2008 56 min 1-932869-26-3 This film has subtitles English

The Price of Pleasure

Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships

or

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

Watch the trailer

Filmmaker Credits

Editor
Miguel Picker
Written by
Chyng Sun & Robert Wosnitzer
Associate Producer
Robert Wosnitzer
Assistant Editor
Michelle Chang
Post-ProductionSupervisor
Miguel Picker
Original Music
Miguel Picker
Sound Design
Miguel Picker
Director of Photography
Miguel Picker
Music
Miguel Picker
Motion Graphics
Miguel Picker

Filmmaker Biographies

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.
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.
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

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
"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
"What makes this documentary innovative is that it incorporates two seemingly disparate ideas about the effects of porn on society. One argument is that violent porn objectifies women, leading men to become more violent and aggressive in the bedroom. The other, seemingly opposite, argument about porn that the directors Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker also make is that because porn desensitizes men from realistic expectations about what sex with women feels like, men become less interested in the real thing, are experiencing more anxiety around their sexuality, and are less able to orgasm and enjoy sex with real women. ...What makes the Price of Pleasure effective but also disturbing is its unabashed examination of the pornographic images themselves, and the direct line they draw between profit, the degradation of women, and our views on sexuality in general."
Leeat Granek
Films for the Feminist Classroom
"The Price of Pleasure moves past simple arguments around free speech and instead pushes the viewer to think about the impact that consumption of hateful imagery can have in a society already steeped in rape culture. ...The film does serve as a catalyst for frank discussion about the impact of pornography and lays the foundation on which future activism can be built."
Rachel Durchslag
Sexual Assault Report
"An intense, powerful documentary that will open up painful but necessary discussions about pornography's role in shaping our identities, our relationships, and our culture."
Rebecca Whisnant
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Director of Women's and Gender Studies
University of Dayton
"...[P]rovides a compelling argument, from a leftist perspective, that culturally pervasive pornography is detrimental to interpersonal sexual relationships... Showing this documentary in a classroom setting is almost sure to provoke a lively discussion."
Donald Palumbo
The Journal of American Culture
"I found this documentary to be an extremely useful teaching tool in my graduate-level course on sexual violence. Students had a range of strong reactions to the material, and it inspired lots of thoughtful discussion. I would absolutely recommend using it for educational purposes."
Emily F. Rothman, ScD
Boston University School of Public Health
"Abandoning the tired and often cyclical rhetoric on whether pornography is 'right or wrong,' The Price of Pleasure investigates the collision of pornography, sexuality, and relationships. Instead of wagging a finger at the billion dollar industry from an academic pulpit, this film features a diverse group of college students, professionals, media makers, distributors, consumers, and adult performers to expose a panoramic and dizzying look at how pornography affects our lives and relationships. ... The Price of Pleasure holds immense possibility for transformative dialogue. The questions raised are almost too difficult to hear, but once they are voiced they are too impossible to ignore."
Lisa Factora-Borchers
Feminist Review
"When we discuss pornography in my classes, we always begin with what seem to the wrong conversations -- the actress's choices; no harm, no foul; being pro-porn is just being pro-sex; men don't have to be rapists to like it -- always defensive and dishonest. I've been waiting for a film that was neither sanctimoniously scolding nor callously celebratory. And finally, there is The Price of Pleasure -- a film to help us really "see" what we have been looking at, and to enable us, finally, to talk about how pornography informs our actual lives. It's powerful, and I will use it immediately in my classes."
Michael Kimmel
Professor of Sociology
SUNY Stony Brook
"Most young men and women will find this the kind of provocative documentary that will stimulate constructive conversation and motivation to 'do something.' Every college campus and community theater should screen this film along with a facilitated discussion. Pornography is endemic, but its destructive role in so many relationships is usually invisible. By making clear why an effective response is more needed than ever, The Price of Pleasure is a vital agent for change."
Judy Norsigian
Executive Director of Our Bodies Ourselves
"Deeply disturbing but profoundly important."
Jean Kilbourne
Creator, Killing Us Softly 4
Author, So Sexy So Soon
"The Price of Pleasure goes a long way toward explaining the headline topics and a long way toward revealing the deeper issues involved. As such, it makes a valuable contribution to clarifying the current confusion that exists around pornography in today's society."
Susan Quilliam
Sex Education
"Sure to provoke heated discussion..."
Video Librarian
"With the pornography industry pushing its way into the mainstream media at an alarming rate, The Price of Pleasure has been released at a critical time. The Price of Pleasure shows us what pornography is and how the pornography industry operates - up close and free of industry glorification, distortions and lies... The Price of Pleasure is a profound and significant film. It should be viewed by as many people as possible, especially parents, students, teachers, and activists committed to creating a more socially just world. The film will be eye opening to those who are learning about the pornography industry for the first time as well as those who are avid organizers against sexual exploitation."
Garine Roubinian
Rain and Thunder

Press Reviews

The Price of Pleasure The Feminist Review | July 24, 2009
Porn is Gender Violence The Martlet | October 29, 2009
Documentary Highlights Violence in Porn Videos ABC News | November 20, 2008
The Price of Pleasure - Porn gets a Spanking M/C Reviews | May 10, 2009