In this conversation starter of a documentary, filmmakers Emiko Omori and Wendy Slick look at the cultural role of the vibrator, both in the present and in the past. PASSION AND POWER explores the history of the vibrator, tracing it back through ads in early-1900s magazines and even to thousands of years in the past. In the 1970s, sexuality pioneer Betty Dodson (the author of SEX FOR ONE: THE JOY OF SELF-LOVING) discovered the origins of the device and brought it back to the happiness of the masses, and she takes a central role in this film. PASSION AND POWER also chronicles the plight of a woman in modern-day Texas who was arrested for selling vibrators to undercover cops.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Audio:
(Unspecified) - English

Distributor Notes: "Electricity has given so much comfort to womankind - the vacuum cleaner, the pop-up toaster and the automatic ice dispenser. And perhaps above all, it gave her the vibrator" (Natalie Angier, The New York Times).

PASSION & POWER is an entertaining documentary that explores the controversial history of the vibrator, from the Victorian era - when doctors used the device to relieve women of "hysteria" - through the sexual revolution of the 1960s, to the postfeminist present. As well as revealing the vibrator's fascinating past, this provocative yet unexpectedly funny film digs deeper to uncover the mysteries of the female orgasm, and examines its ramifications for sexual politics and gender dynamics from the time of Hippocrates to the present day.

Featuring interviews with sexperts, historians and pioneering feminists, PASSION & POWER takes us on a surprising and enlightening journey through the secret history of the vibrator and the even more mystifying female orgasm.

Source: First Run Features Home Video

Emiko Omori: Director of Photography, THE CHINATOWN FILES (2001)
Wendy Blair Slick: