Indie Sex: Censored (TV 2007)

The history of film censorship in the United States. The documentary covers the pre-code era, to the 1934 introduction of the Hays Code. This slowly broke down and the MPAA was introduced in 1968.

Director:

Lesli Klainberg

Stars:

Rosanna Arquette, Jamie Babbit, Fenton Bailey

Cast

Credited cast:
Rosanna Arquette	...	Herself
Jamie Babbit	...	Herself
Fenton Bailey	...	Himself
Jami Bernard	...	Herself
Bruce Cohen	...	Himself
Martha Coolidge	...	Herself
Lee Daniels	...	Himself
Alonso Duralde	...	Himself
Bilge Ebiri	...	Himself
Sara Jacobs	...	Herself - Curator, Museum of Sex
Charles Lyons	...	Himself
John Cameron Mitchell	...	Himself
Peter Sarsgaard	...	Himself
Matt Singer	...	Himself
Jason Solomons	...	Himself

Storyline

The history of film censorship in the United States. The documentary covers the pre-code era, to the 1934 introduction of the Hays Code. This slowly broke down and the MPAA was introduced in 1968.

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Plot Keywords:

censorship | film censorship | filmmaking | punctuation in title | religious nut | 

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Taglines:

A Revealing Look at Sex in Cinema

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 January 2008 (Australia)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Orchard Films

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Inside Deep Throat (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Strut"
By Kevin Aviance

User Reviews

Miss Silly Meets Mr. Pretension

This movie has some merit in that it follows the history of sex and censorship in the movies. But ultimately its crap. Much of the film is directors, actors, critics and industry folk opining about censorship, freedom of speech, artistic license, etc. While some of these folks have something to say the overall effect is the same obnoxious, blathering excuse we have heard from prostitutes, pimps, pornographers, etc., since the dawn of time: "The body is beautiful and must be appreciated."....."Sex is natural and we want to be natural"....","Other people should not decide what we can do."..."Freedom of speech is important!", yadda, yadda, yadda. You've heard the same drivel before.

The impact of the movie clearly implies that censorship is bad, the omnipotent "they" or "big brother" is in control,and that rating systems cannot be fairly or effectively applied. There's little counterpoint. I wanted to say to some of the film's commentators: "Maybe censorship DOES protect our children" (one guy does go into such), "Maybe the 'they' (vague censors) are really US and maybe a majority of us don't care for explicit sex.", "Maybe MOST sex on screen isn't for artistic reasons but to sell tickets.", "Maybe screen sex is popular BECAUSE its a vice; i.e., just because we appear to want something doesn't mean its good!"

Again, the majority of the commentators are interesting and I'm guessing they were edited to fit the film makers intended bleating about liberation. Jami Bernard, however, truly believes she knows who we are, what we think and what is best for us and she epitomizes the problem with this poor documentary. Lets hope somebody does the subject better some time soon.