Porn again

>> The adult film industry is examined once more in Give Me Your Soul

by MATTHEW HAYS

There's a telling moment in Give Me Your Soul, the new feature-length NFB documentary on the porn industry which premieres on Sunday, a moment which throws open the question of the film's success. A male porn actor discusses the shifts in the industry over the past decade, commenting on mainstream Hollywood's increased willingness to depict sex in films. This, he says, has meant porn actors have been forced to get kinkier in order to maintain their allure to the consumer.

It's telling because there's been so much mainstream fascination with the porn biz, from Boogie Nights to Sex: the Annabelle Chong Story to The People vs. Larry Flynt to The Girl Next Door, that it's hard to know what more we could learn about it. And Paul Cowan's doc doesn't exactly shatter any stereotypes nor crush any clichés. There are weird and wacky people who are obsessed with porn, there are young women and men who get into it for the cash (exploitation inevitably occurs) and many of the power players in the biz are really, really scuzzy types.

What is new about the film, and something that makes it well worth seeing, is the controversy Cowan explores. Besides the rather typical interviews with starlets who suggest they just wanted to let it all hang out before the cameras etc., there is the journalist, Luke Ford, who outed members of the industry who'd tested HIV+ but were continuing to act in porn. In doing so, Ford induced the wrath of porn godfather Bill Margold, but also probably performed a major public service. For years, we've heard members of the porn industry discuss the fact that their business is "clean" and that workers in the trade are routinely tested for HIV and other STDs.

Ford named Mark Wallace as "patient zero," a porn star who faked his HIV results. Cowan also interviews Kimberly Jade, a former porn star allegedly infected by Wallace. The unfolding of this saga emphasizes one of the failed guarantees that industry reps have consistently promised: that their performers would be free of the fear of HIV infection.

Cowan's film doesn't really offer up any major revelations beyond that. Give Me Your Soul is another trip down flesh lane, a collection of interviews with the players that will maintain your interest but probably won't blow you away.

Give Me Your Soul airs Sunday, Oct. 29 at 10pm on CBC Newsworld