The Disappearance of Shere Hite

This beautifully crafted documentary, about the life and work of the author of the bestselling 1976 Hite Report on Female Sexuality, stays close to the source, foregrounding sexologist Shere Hite’s writing and numerous television appearances to tell her story. With a treasure trove of home movies, photographs, and interviews with fellow scholars, activists, and friends, it follows Hite’s trajectory from hardworking history student to history maker who revolutionized the cultural conversation about sex. Sharing information gleaned from thousands of candid, anonymous responses to questionnaires she designed, Hite showed that the sex and love lives of American women were quite different from those represented in popular culture and the scientific studies of the time. Along with exultation and praise for the liberating potential of her work, the insidious backlash Hite endured is all too familiar in an era when many states are radically curtailing the rights of women.