Diotima1993

A cinematic essay on the great pornography debate. A classically stylized setting expounding the contrasting views of noted scholars, with the inclusion of text generated and delivered by the cast. With Peter Cramer, Esther Kaplan, Adrian Saich, Jocelyn Taylor, Cherie Weitzner. Music by Paul DJ Spooky Miller. Diotima Re-examines the 'Great Porn Debate' that factioned '70s feminists into today's designated camps of pro and con. Dryly satiric, it juxtaposes the early writings of Andrea Dworkin (then a lone voice challenging the morality of traditional, read: hetero sexuality) with the misogynistic 19th century pessimism of Schopenhauer. Diotima's sexual politics interject a queer discourse that combined with the feminist philosophies are brought up to date with the inclusion of text generated by the cast in a form reflective of Plato's Symposium, a classical discourse on erotics. The character Diotima was significant as the only female portrayed in the Symposium. The film, with it's stylishly neoclassical art direction and it's acerbically irreverent humor is a contemporary analytic of the erotic inspired by a reading of the book 100 Years Of Homosexuality, a collection of essays compiled by David M. Halperin.