much deeper and instead opts not to only making it only the weaker as a result.

Cam Girlz

Title:  Cam Girlz

Director: Sean Dunne
Released: 2015

Plot: Documentary looking at the women who work as webcam models and the empowerment, intimacy and creative self-expression they find all from the comfort of their own homes.

 

Review: A documentary which I’ve wanted to see since it was featured in “Vice Magazine” and more so as here appeared to be a documentary without the side order of shame, that so many of the recent spate of documentaries focusing on various aspects of the sex industry have come with as seen with the likes of the unfocused “Hot Girls Wanted”.

Directed by documentarian Sean Dunne who previous directed “American Juggalo” looking at the followers of the “Insane Clown Posse” attending “The Gathering of the Juggalo’s” and a director whose back catalogue I’m now more keen than ever to work through after seeing this film which once again sees him turning his passive lens onto another outsider subgroup.

Funded through Kickstarter, Dunne his the road to meet with a large number of cam girls from not only a variety of backgrounds, but ages and body types seemingly intentionally avoiding the stereotypical painted blondes that most would assume a cam girls to be as here he once again challenges societies view of something they would already claim to know about, more so when cam girls have been a prominent part of the internet experience since someone first figured what a great outlet for pornography it would make.

Due to the variety of models featured, let alone how insightful and frequently intelligent his subjects come off the film this film frequently proves to be a fascinating watch, especially when Dunne once more frames his subjects so well with his usual visual flair, while at the same time allowing the girls themselves to explain their individual motivations for getting into camming and what they get from it. At the same time Dunne avoids the use of title cards or info dumps to highlight any particular facts or aspect of camming, preferring instead to allow his interview subjects to provide tell their stories in between footage of the girls performing for their individual audiences.  The downside to this being that we don’t get to learn anything of the mechanics of Camming, with Dunne instead choosing to focus on the girls themselves and their stories which for some might prove to be frustrating especially when faced with what on the surface appears to be a show reel for these girls.
 

Still what a show reel it is as many of these ladies don’t just settle for taking their clothes off in front of their web cam, as many use it as an outlet for many of their other skills such as singing, playing the game of thrones theme on an accordion or even some very random ventriloquism! At the same time the variety of interview subjects means that the documentary goes deeper into this world than most documentaries would and really opens the viewers eyes to the world which these ladies have created for themselves. Sure we have the expected pretty girls and alternative models, but these stand alongside the likes of Alella who puts on her own erotic mime performances, while we also meet the older cam girls like Ginger Meadows and Khylaa who while she might be the oldest interview subject proves once again that age shouldn’t affect your sex drive, as she shares details of her very active sex life she shared with her husband and whose sudden death lead her to starting Camming as a way to replace the loss intimacy in one of the more emotional sections of the film.

At the same time the documentary as to be expected also heavily looks at the girls at work and while it does mean a lot of spanking footage, while also a lot of surprises as we see one group of girls playing around in morph suits and most amusingly Marissa Frost being dared by her audience into having pizza delivered to her in the nude, which is surprisingly greeted with a lack of surprise from the delivery guy, who might just be the most professional pizza delivery guy in the world to handle the situation the way he does.  

While the documentary might be lacking depth in some areas such as the previously mentioned mechanics of their industry, but at the same time the reasons each of the girls have for getting into camming are interesting to listen to, much like what they all take away from it making it much more than about their audience getting their rocks off to them taking their clothes off. Infact Dunne pulls as fast one on us at one point as he turns the camera around to interview several guys who frequent cam girl sites, with one of these subjects describing the experience as the same as hanging out with a group of friends only there happens to be a naked girl in the room. Elsewhere another of these subjects shares the confidence boost he gets from these interactions, knowing that he would be too shy to speak to these girls in the real world. This off course shatters the general image of Cam sites being sleazy and a place solely for perverts. I wouldn’t go as far to say that this is completely untrue but what Dunne does here though is to finally provide a counter argument which hasn’t really been seen before even in these supposedly more open minded times.

Another great addition to Dunne’s directing C.V. this really is the sort of film which feels more like an experience, much like “American Juggalo” and while it might have those gaps in background information and general facts let alone a sense of repetition which might for some mean that the film runs 45 minutes longer than necessary. That being said the subjects are frequently so fun or creative, this film provides the sort of insight into this world that might not have been seen by most viewers who otherwise continue to have a set idea about this world an image that this film will most likely shatter for those who can get into it.