That's Sexploitation!

6.2
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Run time: 136 min
  • Premiere: 2013. June 25.

Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.

Discover

Frank Henenlotter

Himself

David F. Friedman

Himself

Gal Friday

Herself

Albert Cadabra

Himself

Eleanor Ames

Self (archive footage)

Virginia Bell

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Mary Blair

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Manny Brown

Self (archive footage)

Doreen Cannon

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Peter A. DeCenzie

Self (archive footage)

Kalantan

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Herschell Gordon Lewis

Self (archive footage)

Russ Meyer

Self (archive footage)

Bettie Page

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Russell Patterson

Self - Pinup Artist (archive footage)

Iva Pratt

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Sally Rand

Self - Burlesque Fan Dancer (archive footage)

Vera Richkova

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Rosita Royce

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Louis K. Sher

Self (archive footage)

Dan Sonney

Self (archive footage)

Georgia Sothern

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Lili St. Cyr

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Blaze Starr

Self/Belle Fleming (archive footage)

Tempest Storm

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Doris Wishman

Self (archive footage)

William H. Hays

Self (archive footage)

Bebe Hughs

Nudist Fencer (archive footage)

Cherrie Knight

Self - Burlesque Performer (archive footage)

Mike Vraney

Self (archive footage)

Art

Lisa Petrucci

Art Direction

Camera

Brent Kerr

Camera Operator

Anthony Sneed

Camera Operator

Daniel Griffith

Camera Operator

Directing

Frank Henenlotter

Director

David F. Friedman

Director

Donald A. Davis

Director

Editing

Frank Henenlotter

Editor

Production

Jimmy Maslon

Producer

Mike Vraney

Producer

Donald A. Davis

Producer

Jason Higgins

Post Production Producer

David F. Friedman

Producer

Arther Knight

Producer

Sound

Peter Toh

Sound Mixer

Writing

Frank Henenlotter

Writer

Donald A. Davis

Writer

David F. Friedman

Writer