Sex: The Annabel Chong Story is a 1999 American documentary film directed, filmed and produced by Canada-based producer Gough Lewis, edited by co-creator Kelly Morris, and produced by Peter Carr.
| Sex: The Annabel Chong Story | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Gough Lewis |
| Written by | Kelly Morris |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | Grace Quek |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | Kelly Morris |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Strand Releasing |
Release dates |
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Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $233,076 |
The film profiles pornographic film actor Grace Quek, a.k.a. Annabel Chong, then a gender studies student at the University of Southern California, famous for setting a gang bang record in January 1995. A video of the event was released under the title The World's Biggest Gang Bang.[1]
After release, Quek criticised Lewis for misconstruing multiple events and portraying events in a "misleading" way, such as claiming to have 'returned' to the industry after going to Singapore or the fact that producer Lewis self-harmed off-camera.[2]
Synopsis
editThe documentary explores Quek's experiences, presenting her life as a student in Los Angeles, California and London; her native Singapore; and in the porn industry. It focuses on her reasons for working in porn, and her relationship with friends and family.[3]
The documentary reveals that Quek was gang raped as a student living in London and describes her many complex emotional issues, including signs of depression, self-harm[3] and substance abuse. The film also includes footage of a painful conversation in Singapore between Annabel and her mother, who, until then, didn't know about her daughter's porn career.[3]
Response
editThe documentary became a hit when it was released at the Sundance Film Festival, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.[4]
North American distribution was halted or minimized as a result of a court case in the Superior Court of Canada, as instigated by David Whitten, a B-movie distributor.[5]
In The Guardian, Jonathan Romney (2000) wrote, "Quek's refusal to cohere as a subject is contingent on the fact that there's apparently no one looking at her: director Lewis is curiously absent, as either a character or as an invisible shaping intelligence. But he apparently was a character in her story: in interviews, Quek has denounced him for failing to reveal that he was her lover for a year during the making of Sex, something the film never even implies. That omission contributes to making the film incomplete, if not actually dishonest."[6]
References
edit- ^ "Sex sobers in controversial Sundance documentary". CNN. February 10, 1999. Archived from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
- ^ McDougall, AJ (2020). "What Happened to Annabel Chong?". www.vice.com. Vice Media. Archived from the original on 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
- ^ a b c "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (review)". flickfilosopher.com. 13 February 2000. Archived from the original on 15 December 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
- ^ "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story". Top Documentary Films. Archived from the original on 2014-06-07. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
- ^ Moviemaker.com Straight From the Horse's Mouth: How To Avoid Distribution Hell by Keith Bearden Archived 2006-03-24 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Romney, Jonathan (26 April 2000). "Naked, but not revealed". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 September 2024. Retrieved 15 April 2018.