Indie Sex : Teen Flicks

Indie Sex : Teen Flicks  Very good documentary that takes a look at sexuality in films aimed at teenagers. The majority of the documentary takes a look at the past thirty years and how the big take off in the genre started in the early 80s and how the genre got shut down when AIDS came into play. We also get talk about the recent trend in the genre as well as how the art house films took them to a new level. This documentary does a great job at breaking down the various points to this genre starting with the fun movies like PORKY’S and then moving into the darker stuff like KIDS and FAT GIRL. A lot of directors from the art house are interviewed here to discuss their films and how they drew from personal experiences. The most interesting aspect is talking about how people shy away from female sexuality if it isn’t aimed at the male’s pleasure. The earliest films talked about take place in the mid-50s with stuff like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and TOO SOON TO LOVE, which is interesting as there really aren’t too many examples from the decades before that.

IFC’s four-part television series Indie Sex is a historical blow-by-blow of the films, genres, directors, and figureheads that altered the route American artists take in putting sex on-screen—at least within the four categories the episodes tackle, censorship, teens, extremes, and taboos (the last included only on the DVD’s second disc). This is not to say that American society is more forgiving lately of racy depictions of sex. The series flashes grainy, black-and-white examples of early movie sex and stag films as lurid as what was to follow; as Shortbus director John Cameron Mitchell puts it in the episode on censorship, “If prostitution is the earliest profession, maybe porn is the earliest art, who knows?”

She’s Too Young