This Film is Not Yet Rated
| This Film is Not Yet Rated | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Kirby Dick |
| Produced by | Eddie Schmidt |
| Written by | Kirby Dick Eddie Schmidt Matt Patterson |
| Starring | Kirby Dick Jack Valenti Kimberly Peirce Alison Anders John Waters Becky Altringer |
| Music by | Michael S. Patterson |
| Cinematography | Shana Hagan Kirsten Johnson Amy Vincent |
| Edited by | Matthew Clarke |
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Production
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| Distributed by | IFC Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $339,609 |
This Film is Not Yet Rated is a 2006 American 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. The film 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. It was rated TV-MA in the United States.
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. Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. True to its title, 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.
Much of the film's press coverage was devoted to Dick and his crew's use of private investigator Becky Altringer 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 mandatory 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 Protestant, who may or may not have voting power).
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