Another Independent Spirit Award, Best Documentary nominee is This Film is Not Yet Rated by Kirby Dick. I’m watching these films as I am eligible to vote for the awards and I figured I’d report on the films in the doc category. Much like The Road to Guantanamo, This Film left me wanting more.

Dick does a fantastic job of illustrating the process of the MPAA ratings board and the sheer absurdity of it given that the MPAA, which is a lobby collective of the Hollywood studios, effectively uses ratings to censor independent content (that which is made outside of the studio system). By discovering the identity of the up-to-now secret raters, Dick uncovers lackadaisical following of their own rules which has major implications for film artists and takes on a sort of grand significance.

Few would argue the need to give film goers some guidelines to help them judge the content of a film before sitting down in front of it, so the question becomes what is the best way to do this and who should have the responsibility? The MPAA is funded entirely by the studios so it always serves their interests; it isn’t an independent or objective body. Though some in the film call for government to oversee the process, the whole reason that it is handled within the industry is to avoid government censorship. Where in the world is government oversight of artistic content better than what currently goes on with the MPAA? Even the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has had major struggles with government and content on public broadcasting in recent years. Let’s not kid ourselves.

The film ends abruptly with the members of the appeals committee who reject Dick’s appeal of his NC-17 rating 10-0 and are largely theater owners. Almost completely unexplored is that the ratings system is largely agreed upon industry-wide which means theater owners. They could choose to show films that the MPAA rated NC-17 but they don’t because they don’t want to. This Film is Not Yet Rated places the lion’s share of blame on Jack Valenti, former head of the MPAA, but the problems are systemic and the film stops short of going down these smaller yet perhaps more pervasive roads. Top-down systems only work when those under it go along with it.

The film has been a big deal in my world over the past year because it utilizes clips from many films to illustrate its points, and with the support of IFC, Dick employed fair use for those clips. So, to me this film is important in a number of ways and it is certainly entertaining - the lesbian private investigators turn what could have been dry leg work into an amusing romp. (For more on Fair Use, click the subject category on the left.)

Docs have been getting a reputation for running too long, and I tend to agree with that, but when investigating a topic of significance, it does seem important that the audience not feel like you simply didn’t ask the hard questions.

Interview with Kirby Dick by David D’Arcy