LGBT movie ‘Passages’ director Ira Sachs is disappointed with the NC-17 rating that the film received and claimed that it is a “cultural censorship.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sachs said that he is disappointed in the rating and wants people to be able to see the film.
Unfortunately for the director, ‘Passages’ got an NC-17 rating, which means that no one under 17, even if accompanied by a parent or guardian, will be admitted to see the film.
Sachs claimed that this is “a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.”
However, Sachs said that they are not interested in re-editing the film to help it get an R rating instead. Sachs said that there is no separating the film from what it is and that it is a movie that is “very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives and to shift that now would be to create a very different movie.”
Mubi, the streaming platform that acquired the film out of Sundance, is standing behind this decision.
In a statement released to the Times, Mubi said that ‘Passages’ is an “honest and groundbreaking” portrayal of contemporary queer and straight relationships and that “frank and thoughtful” depiction of sex is important to “cinematic storytelling and in service of representation.” Furthermore, Mubi said that an NC-17 rating suggests an explicit or gratuitous portrayal of sex and that mainstream audiences will be offended by this, which Mubi believes to be false.
