Money Shot: The Pornhub Story is a documentary film chronicling the rise of the titular pornographic website since its inception in 2007. Furthermore, it highlights the allegations of sex trafficking and non-consensual sharing of material the company has faced in recent years, leading to severe backlash.
Story
Money Shot opens by talking about the growth of internet porn in the 90s and how things changed when bandwidths increased. The onset of tube sites like Pornhub made creating and sharing explicit material convenient.
It further mentions the problems with piracy as people uploaded adult material to these sites that they did not own. Pornhub was bought by MindGeek, a Luxembourg-based, privately held company with Canada as its base.
The documentary interviews porn performers like Asa Akira, Cherie DeVille, Gwen Adora, Wolf Hudson, and Siri Dahl about their experiences with the changing dynamic of porn on the internet.
Furthermore, it dives into the ethical conundrums that Pornhub has recently faced relating to the non-consensual sharing of private material, sexual harassment, and trafficking, among other things.
Anti-trafficking groups have been seeking justice for victims of such scandals and sharing their insight on how Pornhub is responsible for it.
Positives
Money Shot interviews multiple personalities relating to the world of porn, from performers and makers to people working behind the scenes at desks. This allows for varied perspectives on the situation and the complex topics being discussed.
The narrative highlights Pornhub’s and other similar websites’ negligence in having appropriate policies in place for the protection and privacy of its users. We get to hear a victim’s account concerning their explicit material being shared without consent, and it is harrowing, to say the least.
On the flip side, the documentary takes into account the effects of over-censorship on the creation of consensual porn. Performers agree with the fact that safeguards should be in place to prevent the sharing of child, teenage and other types of unethical porn.
However, they also agree that it should be done in a way that their livelihoods, which revolve around the freedom to create consensual porn, should not take a hit.
Negatives
Money Shot has a lot of important things to discuss, but it fails to weave it all into a compelling narrative. The feature eventually feels like a half-hearted attempt at making an impact on the viewers about the dangers of free porn.
Another aspect that sort of dampens the word of those opposing tube sites is a later revelation that the organization used to be a religious one. National Center on Sexual Exploitation or NCOSE was previously called Morality in Media and Operation. It decides to take on the adult entertainment industry as a whole but changed its agendas going forward.
The documentary doesn’t dig much deeper into this and holds back. It also clearly fails to explain why verified porn performers had their online content removed.
There is a section about lawsuits that followed, but again, the narrative doesn’t clearly state the structure and details of these legal proceedings.
Verdict
Money Shot: The Pornhub Story is an important documentary that sparks necessary conversations and rightfully points out the dangers of tube sites. However, it fails to contextualize all angles with exceptional detail and prefers to stay in the safe zone when it comes to transparency.
Money Shot: The Pornhub Story
Director: Suzanne Hillinger
Date Created: 2023-03-16 12:39
3
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