This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

Kirby Dick's exposé about the American movie ratings board.

Director:

Kirby Dick

Writers:

Kirby Dick, Eddie Schmidt,

Stars:

Kirby Dick, Kimberly Peirce, Darren Aronofsky

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kimberly Peirce	...	Herself - Director of 'Boys Don't Cry'
Jon Lewis	...	Himself - Author of 'Hollywood v. Hardcore'
David Ansen	...	Himself - Film Critic at 'Newsweek'
Martin Garbus	...	Himself - First Amendment Attorney and Filmmakers Representative at Appeals
Wayne Kramer	...	Himself - Director of 'The Cooler'
Paul Dergarabedian	...	Himself - Box Office Analyst
Kevin Smith	...	Himself - Director of 'Clerks' and 'Jersey Girl'
John Waters	...	Himself - Director of 'A Dirty Shame'
Matt Stone	...	Himself - Producer of 'South Park' and 'Team America'
Richard Heffner	...	Himself - Former Rating Board Chairman
Bingham Ray	...	Himself - Co-Founder of October Films
Joel Federman	...	Himself - Author of 'Media Ratings'
Kirby Dick	...	Himself - Filmmaker and Interviewer
Jay Rosenzweig	...	Himself - Private Investigator (as Jay)
Paul Huebl	...	Himself - Private Investigator (as Paul)

Storyline

In a rare and refreshing reversal of roles, filmmakers put the powerful Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA for short) under the microscope for inspection in Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick's incisive look at stateside cinema's most notorious non-censoring censors. Compelled by the staggering amount of power that the MPAA ratings board wields, the filmmaker seeks out the true identities of the anonymous elite who control what films make it to the multiplex. He even goes so far as to hire a private investigator to stake out MPAA headquarters and expose Hollywood's best-kept secret. Along the way, Dick speaks with numerous filmmakers whose careers have been affected by the seemingly random and sexual-content obsessed judgments of the MPAA, including John Waters, Mary Harron, Darren Aronofsky, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, and Atom Egoyan.

---

Plot Keywords:

mpaa | filmmaker | rating | private investigator | exposé | 

---

Taglines:

censorship, uncensored.

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Certificate:

14A

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 September 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

Afti i tainia einai akatallili

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$37,785 (USA) (1 September 2006)

Gross:

$302,179 (USA) (15 December 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Independent Film Channel (IFC), Netflix, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Cuesta, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Terilyn A. Shropshire were also interviewed for this film. Their footage is featured as supplemental material on the DVD.

---

Quotes

John Waters: I also heard on A Dirty Shame - and I have no proof of this - that there were doctors involved... and that some of the kinkier terms, like felching and stuff, that they explained to the MPAA what felching meant. Now, I would like to have heard that because felching, no one has ever done felching. Felching is when you f*** someone and suck your own c** out of their a**hole. Well, I know a lot of perverts and I don't know anyone who's done that.

---

Crazy Credits

The producers wish to thank "everyone at the IFC Center," "all the filmmakers with the balls to be in this film".

---

Connections

Features Boys Don't Cry (1999)

---

Soundtracks

Upriser
Written and Performed by Blake Leyh
Courtesy of Ground Loop Music (BMI)

User Reviews

Very good insight in American censorship and media manipulation

America is the land of the free, so in order to constrain people to do what you want them to do, you have to let them think it's their choice. How do you do that? You create a completely anonymous committee, supposedly composed of concerned parents, to rate the films that appear and, depending on that rating, they will get more or less media coverage, distribution, target audience size. You also finance this body with the money of the seven largest film studios in the US. This functioning censorship committee is called the MPAA.

The film is highly biased, to a point where it gets a little annoying, but the information contained in it is sound, proved and makes one think about the way public opinion is manipulated, ever so slightly, towards a desired average point of view. If you ever wondered how Americans can seem so ordinary, yet have completely different opinions about the same subjects as any other people, then this movie will answer part of that question. Very insightful is the presentation of the seven major film studios who own 95% of the American film industry, parts of larger conglomerates that own 90% of all mass-media. Also interesting, the role of the clergy in movie rating. Yes, I did say clergy, as in priests. In the appeals commission there are always an episcopalian priest and a catholic one. No other religions get to add their input.

A must see movie, not a conspiracy theory film, but certainly one that is against the system. The system here being the absurd movie rating system of the MPAA.