ORGASM INC.

In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. ORGASM INC. is 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.

                The Trailer

If you're in the mood for an intelligent documentary revealing the absurdity and greed of the medical-pharmaceutical complex, check out Orgasm Inc. The film manages to be both witty and informative while exposing how Big Pharma and medical device-makers ignore the complexities of female sexuality and endanger patients in order to make money.

How Big Pharma invents diseases

Filmmaker Liz Canner gained a unique glimpse into the behind-the-scenes workings of the pharmaceutical industry after being hired by California drug company Vivus to edit erotic videos. Vivus planned to have drug testing subjects view these films after applying a topical cream drug designed to treat the newly discovered condition, "Female Sexual Dysfunction." Canner gained permission from Vivus to interview and film company personnel for her own project.

To give context to the issue of medicalizing everyday life, the film includes remarks from experts who have studied Big Pharma's increasing control of disease definitions. Ray Moynihan, author of "Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients" observes "there's a lot of money to be made by telling healthy people they're sick." New York University professor of psychiatry Dr. Leonore Tiefer calls Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) "a manufactured term to create a market." Tiefer has founded the New View campaign to combat the medicalization of sex.

As the film points out, the physicians who defend the diagnosis of FSD and prescription drugs used to treat it, have undisclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors who ran clinical trials for Vivus' drug were treated by the pharmaceutical firm to a ski vacation. The film shows Vivus executives bonding with physicians over drinks in a bar as while singing the praises of the company's drug. Canner reveals that her camera was banned from a meeting the next day discussing the results of the clinical trial, which did not meet the company's expectations.

Beyond quick fixes

Using animated figures to depict the race between different companies to gain FDA approval for different forms of FDS treatment, the documentary shows how most of the drugs and devices drop out after failing to outperform placebos in clinical trials. These creams, pills and devices do not deliver "the quick fix that the industry had been hoping for" the film notes, perhaps "because most of women's sexual problems are not purely physiological." The film lists other factors such as stress, relationship problems, past experience of sexual assault, prescription anti-depressants and body image issues which can decrease libido.

The film also notes another serious flaw in the diagnosis and treatment of FDA: failure to acknowledge the variety and complexity of women's sexual experience. Many women may have orgasms but still view themselves as non-orgasmic or sexually dysfunctional because they do not experience the type of orgasms portrayed in movies. Lack of comprehensive education about their own sexuality, and even their own anatomy, can lead women to buy an image of themselves as "sick" and in need of drugs or medical devices or even vaginal surgery. The film contrasts these side-effect laden industry solutions with a presentation given by the owner of a sex toy store to attendees at a medical conference on "pleasure-based solutions" to female sexual difficulties.

As an examination of the methods the pharmaceutical industry uses to convert people's insecurities and lack of knowledge into corporate profit, the film succeeds admirably. The documentary also provides an historical review of the medical profession's attitudes toward female sexuality. For anyone interested in an uncensored look at the intersection of health care, sexuality and culture, this film offers humor, intelligence and valuable information

What the critics are saying about Orgasm Inc.

"CRITICS' PICK! By taking a playful approach to a deeply serious subject, [Canner] explores the link between female sexuality and corporate profits with a style that's as entertaining as it is revelatory." - The New York Times
"A Must-See! Liz Canner's informative, amusing, expertly crafted and well-laurelled doco "Orgasm Inc." seizes the perfect platform from which to launch a common-sense attack on Big Pharma's shameless corporatisation of health. " - Variety
"Liz Canner ended up making a shocking but hilarious film, Orgasm Inc, which is causing a storm in America as it sets out to expose the drug companies and doctors who are now locked in a race to produce a 'female Viagra' - a treatment that promises women a super-charged sex life in a pill." - London Daily Mail
"Both poignant and hilarious, Orgasm Inc. will leave you hot and bothered." -Time Magazine
"A deft exposé...sharp, funny and healthily enraging"" - Los Angeles Times
"[Orgasm Inc.] is a desperately needed antidote to all the hype generated by pharmaceutical companies pursuing their holy grail: a female Viagra." - Newsweek
"A sexy feature-length indictment of big pharma that gives a lot of great laughs." - The Toronto Star
"An extraordinary, revelatory documentary about female desire and the pharmaceutical industry" - London Times
"Director and producer Canner took a serious, but sometimes comical look at the medicalisation of women's sexuality." - ABC News
"a jewel of a documentary " - The Observer, UK
"Buzzworthy." - Variety
"Liz Canner's startling documentary looks at how "female sexual dysfunction," with little evidence, was marketed as an epidemic. A-" - Entertainment Weekly
"Orgasm Inc. is one of the best documentaries on both sex and the medical field ever, witty, clever, informative and timely." - Lisa Derrick, Firedoglake.com
"Orgasm Inc. is a terrific new documentary that delves into designer vaginas and other true life tales of the commodification of women’s pleasure centres. " - JoAnn Wypijewski, The Nation Magazine
"TV Tonight: Five Worth Watching " - The Toronto Star
"Orgasm Inc. hits female erogenous zones that pharmaceutical fixes can't find: your brain and your funny bone. " - Terry Allen, In These Times
"Maintaining a playful tone, Canner's film nevertheless serves as an indictment of greed at the expense of women who have too long been kept in the dark about their own bodies and sexuality." - IndieWire
"Orgasm Inc., a biting new documentary, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the race to develop drugs, devices, and surgery to treat female sexual problems." - Vogue Magazine
"Named one of 2009's Noteworthy Documentaries" - Dox Magazine, European Documentary Network
"Named one of "Spring 2009’s Don’t Miss Documentaries" - Rabble.Ca
"Required viewing for anyone with genitals, of either denomination." - Tederick.com
 "Definitely arousing." - City News, Toronto
"Orgasm Inc., a film on female sexual dysfunction (FSD) by veteran documentarian Liz Canner, is heartbreaking in a way that no Hollywood romance could ever be." - More Magazine
"Illuminating" - New York Magazine
""**** Four Stars" " - The Daily
"Sharply constructed...very funny" - National Public Radio
"3.5 Stars out of 4 - An exemplary, absorbing, muckraking documentary." - Boston Phoenix