Rating: D-
Dir: Gough Lewis
Star: Annabel Chong
Chong is the porn star who pioneered the really big gang-bang – in her case, screwing 251 men in one day. Though the record has since been broken, there’s certainly scope for a documentary looking at the mind-set of someone who’d want to do something like that: unfortunately, this film leaves out so much that it can only go down as a conscious deception by the film-maker. You really need to see the interviews Chong did to promote it, to discover important points – apparently “forgotten” by Lewis – such as the fact he and she were in a relationship, which broke up during the course of shooting.
Indeed, the sequence of Chong engaging in self-mutilation (which comes out of almost nowhere) was the day they split, and according to her, Lewis was similarly cutting himself. There is just so much left unexplored and unanswered: Chong mentions “coming off drugs” – we hear no more of this. Her mother supposedly doesn’t know about her daughter’s career – how did the documentary crew explain their presence? Of course, trying to find the “truth” in the porn industry is always going to be a tough job, but this is why we watch documentaries, and Lewis doesn’t really seem to be all that interested in it. I have no complaints about film-makers whose stance colours their work; it’s when they are less than honest about it that I have major qualms.