Many Vancouverites are calling for the Rio Theatre to cancel its planned screening Wednesday night (Sept 14) of the 1970s pornographic film Deep Throat.
The objection is not because the film depicts sex on screen - something the venue has shown before with the HUMP adult film festival back in March - but because the film's lead, Linda Boreman (aka Linda Lovelace), was reportedly coerced into performing in the film.
Boreman has been the subject of multiple documentaries and dramatized biopics interpreting her experience of making Deep Throat. At the time, she was married to Chuck Traynor who was reportedly abusive and forced her to appear in the film.
In 1984, Boreman told a U.S. Senate panel, "every time someone sees that movie, they’re watching me being raped," - a harrowing quote many critics of this film are citing as reason enough for the Rio to halt the showing.
"We're critical that the Rio Theatre is screening Deep Throat and claiming to have a 'pro-feminist' panel afterwards," says Karla Gjini, a front-line worker at the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter. "Linda Boreman aka Linda Lovelace, publicly stated that she was forced into prostitution and pornography including this film, by her violent pimp/husband Chuck Traynor. He terrorized her throughout their relationship including during the filming of Deep Throat where he beat her viciously and none of the all-male cast intervened."
Gjini tells V.I.A in an emailed statement that when Boreman "escaped" Traynor "she exposed him and the other violent men who abused her. By screening Deep Throat with the intention of holding a discussion about this film and the sexual liberation movement, Rio Theatre reinforces that women who come forward and speak up won't be believed."
VRRWS plans to protest the screening tonight.
Why is the Rio showing 'Deep Throat'?
The Rio's screening is being marketed as a "special 50th Anniversary screening and talk-back event in celebration of one of the most iconic adult films ever put to celluloid."
The event set to include a panel discussion that features the director's son (also an adult filmmaker) and daughter, two sex work advocates, and a professor of sexuality from Concordia University.
V.I.A reached out to the Rio for comment on how the panel would be handling the discourse surrounding the film but did not receive a response.
However, in a public statement shared by the Rio on social media, the director's children Gerard Damiano Jr. and Christar Damiano assert: "First and foremost: If the star of Deep Throat participated in the film against her will, we would NOT be showing it. If the film itself glorified or promoted misogyny, sexual violence, or violence of any kind against women, we could NOT stand behind it."
"Deep Throat features a strong female protagonist," continue the Damianos. "Its story is her quest for sexual fulfillment, and the film’s message is one of Sex Positivity. Linda’s real-life story is a very complicated one. The abuse that she suffered at the hands of her husband in her personal life before, during, and after her involvement in the film is well documented and undisputed. Her perspective evolved over time as did she."
The pair also alleges that Boreman was coached into her statements by anti-porn activists Andrea Dworkin and Kitty MacKinnon and claim that "later she openly rejected these groups, stating that they had 'used' her as much the porn industry had."
What is the significance of Deep Throat?
Boreman is quoted in the book The Other Hollywood as saying: “Between Andrea Dworkin and Kitty MacKinnon, they’ve written so many books, and they mention my name and all that, but financially they’ve never helped me out. When I showed up with them for speaking engagements, I’d always get five hundred dollars or so. But I know they made a few bucks off me, just like everybody else.”
The plot of the film is campy, verging on parody, but it is often conflated with the actress's own experience of making it and her later work is also used to discredit her own accounts of her personal experiences. Boreman appeared in eight pornographic films between 1972 and 1977. During that time she released two salacious memoirs. In the 1980s she became involved in the anti-pornography movement and ultimately released two more memoirs about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her then-husband, the aftermath of Deep Throat's infamy, and her serious health issues.
A year before she died in a car accident in 2002, she posed in lingerie on the cover of Leg Show magazine.
Deep Throat was a massively controversial film and continues to recur in the cultural conversation because of the multiple investigations and discussions around censorship, sexual liberation, and pornography. It spurred aesthetic movements and was dubbed 'porno chic' and is arguably the most influential piece of pornography ever made.
What is the problem with screening Deep Throat?
Regardless of the enduring significance of Deep Throat, Angela Marie MacDougall, director of the Battered Women Support Services thinks that Boreman should be at the centre of all conversations surrounding the film. She tells V.I.A over the phone that "this should be a conversation of a battered woman," and that "the continued screening of the film is to continue the exploitation of a battered woman."
Boreman was paid $1,250 for her role in the film and claimed that all of that money went to her husband. "That was how they made their living," says MacDougall. "I grew up in a time when Deep Throat had its cultural moment. It was a conversation a lot of us were having and so I've been following this story of Deep Throat since then...One of the things that was so clear at the turn of the century when Boreman wrote one of her books was the roles of capitalism and the exploitation that can happen when we have an abusive husband."
She also cites any further involvement that Boreman had with the film was clearly for the sake of survival.
MacDougall suggests that there are enough contemporary discussions around porn-positive feminism and within sex work, pornography, and feminism that contain a range of intersectional perspectives that are valuable and worth exploring without needing to screen Deep Throat.
"I can understand why they would want to screen a film that has historical significance, I'm concerned that they chose this film," she says of the Rio's screening event. "We're talking about documented exploitation...her experience matters."
MacDougall is critical of the Rio's lack of critical consideration before publicly announcing the screening and says that the director's children have a financial interest in the re-marketing of this film. "There is a conflict; they cannot possibly be thinking of [Boreman] when marketing this film," she states.
The Rio has since publicly announced that they intend to donate parital proceeds from the screening's ticket sales to WISH Vancouver, though the theatre did not arrange to do so with the organization. WISH's mission is "to improve the health, safety and well-being of women who are involved in Vancouver’s street-based sex trade."
"We are not affiliated with this event, we did not accept to participate, and will not be accepting any donations from the event," a representative for WISH Vancouver told V.I.A. by email.
MacDougall calls The Rio's last-minute addition of WISH as a beneficiary "an attempt to muddy the waters."
She adds: "The decision to pursue this film leads me to ask the question: do we actually care about sex workers? Given what I've seen so far, the answer is no."
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