Gay Films Shunned By MPAA
Well, it looks like REAL Women of Canada and the Canadian Family Action Coalition aren’t the only ones with a grudge against gay-themed films. According to a documentary opening in Toronto this week entitled This Film is Not Yet Rated, the consequence of including gay sexuality in a film is nearly always an automatic NC-17 rating by the MPAA.
The NC-17 rating, which replaced the “X” rating in 1990, disqualifies a film from advertising by most TV stations and newspapers. Worse, many cinemas refuse to show films bearing the disapproval.
Kirby Dick, a filmmaker who went undercover to discover the MPAA’s secretive ratings process, says the organization deliberately searches for depictions that are objectionable to the Christian right (violence clearly not included) and rates them more harshly than material in mainstream films, improving the latter’s market position:
This is a political move on their part. They’re willing to sacrifice films—well, for one thing, it’s not their films they’re sacrificing, it’s the independent films and the foreign films, which are their competition. So it’s a win-win situation. They appeal to the Christian right and they hurt independent films.
Well, I guess that means Slap Upside The Head: The Animated Movie might be put on hold for a while…
- Rated ‘H’ for hypocracy [Globe and Mail]
