Movies Similar to Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

Princess Diana: The Mourning After(1998)

In "Diana: The Mourning After" Christopher Hitchens sets out to examine the bogusness of "a nation's grief", tries to uncover the few voices of sanity that cut against the grain of contrived hysteria. His findings suggested that the collective hordes of emotive Dianaphiles sobbing in the streets were not only encouraged but emulated by the media. In the aftermath of Diana's death a three-line whip was enforced on newspapers and on TV, selling the sainthood line wholesale. The suspicion was that journalists, like the public, greeted the death as a chance to wax emotional in print, as a change from the customary knowing cynicism, to wheel out all those portentous phrases they'd been saving up for the big occasion. Sadly, they just seemed to be showboating; the eulogies, laments and tear-soaked platitudes ringing risibly hollow.

6.6

CORONA.FILM - Prologue(2021)

As the first part of our investigation, the CORONA.FILM prologue will delve into the science behind the pandemic. Starting at the very beginning, we shine a light on the responses. The aim is not to point the finger; our aim is to tell the whole story in all its complexity, as we believe that justice cannot prevail if only one side of the story is told.

7.9

The ABCs of Book Banning(2024)

In recent years, more than 2,500 books have been removed from school districts around the US, labeled as banned, restricted, or challenged, and made unavailable to millions of students. By no accident, the themes targeted are the usual scapegoats of the American Right—LGBTQ+ issues, Black History, and women’s empowerment—impeding the power of future generations to develop their own thoughts and opinions on critical social issues. By weaving together a lyrical montage of young readers and authors, THE ABCs OF BOOK BANNING reveals the voices of the impacted parties, and inspires hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.

6.4

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th(2010)

A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.

6.8

Los prohibidos(2019)

Documentary film that follows Silvana Castro, a woman who works at the National Congress Library in Argentina where the books that were forbidden during the military dictatorship are kept. After the exhibition of the books is suspended, she'll try to open it again.

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Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape(2010)

A documentary analyzing the furore which so-called "video nasties" caused in Britain during the 1980s.

6.8

The Secret Life of Brian(2007)

A documentary about the making of the controversial Life of Brian and the surrounding accusations of blasphemy.

7.6

Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Shocking Truth(2000)

A documentary primarily focusing on the filming and release of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

6.9

The Cleaners(2018)

A deep dive into the hidden industry of digital cleaning, which rids the Internet of unwanted violence, porn and political content.

7.2

Cleanflix(2009)

When a small Utah-based edited movie company is caught sanitizing Hollywood's copyrighted material, the film industry strikes back with a devastating blow.

6.6

Freedom to Love(1969)

A sex education film dedicated to all forms of human sexuality.

5.3

Das Haus der guten Geister(2020)

A documentary about the Staatsoper Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Opera) in Germany.

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The Sheik and I(2012)

When an American filmmaker is commissioned to make a film for a Middle East Biennial on the theme of 'art as a subversive act,' his film is banned for blasphemy, he is asked to destroy every copy, and threatened with arrest.

5.6

An Illustrated Story(2018)

This short documentary explores how the Ilustrada section of the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper had to fight back against censorship from the military dictatorship in Brazil after Lourenço Diaféria, one of its columnists, published an article criticising the patron of the Brazilian army, Duque de Caxias.

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Censored without Censorship(2007)

Through the conversation with Yugoslav film authors and excerpts from their films, this documentary film tells a story of a film phenomenon and censorship, and its focus is, in fact, a painful epoch of Yugoslav film called “a Black Wave”, which was the most important and artistically strongest period of Yugoslav film industry, created in the sixties and buried in the early seventies by means of ideological and political decisions. The film tells a great “thriller” story of the ideological madness which characterised the totalitarian psychology having left multiple consequences felt up to our very days. It stresses similarities between totalitarian regimes defending their taboos on the example of the persecution of the most important Yugoslav film authors. Those film authors have, however, made world careers and inspired many later authors. The film is the beginning of a debt pay-off to the most significant Yugoslav film authors.

7.2

Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood(2008)

A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.

6.4

Porn to Be Free(2016)

Italy, 1970. An increasing legion of harmless warriors begins a peaceful struggle for sexual freedom through pornography, shaking and shocking religious authorities and conservative political institutions. They are ironic, happy, crazy. They are dreamers, defenders of definitive communion between body and soul. But they were censored and humiliated. They were mistreated and arrested for demanding loud a new cultural renaissance.

5.7

Cover Your Ears(2023)

When does art become obscenity? Cover Your Ears takes a close look at this question through the lens of the past 100 years of music and the ever-evolving discussion of legal and moral lines in the industry

6.0

Theaters of War(2022)

If you’ve seen Top Gun or Transformers, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? Does the military actually get a crack at the script? With the release of a vast new trove of internal government documents, the answers have come into sharp focus: the US military has exercised editorial control over thousands of films and television programs. As these activities gain new public scrutiny, new questions arise: How have they managed to fly under the radar for so long? And where do we go from here?

7.4

Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic(2013)

Mike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.

7.0