A suggestion for documentary filmmakers: when you say you're not recording a conversation, perhaps you actually shouldn't be recording the conversation. At the very least, you may want to consider not presenting it in your film along with a split-screen view that features your subject speaking her half of the dialog in animated form. This approach does indeed make Joan Graves, head of the MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration, come off as officious at best and corrupted by power at worst. Is the fact that it's, let's face it, a bit of a nasty trick more or less significant than the fact that director Kirby Dick is pointing out things that we might want to know? Interesting question.
I'd also argue that "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" would have been a stronger effort if it director had reined in some of its tangents. For instance, there's a scene in which the private investigator whom he's hired to identify the mysterious figures who comprise the ratings board discusses her lesbianism. Mr. Dick ties this into the question of whether the board is more lenient with films depicting heterosexual as opposed to homosexual sex -- which is certainly a question worth asking, but bringing a contractor's private life into it made the words "stay on target" spring inevitably to my mind. (Especially given that the directors of "Boys Don't Cry" and "But I'm a Cheerleader," among others, are already on hand to offer their perspectives.)
I'd have to say that this one works better as agitprop-lite than as responsible documentary journalism. Kirby Dick is clearly having a lot of fun here -- and why make a film if you're not, after all -- but I suspect that he could have served his legitimately relevant cause somewhat better with a bit more focus and a bit more fairness.
I'd also argue that "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" would have been a stronger effort if it director had reined in some of its tangents. For instance, there's a scene in which the private investigator whom he's hired to identify the mysterious figures who comprise the ratings board discusses her lesbianism. Mr. Dick ties this into the question of whether the board is more lenient with films depicting heterosexual as opposed to homosexual sex -- which is certainly a question worth asking, but bringing a contractor's private life into it made the words "stay on target" spring inevitably to my mind. (Especially given that the directors of "Boys Don't Cry" and "But I'm a Cheerleader," among others, are already on hand to offer their perspectives.)
I'd have to say that this one works better as agitprop-lite than as responsible documentary journalism. Kirby Dick is clearly having a lot of fun here -- and why make a film if you're not, after all -- but I suspect that he could have served his legitimately relevant cause somewhat better with a bit more focus and a bit more fairness.