Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography

Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography is a documentary about the pornography industry. It was directed by Bonnie Sherr Klein in 1981, and released in 1982.

For the 2011 Bollywood film, see Not a Love Story (2011 film).
Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography
Directed byBonnie Sherr Klein
Produced byDorothy Todd Hénaut
Mark L. Rosen
Written byAndrée Klein
Bonnie Sherr Klein
Irene Lilienheim Angelico
Rose-Aimée Todd
StarringLindalee Tracey
Bonnie Sherr Klein
Music byGinette Bellavance
Sylvia Moscovitz
CinematographyPierre Letarte
Edited byAnne Henderson
Production
company
Distributed byNational Film Board of Canada
Esma Films
Release date
  • 11 June 1982 (1982-06-11)
Running time
69 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

It remains one of the landmark works from Studio D, the women's unit of the National Film Board of Canada. The film was banned in the province of Ontario on the basis of its pornographic content – a decision that was later reversed.[1][2]

Synopsis

Film-maker Bonnie Sherr Klein and stripper (later journalist) Lindalee Tracy explore the world of pornography and build a case against it.[1] They interview porn actors, sex workers and notable feminists such as Margaret Atwood and Kate Millett.[3]

Participants

Critical response

At the time, the local Canadian reviewers were hostile. The Globe and Mail called the film "bourgeois feminist fascism" and the Toronto Star judged it to be "a one-sided tract of outrage that only feminists and moral majority believers will take to their bosom".[4] Writing in the Village Voice, B. Ruby Rich dismissed the film as anti-porn propaganda.[5]

Later reviewers and analysts have criticised the film for relying upon graphic sexual imagery, for focusing upon sex work rather than the porn industry and for not differentiating between straight and gay porn.[5]

References
  1. "Sherr Klein, Bonnie". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  2. Wyndham Wise, ed. (2001-09-08). "Not a Love Story". Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film. University of Toronto Press. p. 154. ISBN 978-0802083982.
  3. Wise, Wyndham. "Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  4. Jackson, Marni (1981). "The sound of many knees jerking | Maclean's | SEPTEMBER 28, 1981". Maclean's | The Complete Archive. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  5. Sullivan, Rebecca (2014). Bonnie Sherr Klein's 'Not a love story'. Canada: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442649880.

Further reading
  • Bart, Pauline B.; Freeman, Linda; Kimball, Peter (January 1985). "The different worlds of women and men: Attitudes toward pornography and responses to not a love story—A film about pornography". Women's Studies International Forum. 8 (4): 307–322. doi:10.1016/0277-5395(85)90012-3.
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