Sex: The Annabel Chong Story
DVD cover
Directed byGough Lewis
Written byKelly Morris
Produced by
  • Gough Lewis
  • Hugh F. Curry
StarringGrace Quek
Cinematography
  • Gough Lewis
  • James Michaels
  • Kelly Morris
  • Tony Morrone
Edited byKelly Morris
Production
companies
  • Coffee House Films
  • Greycat Releasing
  • Omni International
Distributed byStrand Releasing
Release dates
  • January 1999 (1999-01) (Sundance)
  • February 11, 2000 (2000-02-11)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$233,076

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.

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

The 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

The 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

  1. ↑ "Sex sobers in controversial Sundance documentary". CNN. February 10, 1999. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  2. ↑ McDougall, AJ (2020). "What Happened to Annabel Chong?". www.vice.com. Vice Media. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  3. 1 2 3 "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (review)". flickfilosopher.com. 13 February 2000. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  4. ↑ "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story". Top Documentary Films. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  5. ↑ Moviemaker.com Straight From the Horse's Mouth: How To Avoid Distribution Hell by Keith Bearden Archived 2006-03-24 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Romney, Jonathan (26 April 2000). "Naked, but not revealed". The Guardian.
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