[Publib] Showing R rated movies

Thu Apr 2 12:14:58 EDT 2009

A little fable about movies at libraries:

Last summer I showed a series of movies for adults, although some were
appropriate for all ages. I only ventured into the PG-13 realm though,
because our library hadn't decided whether to show R-rated movies yet. I
showed the movie Juno which is PG-13, but somehow this got listed in the
Family section of our calendar-probably my mistake when writing
publicity. A youngish couple brought their 3 little kids to see the
movie, thinking that it was about Alaska. (Somehow they had hidden from
the evils of pop culture for an entire year, and/or don't know how to
spell the Alaskan town) After the first few minutes of the movie, which
are the tawdriest if you can even call it that, the couple left and came
to the reference desk. The father asked who picked the movies to show,
and luckily for my co-workers (and unlucky for me) I was there to defend
myself and the movie. He shook his head in disbelief that we would show
a movie that talked about sex (whispered to protect the children), and
said (I kid you not) "Violence I would be okay with, but..."  So,
apparently Full Metal Jacket, that's okay for 3-5 year olds, but Juno
taking off her panties is horrible. Well, I'm exaggerating a little
there, but you get the idea. The man has a right to decide what his kids
see, but he needs to pay attention if it matters that much to him. By
the end of our conversation I was just as appalled as he was.

I did explain to him that this was an adult movie series and the ratings
and descriptions were listed, but apologized that it was accidentally
listed in the family section.

This is not to discourage you though. Personally, I think showing PG-13
and R rated movies in the library is fine, but of course be prepared to
defend your decisions-as always. 

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Backwage at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:45 AM
To: rmyoung at mcls.lib.wi.us; victoria.yarbrough at douglasaz.gov
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Showing R rated movies

In a message dated 4/2/2009 8:04:11 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
rmyoung at mcls.lib.wi.us writes:

	No registration. No permission slips.  Just free films.  We are
not our patrons' parents. 

I'd love to see a survey taken of the libraries that do and don't offer
R-rated films to their patrons.  I wonder if the distribution would
suggest regional differences.  

An interesting issue.  Reminds me of when, long ago, my brother tried to
show pornographic films on the side of the apartment building adjacent
to his own, out here in California.  The police came around, asked some
questions, could do nothing--no law to prevent it.  Perhaps out of
frustration they stormed his place, beat the tar out of the occupants,
smashed the projector and departed, only to discover their cars being
wrecked by the local miscreants.  Quite an end to a party.  

That's how we did things in California thirty years ago.  

When I was working as a clerk in a public library, they gave me the task
of repairing eight and sixteen-millimeter films the library would show.
Mostly these were kiddie classics; they would screen them on summer
afternoons in an unused conference room to keep children quiet while
their parents slept off hangovers.  I hated the job.  The films were old
and brittle; some of them were more splices than otherwise.  If you
recall those machines, you had to look through a viewer and hand-crank
the film along.  At the right place you could put in a mend, and then
keep going until the movie was complete.  

A couple feet of movie is not a lot of film, but the loss is quite
noticeable, rather like taking a few notes out of a familiar song.  Be
glad you have other options now--back then, all we could do was repair.
Unless your repair person was bored and hated his work, in which case he
might splice a bit of Three Stooges into Heidi, or whatever could be
found on the floor into Sound of Music.  It is just too bad that we
don't have films anymore--we could please bluenose patrons by replacing
racy scenes with excerpts from old Civil Defense films.  Right at the
hot places in Fatal Attraction you could insert a melting glacier from
An Inconvenient Truth.  What would that be rated?

M. McGrorty

________________________________

New Low Prices on Dell Laptops - Starting at $399
<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220433304x1201394525/aol?redir
=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213540718%3B35046385%3Be> 

************************************************************************
****
Checked by MailWasher server (www.Firetrust.com)
WARNING. No FirstAlert account found.
To reduce spam further activate FirstAlert.
This message can be removed by purchasing a FirstAlert Account.
************************************************************************
****
</CENTER

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20090402/bf2bd4d4/attachment.htm