Narc of the Matinee

Director Kirby Dick on his documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Kerry Howley | September 15, 2006

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Reason: Has there been any retaliation from the MPAA since they saw your film and slapped it with an NC-17 rating?

KD: They pirated my film.

A few days before I submitted my film to get a rating, I thought, the MPAA will probably want to keep a copy of this. So I called them up and I said, "As part of the process of rating a film, do you keep a copy?" And they said "Oh no, we don't do that, we're the MPAA!" They sent me an e-mail corroborating that. A few weeks later, I heard that Dan Glickman, who is in Washington, had seen the film. The MPAA is in Los Angeles. So I thought, well that's curious. So I call up [ratings board chairman] Joan Graves and asked, "Has a copy been made of the film?" She says, "Errr... not to my knowledge." Five days later the attorney from the MPAA who makes the animated appearance in my film calls me up and says "Kirby, I have to tell you, we have a copy of your film. But you don't have to worry, because it's safe in my vault." Well, you can imagine how reassuring that was.

The MPAA defines piracy as any single unauthorized duplication of a copyrighted work. So by the MPAA's own definition, they have pirated my work. Now the MPAA, this paragon of anti-piracy, has taken my film eight months before its theatrical release, and has copies circulating I don't know where. Maybe the film is in Malaysia by now. I hope so.

Reason: If the system were to become more open, how would that happen?

KD: One thing people can do is actually call Joan Graves. It's 1-818-995-6600. She says she's willing to take calls from the public. If people called up, I think that would get things going.