2008
56 min
1-932869-26-3
![This film has subtitles]()
English
The Price of Pleasure
Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships
Synopsis
Once relegated to the margins of society, pornography has emerged as one of the most visible and profitable sectors of the cultural industries, assuming an unprecedented role in the mainstream of our popular culture at the same time that its content has become more extreme and harsh, more overtly sexist and racist. This eye-opening and disturbing film tackles the complexity behind this seeming paradox, placing the voices of critics, producers, and performers alongside the observations of men and women as they candidly discuss the role pornography has played in shaping their sexual imaginations and relationships. Honest and non-judgmental, The Price of Pleasure moves beyond the liberal versus conservative debates so common in the culture to paint a myth-busting and nuanced portrait of how pleasure and pain, commerce and power, liberty and responsibility have become intertwined in the most intimate area of our lives. An ideal tool for initiating classroom discussion about this notoriously difficult subject.
Contains two version: an unexpurgated version (including explicit "hardcore" pornographic images) and a special "blurred" version edited for the classroom. Bonus features include an interview with Noam Chomsky about how and why he accepted an interview with Hustler magazine in 2004, and his candid view on pornography.
Contains an unexpurgated version (including explicit hardcore pornographic images) and a special blurred version edited for the classroom.
Introduction | Porn Stars: Myths & Realities | Just a Fantasy? | Empowered by Porn? | Harder and Harder... | Bonus Feature: An interview with Noam Chomsky
(Viewer discretion advised: contains violence, nudity, and sexual imagery.)
Release Date:2008
Duration:56 min
ISBN:1-932869-26-3
Subtitles:English
Trailers
Filmmaker Biographies
Miguel Picker
View Miguel Picker's Filmmaker Page
Producer, Director & Editor
Miguel Picker worked at WGBH-TV in Boston for over 15 years as an editor. His editing credits include La Plaza, Greater Boston Arts, and a 52-part national series titled Destinos. He also has produced and directed programs for WGBH, including Como Hacemos, Duo and The Early Music Workshop. He has produced and directed numerous independent projects as well, such as Francisco Mendez - The Portrayal of a Cuban Painter and A Day in Martha's Vineyard. Picker is also a musician and composer, and has worked with a wide range of art institutions and public foundations, including PBS, the Boston Ballet and the New England Conservatory. Picker moved to New York City in the summer of 2004, and his recent projects include editing and music composition/production for the award-winning documentary The Borinqueneers (2007), and co-directing and editing Ulises' Odyssey (2009), a documentary on Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile in 1970's and its aftermath.
Robert Wosnitzer
View Robert Wosnitzer's Filmmaker Page
Co-writer & Associate Producer
Robert Wosnitzer joined New York University Stern School of Business as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Communication in September 2015.Professor Wosnitzer’s research focuses on financial cultures, ethics, and regulation. His recent work studies the social and cultural histories of trading credit instruments and derivatives, and he is a founding member of the Cultures of Finance Group at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge. Professor Wosnitzer received an M.A. and Ph.D. in Media, Culture and Communication, both from New York University. Prior to joining NYU, he traded and placed debt instruments with institutional clients for over a decade at firms including Lehman Brothers and Wells Fargo Capital Markets.
Chyng Sun
View Chyng Sun's Filmmaker Page
Producer, Director & Writer
Dr. Chyng Sun is a filmmaker and a Clinical Associate Professor of Media Studies at McGhee Liberal Arts, School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University. Her research interests include media literacy; race, gender and sexuality in media; and audience research/media effects. With Miguel Picker, Sun produced the documentaries Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood and Corporate Power and Beyond Good and Evil: Media, Children and Violent Times (both distributed by the Media Education Foundation). She has been researching the topic of pornography since the summer of 2004. Together with Robert Wosnitzer and two other scholars, Sun designed a large-scale research project on the content of the most-rented pornographic movies of 2005. Her forthcoming book Fantasies Matter (working title) will be published by the Peter Lang Publishing Company in 2010.
Resources: Downloads and Related Links
Downloads:
Praise
"With original research, footage of popular pornographic films, insights from academic experts, interviews with sex workers and even pornographers, The Price of Pleasure educates viewers about the prevalence and increasingly violent content of contemporary pornography. Advocates of sexual freedom, as well as activists committed to ending sexual exploitation against women, find common cause in Chyng Sun's compelling argument: contemporary pornographic films illustrate conventional, not deviant, attitudes about women's sexuality. Viewer alert: gazing through the pornographic worldview will turn your stomach. Eat lightly before you watch this!"
Bernadette Barton
Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies
Morehead State University
Author of Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers
Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies
Morehead State University
Author of Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers
"Recommended."
Educational Media Reviews Online
“Millions of men (and some women) watch it late night on adult themed TV channels. Some men buy DVD’s and watch it on the down low—alone. Some men watch online porn. Some men secretly fantasize about being a porn star. Others feel like pornographic videos are a harmless form of sexual expression. But Chyng Sun’s searing and powerful documentary, The Price of Pleasure, reveals that porn is far from a harmless guilty pleasure. The film takes a critical look at the male dominated porn industry, its predominantly male consumers, and the global impact porn has on shaping men’s ideas about sex, intimacy, and womanhood. Acclaimed feminist scholar Gail Dines once told me, ‘you don’t understand masculinity unless you understand the culture of pornography.’ You won’t understand it either, until you watch the Price of Pleasure. I highly recommend it."
Byron Hurt
Filmmaker, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes and I am a Man: Black Masculinity in America
Filmmaker, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes and I am a Man: Black Masculinity in America