Orgasm Inc. The Strange Science of Female Pleasure

"Extraordinary behind-the-scenes access reveals a drug company's fevered race to develop the first FDA-approved Viagra for women - and offers a humorous but sobering look inside the cash-fueled pharmaceutical industry." - Hot Docs Film Festival

In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits. ORGASM INC. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire — and that ultimate moment: orgasm.

Upbeat, engaging, enlightening, and provocative, ORGASM INC. will change the way you think about sex.

Everything

Featuring a live performance by Janette Platana.

Janette Platana was born and raised in Saskatchewan and now lives in Small Town Ontario, where she writes, plays music, and makes short films. Her writing has been published in Canada, the United States, and Turkey. She has been published in dANDelion, volume 32, #2, and Can'tLit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil.

Amy M. Miller

AMY M. MILLER (Canada) is excited about having found documentary filmmaking as a way of mixing art and agitation. Currently she is involved in numerous media projects, including reporting for Free Speech Radio News, Groundwire, The Dominion, and the Independent Media Centre- Montréal. Her work has screened at festivals internationally from England to Canada at festivals such as the Exile Film Festival and the Calgary International Film Festival.

Shannon Walsh

SHANNON WALSH is a filmmaker and writer who splits her time between Canada and South Africa. Her short fiction and documentary films have screened around the world from Bangkok to Rio De Janeiro at festivals such as the Brooklyn International Film Festival, Women in the Director’s Chair and the Durban International Film Festival. H2Oil is her first feature film.

Alberto Guevara

ALBERTO GUEVARA, originally from Nicaragua, is a multi-disciplinary artist. With Elysée Nouvet, in 2007 he directed and produced Dalits, Dramas, and Dreams. He teaches at York University.

Elysee Nouvet

ELYSEE NOUVET, a Toronto-based artist and doctoral candidate, has written, filmed, directed, edited, and managed a variety of visual initiatives in Canada, Nepal, and Nicaragua.

Nelofer Pazira

NELOFER PAZIRA is an Afghan-Canadian actor-director. Since 1996 Nelofer has made two documentary films about Iran. Pazira played the lead role in Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film Kandahar –a film based on Pazira's real-life story.

Sara Roque

SARA ROQUE is a multi-talented Metis filmmaker, writer, arts administrator and activist who has been involved in a number of community-based arts and Aboriginal history projects. Her short films have screened at ImagineNative Film Festival and the Splice This! Super8 film festival, and have been broadcast on MuchMusic. She is originally from northern Ontario and currently lives in Toronto. Six Miles Deep is her first documentary.

Allan Tong

ALLAN TONG is a Toronto filmmaker, who made the short comedy for Bravo, I Want To Be A Desi. His previous film, the short drama, GRANGE AVENUE (2008), played the festival circuit and was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He apprenticed as a documentary director and producer at the National Film Board of Canada. His articles about cinema have appeared in respected journals including POV, Take One and CinemaScope as well as The Globe and Mail, Exclaim! and The Festival Daily published by the Toronto International Film Festival. He has organized and programmed for festivals including Planet In Focus Environmental and CONTACT Toronto Photography.

Trent Voices of Burma Art Exhibition

Location: Showplace

Voices of Burma is an OPIRG working group at Trent University. They raise awareness about the situation in Burma by holding events around Peterborough. TVOB sell original artwork and prints done by migrants and refugees living in refugee camps in Thailand, many of whom are children. The money raised is sent back to help out the artists, their families, and the migrant schools.

Artist: Chaka Chikodzi

International Bazaar at Showplace

Chaka's small business, Africville, is the only Indigenous Zimbabwean owned and operated sculpture business in North America. He moved to Canada in 2001from his native Zimbabwe. He became a sculptor at thirteen years old, by watching his older brother. Since then, He has exhibited throughout South Africa, the United States and Canada.

Artists: Peter Barron and Sheila Laidlaw-Radford

Nata's Café, 376 George St. N

Peter Barron is a printmaker and painter living in Peterborough. Sheila Laidlaw-Radford is a graduate of OCA with a BFA from York and did printmaking at the University of Guelph. Sheila and Peter have exhibited their prints internationally.

Artist: Esther Vincent

The Spill Coffee Bar, 414 George St. N

Esther Vincent first learned about photography as a young girl curious about her father's darkroom. You can see her photographs in posters, album art and promo for a number of small independent Canadian bands. She also does archival and promotional photography for performance (theatre and dance), galleries and events. Her photographs have been published in several magazines, most recently the The Dance Current and Pearl Magazine. She likes to take pictures of things that want to be seen.

Artists: Manuel Taveras "Movie Man with a Camera"

Blue Tomato, 168 Hunter St.

Manuel Taveras is a Lindsay / Peterborough based artist with no formal training in art. During college, Manuel started experimenting with some forms of visual arts. After designing posters for a few events at his college, and inspired by, among other things, the Surreal Movement, the Polish poster school, and Swiss minimalism, Manuel decided to apply these ideas into the designing of his own posters. His installation "Movie Man with a Camera" is a poster installation inspired by the aforementioned schools of art and the film industry and its very intimate relation with today's society.

Fire Flower Revue: photonegatif

Saturday January 30th
Blue Tomato

The Fire Flower revue has for 6 years now made music for film, theatre, live performance and Television. As a live act it as performed on stages through out Canada and all over the world, usually in the form of an electronically based duo.

photonegatif is one of a series of sound based events being held at the blue tomato, which are curated with the intent of redefining and questioning how live sound performance is generally conveyed to an audience.

Artist: Spencer Harrison

Black Honey, 221 Hunter Street West

Spencer J. Harrison, originally a Peterborough artist, has been painting and exhibiting across Canada for over 25 years. This show at Black Honey will be a series of smaller romantic paintings perfect to tuck into your collection.

Body: IMAGES Exhibition

Location: Art Gallery of Peterborough

This exhibition will present photo-based work exploring the theme of the body by students from Thomas A Stewart Secondary School. The work will be on display on the upper ramp at the Art Gallery of Peterborough from January 8th - March 7th 2010.

Body: IMAGES Workshop

Facilitator: Micky Renders, Visual Artist and educator
Date: Saturday January 30 from 1-5pm
Location: Art Gallery of Peterborough
Age level: teens/adults
Maximum participants: 15
Registration: Email Wanda Nanibush wnanibush@gmail.com

Using a photo-based process involving mixed media techniques, participants will work intuitively exploring issues around representation, distortion and the body.

Mickey has worked as an artist and art educator in Peterborough, Ontario for the past 19 years. She sees art as a vital way of connecting with, exploring and responding to the world. Mickey's primary medium is paint, however she is also interested in site specific and community based art projects. Micky has spearheaded many events using the voice of art to raise awareness about global justice issues such as Peace, Africa, HIV/AIDS, the Environment, disenfranchised youth etc. She is a founding member of Art.e.ms, a feminist art collective.

Drumming Circle for Peace Community Art Project

Saturday January 30 from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Room 17 at PCVS - Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School
201 McDonnel Street

The drum has been part of the community experience for at least 10,000 years and still today it is being used as a bridge for differences of thought, religion and lifestyle as well as helping to create a common ground, to build stronger community. No one culture holds dominion over drumming and people drum in every country all across the earth. Peterborough is no exception.

Come and join the ReFrame Drumming Circle during the festival. Anyone with a desire to drum is welcome to participate. A sense of rhythm or lack thereof is not considered to be a hindrance in our drum circle. Everyone across a wide range of skill levels from expert to novice is encouraged to join in. We will have drums available or you can bring a drum. Members of the PCVS Drumming Group will lead the circle.