Arquivo

The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), an US lobbying organization for the movie industry, maintains a rating system first implemented in 1968. This system, with its age based content classification using letter grades G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 (formerly X), has become a cultural icon. But behind its simple façade is a censoring process kept secret. Board members are anonymous. Deliberations are private. Standards are seemingly arbitrary. This Film Is Not Yet Rated asks whether Hollywood movies and independent films are rated equally for comparable content. Also asks whether sexual content in gay movies are given harsher ratings penalties than heterosexual content? Whether it makes sense that extreme violence is given an R rating while sexuality is banished to the cutting room floor? Whether Hollywood studios receive detailed directions as how to change an NC-17 film into an R while independent film producers are left guessing? And finally, whether keeping the raters and the rating process secret leaves the MPAA entirely unaccountable for its decisions?