Documentary explores Hugh Hefner's complexity.
By Katherine Monk
September 9, 2009
TORONTO - His alternative handle could be the ``Activist in Pyjamas,
'' but at this point in the post-Playboy age, the name Hugh Hefner is
a brand unto itself - and, for most, it's synonymous with sex,
titillation and a sprawling abode filled with nubile flesh.
For Canadian filmmaker Brigitte Berman, Hefner and his life work may
sport a bunny tail, but in her new documentary premiering at the
Toronto International Film Festival Saturday, Berman finds a whole
new dimension to the man in the mansion.
Berman's film Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel is more than a
simple chronology of the man's many entrepreneurial accomplishments;
it's a look at how Hefner's larger world view has shaped our current reality.
``People see him and they see babes, booze and blondes. But I am a
filmmaker, and as an ex-journalist, I felt there was something more.
There's a very serious side to Hugh Hefner, and that was what I
wanted to explore in the film, '' says Berman, the Oscar-winning
director of the 1985 documentary Artie Shaw: Time is All You've Got.
Berman first met Hefner as a result of her Shaw film. Turns out,
Hefner is a huge jazz fan and was familiar with the Shaw doc, and
found out Berman had also made a film about Dixieland legend Bix
Beiderbecke. He wanted to see the movie and invited the Toronto-based
director to Los Angeles for a private screening.
``When I first met him, there he was, in his pyjamas. I couldn't
believe it. But once we started talking about jazz, we became
friends,'' she says.
The friendship evolved, and as Berman learned more about the man
called Hef, she realized he wasn't the mono-dimensional villain early
feminists painted him to be. Sure, he gave the world pictures of
naked women to ogle, but he also spoke out against racism and state
control over female reproductive rights.
``He's a complex character, and I was very committed to getting both
sides in the movie,'' says Berman. ``And I don't think he would have
wanted it any other way.''
Berman is absolutely right. Hefner says he never expected, let alone
wanted, any hagiographic treatment of his life.
He agreed to participate in Berman's film because she appeared to
have a balanced viewpoint and a complete lack of a prejudicial agenda.
``She also made a movie about Bix Beiderbecke, who happens to be one
of my personal idols,'' says Hefner, looking as sexy as he ever has
at 83. ``But she seemed to see a side of my life that others haven't.
I think the nature of my celebrity clouds the issues.''
And let's face it, boob-shaped clouds are tough to ignore, but beyond
the overflowing bosoms filling out centerfolds, Hefner's vision of
free love, sex and the female form redefined the face of popular
culture in ways that aren't easy to see.
Some of the events Berman chronicles in the film have to do with
Hefner's involvement in everything from civil rights to Roe v. Wade.
``People don't really remember how segregated things were in the
'60s,'' he says. ``A black singer could appear in a club to perform,
but not a black comic. That's the way things were, and when I found
out there were some owners of Playboy clubs in the South who had
segregated policies, I bought those clubs back.''
Hefner's commitment to social change didn't stop there. He offered
financial backing on Roe v. Wade and also spoke out against the war in Vietnam.
``I wouldn't call what I do philanthropy. I just seem to go against
the tide of tradition. . . . On my 83rd birthday, I looked back on my
life and I take great pride in being on the right side of so many
social issues. I recognized the world was wrong about certain things.''
Hefner says he grew up in a loving and moral home, which accounts for
his generous world view, but he says his parents never showed
physical affection for one another, and he saw the negative
consequences of physical alienation.
``I saw the hurtful side of that,'' he says.
Love is a beautiful emotion and sex is the obvious manifestation of
love, says Hefner. There should be no shame.
``What we need on this small planet is more connections with each
other. Sex is a life force, and yet we see it as obscene. To me,
what's really obscene is war, bigotry, murder and killing . . . and
that's what I've fought against,'' he says.
``I think if you look at me and my career, it's like a Rorschach
test. It really depends on who you are and where you are coming
from,'' says Hefner.
``I've never had any doubts. I know I'm on the side of the angels.''
Hugh Hefner is in Toronto this weekend to support the premiere of the
film, one of several titles at the festival up for acquisition at the festival.
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