Porn to Be Free, a new documentary which premiered at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, explores the political impact of Italian porn before the 1980s. Back then, porn became a symbol for sexual freedom and freedom of expression. In the documentary, filmmaker Carmine Amoroso focuses on “‘pioneers who fought for freedom of speech and sexual freedom through the right to make pornography’—pioneers like pornographers Lasse Braun, Riccardo Schicchi, Ilona Staller (Cicciolina), and Giuliana Gamba,” reports Vice.
Amoroso explains that porn in Italy reached its maximum impact when the Catholic Church was very powerful, from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. During the 60s, porn was illegal; even nude pics were banned. So one of the first Italian pornographers, Lasse Braun, decided that to make porn mainstream and thus eventually accepted into society, he had to bring it to TV. To do this, he needed to turn his porn stars into celebrities—adult film actors like Cicciolina and Moana Pozzi became overnight sensations. Italian porn was also fundamentally political in the way it depicted sex as natural and beautiful, an important part of the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s. As Amoroso says, “porn is not just a performance, it is an ever-evolving language.” Right on!
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Check out more about Porn to Be Free here: https://www.vice.com/read/how-
