This Film is Not Yet Rated is a 2006 independent 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. It 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.
Short storyline
Much of the film's press coverage was devoted to Dick and his crew's use of a 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 required 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.
More info:
Runtime: 97 min
Release Date: 1 September 2006 (UK)
Country: UK, USA
Box office: Opening Weekend: $37,785 (USA) (3 September 2006) (2 Screens). Gross: $302,179 (USA) (17 December 2006)
Soundtrack: Last Call