2001 channel 4 documentary on porn

[darleneconnor]

hcdocu.blogspot.com/

The best anti-porn evidence I've seen.

(Please watch with caution, some scenes are upsetting)

To be fair he did have a go when she was in the bathroom having a shower. He tried to convince her to leave - he said she didn't have to do it and said she should leave right now.

Actually her answer was very revealing because she said something along the lines off 'I have to do it. I'll never get work in this town again if I don't'.

I get the feeling there was much persuasion going on off-camera by the crew, in an attempt to get Felicity to walk away

I do think the crew got it wrong, tbh, and didn't intervene soon enough

what do you do when a grown woman, apparently of sound mind, refuses though ?

walk away of her own volition, I meant

Well I guess I was under the (perhaps wrong) impression that Felicity almost had a sense of security that was formed by having the crew there. She says numerous times that she is glad that they are with her (or words to that effect). Therefore, surely they had more of a moral responsibility.

So in my mind, I was wondering if perhaps they added to her ultimate fate? The film crew (in Felicitys eyes) would have been yet more people she had to 'prove' herself to, in her childish manner of not wanting to lose face and quit, for if she walked away then that would have been the end of not only her porn career but also the documentary.

Also I wonder how she would have reacted if the crew had stepped in earlier and said they were refusing to film anymore on the basis they felt she was being broken down and abused? If they had done this would she have chosen to remain where she was?
I personally believe that the crew being complicit in the filming of some of these scenes only added to Felicitys 'normalisation' of the situation. Its one of those horrid situations where, the more people witnessing something awful, often means that less people intervene, because each person waits for someone else to do something.

PBE, I see what you are saying

maybe she would have walked away sooner if she didn't have a sense of losing face with the crew...

tbh though, the impression I get is that when a (sympathetic, documentary-making) film crew are not there the "breaking down" and abuse of women would be much more prevalent, which is the more usual state of affairs

Dandy That's exactly what I thought. Its a powerful documentary - particular to those who say that women in porn are there through their own choice etc and it doesn't hurt them and yet Felicity had to suffer so much (possibly permanently damaged?) in order for that to be made clear.

I was sat wondering if I thought her suffering is justified by what the film highlights. Did the presence of the crew improve her treatment by the producers and her agent, might she have had a worse experience in LA without the documentary makers? I guess she thought so. Or should someone have helped her and sod the documentary - after all, there are other ways to get the message across.

I have to say, I think they should have done something sooner even if that meant the film wasn't made. I don't think there is ever justification for the things she went through.

xpost with peter yes, I think her treatment might have been worse too.

Yes PeterAndreForPM, you are right, I'm sure the manipulation and 'breaking' of women is far far more prevalent when there is nobody documenting the abuse!

And I understand that the film crew had a job to do, they have done it well, for they have ultimately filmed a hard-hitting and thought provoking documentary that shows us how the porn industry really works, the corruption violation and altogether twatishness of the whole damn thing.

I'm just so confused as to what kind of individual could stand by, for so long and watch this vunerable woman be abused. They knew they would probably be involved in, and witness things that were beyond their 'normal' bounderies, but when does doing your job become more important than someones physical and mental wellbeing? And more importantly for me the question, were they scared to intervene themselves? Did they leave this woman to be humiliated and suffer because of their own fears? There was undoubtedly a lot of MHs people in that house, as well as dogs and the director mentions in his interview the house being remote.

I think what also stands out from this documentary is how widespread and normalised the abuse of women in porn is

That these men's moral radar was so off kilter they had no qualms about being filmed saying and doing those things for a factual documentary

Los Angeles, Ciy Of Angels ?

I don't fucking think so

How many people would a film crew of this nature usually comprise ? 5? More ? And how many bodyguards/henchmen/hangers-on would MH have had ?

Perhaps they did fear for their physical safety, I dunno

Am not making excuses for the crew btw, and I guess they do have to live with what they witnessed, and, to a certain extent, allowed to happen

does the end justify the means ? I wonder what the crew would say now, all these years later

I think it must have been difficult for the crew to go against her when she said she would carry on. I don't blame them, they did act eventually.

The sickest thing about the experience at MH "house", other than what physically and mentally happened to Felicity, was when she looked through wardrobe and there was the shot of a rucksack a 4 yo girl would carry.

I am actually getting flashbacks of how dreadfully sick it all was.

I think the filmakers hit the right balance in stepping back enough to expose the cruelty of the industry and intervening when things got too much. You do hear the disgust and hostility in the directors' voice when interviewing the sick bastards making it.

I agree Dandy

I do dislike the term "broken down" even though I have used it on this thread myself and it is a very desriptive term (for all the wrong reasons, I guess).

By coincidence, my teenage dd was watching one of the music channels just as I was reading this thread, and Usher (R+B star) was singing about "I want to break you down, there's so many ways to luv ya..." in his song "Oh My God"

it is meant to be an appreciative ditty about a woman he fancies, but using terms like that is yet another example of normalisation

sorry to keep going back to music, have a bit of a thing about it at the moment, and rying to get dd to think a bit more deeply about some of these so-called idols she loves so much...

The crew had a tough call to make, but I guess it was what they were there for, and if Felicity had asked them to intervene they would have, and hopefully that doc has saved many other women from the same fate, so probably all in all they did the right thing.

this documentary has really played on my mind. i think Hardcore is a very dangerous man, in DV cases being choked, smothered or strangled are all high risk indicators - he does this on film, to girls who look underage, he doesnt just make sick porn, he stars in it, i googled him last night and i wish to god i hadnt. what he does is sick. i cant believe all they could prosecute him for is distributing obscene material.

i think the film makers actually made it safer for felicity - she said she felt safer with them there, she said countless times she felt scared and you could clearly see her hesitation in making that film, but i think hardcore and her agent would have worn her down to the point where she would have finished that film. the crew stepped in when she had agreed to go back, they got that right imo.

chuff...do you believe lots of women have been saved from the same fate ?

I wish I could believe that...

Well PAFPM, even if its only a handful its better than none.

What bothers me is that Felicity was in the porn business over here before she went to the USA so she surely knew what this MH character was like by the porn he produced.

she thought she could handle it, but she was wrong, she thought she was dealing with people who had at least a tiny kernel of human decency left inside them

she was wrong

I think that was the point of the documentary, in a nutshell

the sheer evil and inhumanity of it all...I don't know if anybody would comprehend that truly until faced with it