This is the story about the woman who shot her way to fame by having sex with 251 guys in 10 hours in the first (but not the last) of the ultra gang-bang porno film genre.
She comes off as highly intellectual and full of joie de vivre for the first half. Then she comes off as a pathetic bipolar victim in the second half. She was never paid a dime for the gang-bang video. Her friends told her to sue, but she said it wasn’t about the money. Not all of the scores of men who showed up for the gang-bang video were tested for AIDS. She says, if she dies she dies. She did it for feminism. She seems to be a woman that had quite an intellect and her college teachers praised her for her writing ability. Nonetheless, even with a college degree, she goes on to pursue a porn career. We re-visit a London subway station where she was picked up by a guy and then raped by five of his friends. Then in a very creepy scene, we see her savagely hacking away at her arm with a knife so that she can feel…SOMETHING. She then quits porn for a while. We see a scene where she’s in her native Singapore and seems to crack under her perceived 1984-ish mode of community thinking. We also see a scene where her mother has found out what she’s been doing with her life and her mother chastises her. While they’re both sobbing, her mom says that the only reason she’s still talking to her daughter is in the hope that she will restore dignity to herself. Annabel, in tears, tells her mother that she will make her proud again. When she gets back to the States, we see that Annabel has re-entered the porn biz.
And a good time was had by none.
Can you suggest other documentaries of people with many fatal flaws?
“Crumb” also was the first I though of. Two other movies came to mind tho the subject of neither were “extremely dysfunctional”- the multi-style docu-drama “American Splendor” about Harvey Pekar and “The Nomi Song” about Klaus Nomi.
Damn you! I came into this thread to mention Jesco and Dancing Outlaw. For years after I first saw it, I was convinced that the whole thing had to be some kind of joke. A fake. But apparently it’s all real. :eek: One of the oddest things I’ve ever seen.
Well, there’s Just, Melvin: Just Evil, about Melvin Just, a true monster who apparently molested every female member of his family, and may have murdered a social worker. The documentary was filmed by Just’s grandson. Most of the film focuses on the lasting impact that Just’s deeds have made on his family. He caused a lot of damage.
I read the wikipedia article but it was useless. What is so strange about the guy? The article pretty much just said that he dances and he’s poor and he’s been mentioned in a bunch of songs.
Although, technically, it’s a non-fiction drama (listed as documentary on imdb) and there is no agreement about whether all the crimes alleged to have been committed were committed, there is some dysfunctionality there.
It discusses the accusations of molestation by an American professor, Arnold, and his 18-year-old son, Jesse, of young students during their private computer classes. The accusations of both occur during the investigation after discovery of the father’s buying and selling of child pornography; other deeper hidden secrets are discovered too.
The director, Andrew Jarecki, interviews the wife, Elaine, as well as Jesse, and his brother David, among other family members. The dysfunction of what was evident (the pornograpy) is there, as well as present in the fact that everyone has a different view of the character of the family.
I’m surprised I’m the first person to mention Grey Gardens as it’s the inspiration for a current hit Broadway musical and a big-budget movie in development. The documentary’s about “Big Edie” Bouvier Beale and her daughter “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s aunt and first cousin respectively who shared a filth filled dilapidated 28 room mansion, Grey Gardens, on Long Island. I won’t attempt to describe it (you can google it) but they’re quite interestingly dysfunctional, with all the contradictions you’d expect of impoverished people living in a huge waterfront mansion.
PS- You can find clips of documentary and musical on YouTube. Use the terms Grey Gardens staunch for one of the most famous scenes.
I came into this thread to mention Jesco and Dancing Outlaw. For years after I first saw it, I was convinced that the whole thing had to be some kind of joke. A fake. But apparently it’s all real. :eek: One of the oddest things I’ve ever seen.