I saw this one at the Carlton (Toronto), like most of the others. I have never seen it in a video rental store, and I’m not sure if it is available. Perhaps one could order it (though, that would be somewhat desperate...). Shot in b & w, 16 mm film, this is a documentary about Bob Flanagan who is in the advanced stages of cystic fibrosis and keeps his passions for living alive through his masochistic practices and stunts. There’s no dramatization here; it’s all real.

On one hand it is highly gruesome. When he drives the nail through his penis into the block of wood, had the spurting blood been in colour I’m sure we would have had people running from the theatre. On the other hand it is a sensitive look at an individual clinging to a meaning of life in the face of imminent death. From that point of view, it is a masterpiece.