After publishing “The Hite Report” in 1976, sex researcher Shere Hite all but vanished from the public eye. Now, thanks to documentarian Nicole Newnham and narrator/executive producer Dakota Johnson, Hite’s legacy is on full display.
“The Disappearance of Shere Hite,” which premiered at Sundance 2023, is written and directed by Oscar-nominated “Crip Cramp” filmmaker Newnham.
The bestselling 1976 book “The Hite Report” liberated the female orgasm by revealing the private experiences of 3,000 anonymous survey respondents. Shere Hite’s findings rocked the establishment, presaged current conversations about gender and sexuality, and made her a target of the patriarchy. Actress Johnson narrates the documentary, which charts Hite’s explosive rise to fame and then mysterious retreat, executive produces through her TeaTime Pictures banner. The film was also just nominated for three Critics Choice Documentary Awards: Best Archival Documentary, Best Biographical Documentary, and Best Narration.
As Hite herself says in the trailer, “Equality isn’t so dangerous to me.”
The feminist sex researcher and former model’s personal journals are included in the film, along with the original survey responses and exclusive archive footage. One commentator says that Hite’s findings “stunned everyone with the clitoris and the vagina” and demystified the female orgasm before her work was “weaponized by the right.” Hite died in 2020 after battling a long illness.
Rose Bush (“Colette”) serves as cinematographer on the IFC Films release. The film is an NBC News Studios, Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction, TeaTime Pictures, and This Machine co-production.
“The Disappearance of Shere Hite” is produced by R.J. Cutler, Molly O’Brien, Elsie Pearlstein, Trevor Smith, and Kimberly Ferdinando. In addition to narrating actress Johnson, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, Elizabeth Fischer, Liz Cole, Andy Berg, Noah Oppenheim, and Ro Donnelly also serve as executive producers.
The IndieWire review out of Sundance praised director Newnham’s mission to focus on the “broader erasure of feminist history” that in part led to Hite exiting the “cultural consciousness.”
“It’s a depressing trend that Hite predicts herself when she says, ‘I just found it troubling that perhaps young women coming along will have to fight the same battles,’” the review reads. “The information in ‘The Hite Report’ may not seem as revelatory today, but the mystery of pleasure and sexuality persist for many women around the world. It’s hard to imagine a new book on women’s sexuality being nearly as controversial, but it’s equally hard to name a contemporary work that has had the reach and impact of “The Hite Report.’”
“The Disappearance of Shere Hite” premieres November 17 from IFC Films. Check out the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
