In
an irony of a kind not seen since yesterday, when I fell asleep in a screening of a film called Who Needs
Sleep?, filmmaker Kirby Dick has accused the MPAA of illegally copying This Film is Not Yet Rated, his
documentary about the ratings board which premieres here at Sundance tomorrow night. Dick's lawyer has contacted the
MPAA demanding that they return all copies of the film in their posession, and explain who authorized the
reproductions, and why. The MPAA in turn admits that they made the copies, but insist that their doing so doesn't
qualify as illegal piracy. "We made a copy of Kirby's movie because it had implications for our employees,"
MPAA VP Kori Bernards told the LA
Times, before essentially accusing Dick of stalking MPAA workers. "We were concerned about the raters and their
families." Dick showed the Times a copy of an email exchange he had with the Board, in which he told the MPAA he
would only submit a copy of his film to be rated if they promised not to copy or distribute it. In turn, a board rep
told Kirk that "the confidentiality of your film ... is our first priority. Please feel assure (sic) that your
film is in good hands." In other Dick news, IFC confirmed today that they've sold the UK broadcast rights to the doc to the BBC.
1. Obviously only hard time, preferably hard labor, will remedy this. As a society we have rejected rehabilitation and second chances, so radio collaring and chemical castration, while those ought to be necessary for "re-integration" at a later date, would be far insufficient.
Posted at 2:32PM on Jan 25th 2006 by New Direction