this film is not yet rated

this film is not yet rated is a documentary made by kirby dick (twist of faith) who wishes to expose the processes by which the mpaa (motion picture association of america) assigns ratings to films. the purpose of the mpaa is to be a board of parents who decide how appropriate a film is for a particular age demographic; basically policing what children should and should not be able to see. yes, they’re doing it for the kids. apparently the mpaa’s practices have long been contested, in large part due to the fact that the identities of the raters on the board are kept secret. the official reason for the secrecy is to protect the raters from outside influence. as dick points out, since the mpaa is owned and run by the major hollywood studios, the raters are actually most susceptible to the influence of these studios. these 5 major studios and the other media conglomerates have a monopoly of around 90% control over all media viewed in the united states, thus explaining why it is nearly impossible for independent films to get distribution or an audience. the film explains how the highest possible rating a film can get is an nc-17 meaning that no children under the age of 17 are to be admitted. this is essentially a death-wish for filmmakers because it means they will have great difficulty advertising and a large part of the population will be unable to see their film in theatres. dick uses interviews with several filmmakers like kimberly pierce (boys don’t cry), kevin smith (jersey girl), atom egoyan (where the truth lies), john waters (a dirty shame), and matt stone (team america: world police) who have all received an nc-17 rating and dealt with the mpaa and their appeals process. all of these films received the rating for sexual content, while films with gratuitous violence tend to be given the tamer r-rating. this double standard is indicative of deeper social values and the taboo placed upon sex in this culture. similarly, films portraying queer sexual content seem to get stronger ratings than straight sexed ones. and beyond this, scenes of female sexuality are more restricted than scenes of male sexuality. the bottom line to this is that there are no definitive standards that each film is held up to; the rating process is relatively arbitrary. this point is demonstrated when during the appeals process, filmmakers are not allowed to cite precedent using other films as examples. in terms of aesthetic, this documentary is fairly standard; a mixture of talking heads, interviews, archival footage, statistics flashing on screen, and the footage of what is essentially dick and his private eye stalking the raters. dick hires this private eye (becky altringer) to help him identify all of the people on the ratings board. becky’s own personal narrative factors in to the film as she is, although it is never blatantly said, a lesbian living with her “best friend” cheryl and raising their children together. i thought this real narrative worked well when combined with interviews with queer filmmakers, such as jamie babbit (but i’m a cheerleader). babbit disagrees with the way the mpaa purports to be a group of average parents looking to protect children from films that are unsuitable for them. babbit herself is a mother and a lesbian and calls into question what the “average” american parent is. and unsurprisingly, one former member of the mpaa admits that there were no openly gay or lesbian raters when he was on the board. i thought this documentary was effective because dick went beyond the showcasing of several condemning facts about the mpaa, to actually identifying all of the current raters as well as their demographics, like the ages of their children. and I recently heard that the mpaa is changing some of their policies, to make available the demographics of the raters (although not their identities) and to allow filmmakers to cite precedent in the appeals process. it was speculated that this is due to this documentary’s fast-approaching release on dvd (february 6), and the expected impact of it.

watch the trailer