On Saturday afternoon we went to see a movie called Orgasm Inc. Rachelle told me that it was an “arty” and “provocative” movie starring Salma Hayek and a Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit model that had been banned in several countries. Naturally, I was a world of keen to see this, but when we approached the Bloor Cinema, I noticed a lineup full of angry looking women. When we went in, instead of being handed the 3D glasses as I’d been led to believe we were to receive, we were given what looked like a portable flashlight on a key chain. It turns out that it wasn’t a flashlight at all, but was in fact a vibrator to be used for lady pleasure. I had been duped, and was at the Hot Docs Film Festival to see a documentary that takes “a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire — and that ultimate moment: orgasm.”
This movie from Liz Canner was utterly captivating. Infused with a spirit of generosity and intelligence, Orgasm Inc is a perceptive, accessible and friendly work. I think I expected something angry, something more in line with the hectoring and mean-spirited sarcasms one associates with a Michael Moore film, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Orgasm Inc is even-handed, engaging and funny, and did not stoop to make fun of the people in the movie. I think I liked everybody in the documentary, and quite frankly found it to be positively moving, and would urge anybody who had the opportunity, to go and see it.