Hefner, left, talks with filmmaker Berman. He was a fan of her Oscar-winning documentary Artie Shaw: Time is All You've Got (1986), a fascinating biography of the idiosyncratic big-band leader, and ended up releasing her earlier Bix Beiderbecke doc on his Playboy video label. On the phone from the Playboy Mansion, his Midwestern drawl as robust as ever, he explains that he and Berman first bonded over their shared love of jazz. It's no surprise that Hefner's happy to promote it. Hefner himself co-operated fully with Berman, opening his vast personal archives to the Canadian filmmaker, even letting her animate his teenage cartoons.Īlthough Berman talks to a few of his detractors – Christian singer Pat Boone, old-guard feminist Susan Brownmiller – the portrait is largely flattering. Ruth Westheimer and gay clergyman Malcolm Boyd. Jesse Jackson, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, George Lucas, Bill Maher, sex therapist Dr. The most extensive film on Hefner to date (it runs 135 minutes), Berman's biopic skims the salacious details of his very public private life but homes in on the considerable social impact of Playboy. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, Brigitte Berman's new documentary premiering at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, illuminates those half-forgotten facets of the man.
And there was the rebel who broke racial barriers on television, published blacklisted writers in the McCarthy era and championed pariahs like comedian Lenny Bruce. There was the activist who used his pages to fight for civil rights and liberties. There was the gutsy young publisher whose magazine, launched in 1953, paved the way for new, uninhibited attitudes towards sex.
Those with longer memories, however, will remember the other sides of Hefner. 'Perceptions related to both myself and the magazine are very much projections of other people's dreams, fantasies and prejudices.'- Hugh Hefner Some find it disgusting, others find it amusing and others think it's just sad. mansion, frolicking with a harem of big-breasted Playmates young enough to be his granddaughters. The prevailing image of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is one of a Viagra-popping octogenarian satyr, ensconced in his fabled L.A. This article was originally published during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, pictured here in the 1970s, is the subject of Brigitte Berman's documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel.
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