Orgasm, Inc.

Director Liz Canner's funny and provocative documentary looks at the search for a cure for Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD), a condition questioned by some experts, including New York University psychiatry professor Dr. Leonore Tiefer and British Medical Journal editor Ray Moynihan, who argue that Big Pharma coined the term to sell drugs. Commenting on a widely quoted study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reporting that 43 percent of all women have FSD (a statistic repeated by Oprah, guaranteeing widespread reception), Moynihan notes that the authors all had ties to Pfizer, the maker of Viagra. As he puts it, “We are medicalizing more and more of ordinary life.” Canner got the idea for this film after accepting an assignment to edit erotic videos for a company testing a vaginal cream. Here, she meets test subjects eager for help and speaks with assorted scientists, doctors, and therapists, as well as the maker of the Orgasmatron, a contraption that attaches to nerves in the spine like the gizmos in David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. In addition to pills, patches, and devices, Canner also looks at vaginoplasty, interviewing a sales rep who admits that she's conflicted about the procedure, which Harvard's Dr. Susan Bennett describes as “genital mutilation.” Orgasm, Inc. covers some of the same ground as the fine Passion & Power (VL-3/09) but examines the pharmaceutical angle more closely. DVD extras include bonus scenes, a resource guide, and a director's statement and bio. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)