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MAREE Crabbe left no stone unturned as she sought to find the full story behind porn and its influence on society.
The journey to create Crabbe’s latest documentary, The Porn Factor, began at Brophy Family and Youth Services in Warrnambool.
After gathering voices from the south-west, the Warrnambool woman’s journey continued to Europe and North America as she spoke to experts on both sides of the debate.
One thing that is undeniable about porn is that it is a huge worldwide industry.
Veteran US porn actor Nina Hartley told Crabbe the industry had grown significantly since she appeared in her first film.
“When I started in the business, there were maybe a couple of hundred movies made a year,” Hartley said.
“Until recently, for 10 years in a row there were between 8000 and 12,000 videos released every year.”
Another big change in Hartley’s time in the industry is the nature of the product.
“I started in 1984 and then it was still pretty much enough to show willing, happy people having conventional sex,” she said.
“In the past 10 years, there has been an increase in the aggression we see on camera.”
Crabbe’s diligence in producing a documentary to make people sit up and take notice is shown in her ability to track down Larry Flynt for a comment.
Flynt is the chief executive and founder of Hustler magazine.
He was made immortal in the Hollywood film about his life, The People vs Larry Flynt, with Woody Harrelson playing the lead role.
Not surprisingly, Flynt had a positive take on the porn industry.
“The genie is out of the bottle, so to speak,” Flynt said.
“I think everybody enjoys a much healthier sex life today than they did 30 years ago.”
The Porn Factor is Crabbe’s second documentary.
Her first documentary, Love and Sex in an Age of Pornography, was screened on SBS in 2013.
The success of that production, along with her passion to further explore the issue, meant Crabbe was always going to hit our screens again.
While The Porn Factor is not for the faint-hearted, Crabbe never shied away from the challenges making such a film could present.
“It was fascinating to make and do the interviews with all the different groups, with young people, experts and people from the porn industry,” Crabbe said.
“There were lots of different experiences – sometimes distributing, sometimes funny, sometimes encouraging. But always interesting.”
Crabbe said the porn industry had positioned itself cleverly.
“Porn’s presence in popular culture makes it seem familiar, normal, legitimate. It’s very effective marketing,” Crabbe said.