The filmmakers behind The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships, Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker, have tackled a very complex issue in their documentary (new on DVD from Cinema Libre Studio). Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry that has managed to permeate mainstream society. The internet revolutionized the business, making it easier to distribute increasingly graphic productions. Consumers have had unprecedented access to pornographic material via cyberspace. Sun and Picker attempt to examine the adverse results, both on the performers as well as the viewers.
While I applaud the filmmakers for their ambition, the film runs a scant 56 minutes. Ultimately it amounts to little more than a thought-provoking set of ideas, executed with all the stylistic flair of a student project. The Price of Pleasure adopts a straightforward journalistic tone. In a way, the piece feels like a drier version of a cable news network expose. These pieces of behind-the-scenes sensationalism seem to exist mainly to goose ratings. But the press notes for Sun and Picker's film make it very clear that they intended their film to be something deeper. In fact, Chyng Sun's "Director's Statement" outlines a much clearer conception than the film itself.
In their co-written essay, "What the Film is Really About," Sun and Picker admit that The Price of Pleasure provides no real solution to what they see as a problem. That problem is the degradation and domination of the females who chose to make this industry their profession. In their view, the roots of the problem are "patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy." Again, the filmmakers have made their intentions clear in the written material that accompanied my review copy. I think I understood their perspective more clearly after reading their words than from watching their film.
In just under an hour, interviews are presented with producers of pornographic material. Connecting these mostly unrevelatory interviews are snippets from news broadcasts dealing with the industry. Clips from popular television shows such as Friends offer evidence that porn is no longer an underground topic. Footage taken from adult film trade shows emphasizes the objectification of the female performers. There is also brief footage, totaling no more than a couple of minutes, taken from hardcore porn videos. While some may find it off-putting or even gratuitous, I think the filmmakers were right to include the often disturbing imagery. An acceptable case is made that commercially produced porn is one of the seedier products to be consumed en masse by an insatiable audience.
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