This Film is Not Yet Rated - Martine Schroeder
The documentary “This Film is Not Yet Rated� explicitly talks about, and points out, the number of problems and issues brought up by the MPAA’s film ratings system. Many interviewed in this documentary have quite strong feelings opposing the ratings system. They feel there are no strict guidelines as to how a film gets rated. The board seems to be lenient on some issues (violence), but strict about others (sexual scenes). The film suggests there are a lot of problems with this kind of censorship. This type of censorship, in a way, prohibits free speech, because films that are rated NC-17, have little way of reaching the public. The film could be very artistically done and have meaning for any controversial topic within, but it is basically stopped by one group of ‘unidentified’ people. Many of the filmmakers interviewed seem to think the panel that determines ratings should be public information and there should be some kind of written criteria that determines all films ratings. Setting criteria as to how a film will be rated, and on what issues, will give film makers a better idea as to how to get the rating they want, instead of following ambiguous guidelines like filmmakers do now.