Saturday, 10 January 09: Documentary Screening - This Film Is Not Yet Rated

10 of January 2009 @ PELANGI PRIDE CENTRE

Screening of "THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED"


Details at a Glance
Date: 10 January 2009 (Sat)
Time: 4pm
Venue: Pelangi Pride Centre
Cost per person: $6 (cost of 2 soft drinks and finger food)

RSVP: This event is by invitation only.
LIMITED to only 30 pax, prior registration is required.
For an invite - please email [pelangipridecentre at yahoo dot com]with your name (in full), contact number, the name/s of your guests, by 8th Jan 2009.

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This Film Is Not Yet Rated

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is an independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was released limited on September 1, 2006. The Independent Film Channel, the film's producer, aired the film later that year.

The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for "some graphic sexual content" - scenes that illustrated the content a film could include to garner an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. The new version of the film is not rated.

The film discusses disparities the filmmaker sees in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between homosexual and heterosexual sexual situations, between male and female sexual depictions, and between violence and sexual content.

Themes and discussion
Much of the film's press coverage was devoted to Dick and his crew's use of a private investigator to unmask the identities of the ratings and appeals board members.

Other revelations in the film include: the discovery that many ratings board members either have children 18 and over or have no children at all (typically, the MPAA has suggested it hires only parents with children between the ages of 5 and 17); that the board seems to treat homosexual material much more harshly than heterosexual material (this assertion is supported by an MPAA spokesperson's statement in USA Today that "We don't create standards; we just follow them"); that the board's raters receive no training and are deliberately chosen because of their lack of expertise in media literacy or child development; that senior raters have direct contact in the form of required meetings with studio personnel after movie screenings; and that the MPAA's appeals board is just as secretive as the ratings board, its members being mostly movie theater chain and studio executives. Also included on the appeals board are two members of the clergy (one Catholic and one Episcopalian, who may or may not have voting power).

Prior to Sundance, the film sparked initial press interest when it was handed an NC-17 rating by the MPAA for "some graphic sexual content." When it premiered at Sundance, the film's ratings deliberations, along with Kirby Dick's appeal, were included in the documentary. Since the film had changed dramatically from the time of the NC-17 rating, the film cannot be released with an MPAA rating without the film being resubmitted for review.

The film went on to draw crowds at many other festivals, including South by Southwest and the Seattle International Film Festival, and was slated for theatrical release in fall 2006.

more info at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Film_Is_Not_Yet_Rated