Oscar contender The Disappearance Of Shere Hite is in cinemas in the UK and Ireland in January

Documentary nominated for an Oscar The disappearance of Shere Hite will be released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland in a few weeks, courtesy of Dogwoof.

The London-based documentary company has announced a January 12 release date in these territories for Nicole Newnham’s film about the famous American sex researcher who shot to fame in the 1970s but then faced a massive backlash that effectively put her in forced into exile.

“The disappearance of Shere Hite remembers feminist sex researcher Shere Hite, whose findings rocked the establishment, predicted current conversations about gender and sexuality, and made her a target of the patriarchy,” a Dogwoof press release reads. “1976 The Hite Report seeks to liberate women and demystify female pleasure and orgasm by revealing the private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey participants… Searching through exclusive archives as well as Hite’s personal diaries and the original survey responses, filmmaker Nicole Newnham takes .. viewers back to a time of great social change around sexuality.”

Actress Dakota Johnson narrates Hite’s writings in the film and serves as an executive producer The disappearance of Shere Hite. The documentary receives a critical rating of “100% Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.

“I was twelve years old when I discovered it The Hite Report in my mother’s bedside table to read it myself in secret and learn more about the world of female sexuality, a world that for me, like so many others, remained shrouded in shame and mystery,” Newnham said in one Interview- opinion said. “The women who responded to Shere’s survey opened my eyes because they are diverse – in age, race, ability, sexual identity and experiences – and because they have similarities. I realized that young women today need to have these conversations. In our post-#metoo era, Shere Hite’s works highlight the prejudices and taboos that remain unspoken in our society and are dangerous for women. I hope that by rediscovering Shere Hite’s legacy, we can reignite conversations between women about female pleasure and gender equality that have been lost for far too long.”

The disappearance of Shere Hite was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was on DOC NYC’s current shortlist for the best documentaries of the year. The film also received a spot in IDFA’s Best of Fests series, another prestigious award given to the most outstanding non-fiction films of the year.

“It’s very gratifying,” Newnham said of the awards in an interview for Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast. “I think it has to do with the fact that – even though it’s a historical film about the 1970s and 1980s at this point – we worked very hard to make the film in a way that was relevant in a very urgent way. way is in touch with the cultural moment. in which we find ourselves.”

As the film explores, Hite worked as a model and appeared in television commercials to support her college education. She embraced her beauty and made no attempt to hide it under a flimsy academic guise.

“What’s so interesting to me is that she suffered when she did it,” Newnham told the podcast in our interview on IDFA. “She really faced this cruel double standard that a lot of the film is about. “How can we take you seriously as a scientist or researcher if you dress and act like that?” And yet I think people in today’s generation are able to really embrace the almost punk rock attitude of someone who is just completely uncompromising and dresses exactly how. he doesn’t want to and doesn’t feel like he has to lose his femininity or hide the color pink – I feel that’s right Barbie I actually discussed it. I think it’s very accepted and praised today in a way that might have been a bit strange and a risk for her given her career at the time.

The disappearance of Shere Hite Directed by Nicole Newnham (Oscar nominee). Crib camp, which she co-directed with Jim LeBrecht) and produced by Molly O’Brien, RJ Cutler, Elise Pearlstein, Kimberley Ferdinando, Trevor Smith and Nicole Newnham. The film is a production of NBC News Studios, This Machine, Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction and Teatime Pictures.