If you haven't seen This Film Is Not Yet Rated yet, make a point of doing so. It's airing on IFC on March 19 from 12:00 AM to 1:45 AM (so that'd be Wednesday night/Thursday morning).
It's a documentary that came out a couple years ago about how the MPAA rates films in the US. The biases against independent films and films with homosexual rather than heterosexual content are pretty outrageous. The bias is to give those films NC-17 ratings while studio pictures with insane amounts of violence or much more graphic depictions of heterosexual sex regularly receive R ratings. (NC-17 films get little to no advertising and distribution, so the rating is a film's death sentence.)
Also, the raters receive no training and are kept anonymous. They're just supposed to be "average" American parents with kids between the ages of 5 and 17. Um, not so much.
Many directors are interviewed about their experiences with the MPAA. This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a fascinating look at censorship. See it. (But not with anyone you'd be embarrassed to see clips of sex scenes with. ;)
Check out the trailer.
A year ago on TTaT: Round two
Hey, I am catching up with my blogroll, and I am glad that I decided to do that tonight, because I can record this film on my DVR. Thanks for the tip! I have wanted to see this for a while.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad. They even discuss the differences between ratings in Europe and the US a bit. I'd be curious to hear your take on that and any insights you have on the ratings system in France and how it works.
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