SXSW 2017: Pornocracy
In the mid-to-late 2000s, the economy tanked and the movie, television, and music industries were forced to deal with a threat that had suddenly become much larger than it had been previously, digital piracy. In the years since, those industries have rebounded and have been able to find new ways to make money. But the same can not be said about the porn industry which, by all intents and purposes, is hanging by a thread.
Pornstars are having to do increasingly hardcore acts for less pay, crews have shrunk to teams of one, and overall nobody is making the kind of money once possible in porn. It's all thanks to the crashing of the DVD market and the rise of free tube sites, because why would you pay for something so stigmatized when you can find literally hundreds of thousands of hours of it with a few mouse clicks and total anonymity? So, who's to blame for this? It's murky, actually, but that is what Pornocracy sets out to find.
Former pornstar and France native Ovidie directs and narrates this globetrotting journey that gets to the root of the problem and attempts to uncover whoever it is that operates these sites. These advantageous thieves are making hundreds of millions of dollars off of other people's work while the sites that unwillingly provide them with this free content are shutting down one by one. Along the way Ovidie interviews performers, producers, directors, and investigative journalists. First to paint a portrait of the porn industry today, then to expose who's at fault for the numerous problems, and finally how to fix those problems.
It's a tight documentary with a sleek style that remains gripping all throughout. By the end you'll be demanding justice for an industry that nearly everybody in the world abuses yet refuses to talk about. Please, people, pay for your porn.
