Are there problems with the American system? Absolutely. But we don’t have prior restraint, nor do we have any government ratings or censorship bodies, where as many other liberal democracies do.

Having lived in Europe, I’m suprised that they are so much more stringent over there. One of my co-workers had the same problem going to Webmaster’s Access in Montreal. They searched her computer in depth, looking for porn that she might have been smuggling in. It’s strange to think that with all the laws against adult content we have in the US, other Western countries are just as, if not more, conservative.

What it means is that in the UK all film must be submitted to the government-run ratings board (BBFC) before they can be exhibited or DVD copies sold. Additionally, if the BBFC rates a film R-18, then it cannot be exhibitted in theaters, and DVD copies can only be sold in special shops. This is more or less the same system that gave us trouble in Australia with DAMON AND HUNTER. Different letter and numbers, but in the end, if you want to show or sell a film, you have submit it to the goverment ratings board.

Here in the US, the major ratings organization the MPAA, is a private organization, participation in their rating system is entirely voluntary, and the ratings have no force of law. (In fact, the MPAA recently sued to prevent the use of their ratings system as a definition of what would or would not be legal to sell in Utah.)

Filmmakers can participate in the MPAA system, as we did with MARIE AND JACK, or forgo the ratings system, as we have done with our other titles. Whether or not a film has an MPAA rating has no legal standing.

Rups