Frontline : American Porn (2002)

Genres - News [TV]  |   Sub-Genres - Media Studies, Sexuality, Social Issues  |   Run Time - 60 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
  • AllMovie Rating
    8
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Mark Deming

While the pornography industry was once a shadowy business which operated along the margins of the law (when not in direct violation of it), in the 1980s and 1990s, prosecution of obscenity cases fell sharply, especially during the Bill Clinton administration, when Attorney General Janet Reno openly stated the government had better things to do with its resources than chase after producers of adult entertainment. Today, pornography -- including adult books and magazines, XXX movies, and sexually explicit websites -- is an industry that takes in ten billion dollars a year in America. But while on some levels, adult entertainment has crept into the American mainstream (and a number of very mainstream companies, including AT&T, Yahoo, and Marriott, have become involved in the marketing of adult material), other producers are insisting on taking porn into new and disturbing areas. With the considerably more conservative George W. Bush in the White House (and the very conservative John Ashcroft as Attorney General), a number of larger producers of adult videos, magazines, and websites have been taking a more measured approach to their material, while some small producers remain determined to push the envelope regardless of the consequences. Frontline: American Porn is a documentary which looks at the current state of the adult entertainment industry in the United States, as well as the legal and ethical issues which are diving many of the key players behind the scenes. Produced for the PBS series Frontline, Frontline: American Porn first aired on February 7, 2002.

Characteristics

Keywords

business, cyber-space, Internet, pornography, profit, website