[CAM Academy Interviews: Sex and Violence in movies]

Students at Chicago's CAM Academy speak to pedestrians in downtown Chicago about sex and violence in movies.

00:07Copy video clip URL Filming on the streets as the camera operators set up. A movie theater marquee is visible, advertising the films Blind Rage and The Toolbox Murders. “How do you feel about sex and violence,” a voice asks from offscreen. A man approaches the filmmakers to talk to them. 

02:25Copy video clip URL One of the student filmmakers speaks with a man on the street about his feelings regarding the kinds of movies that play downtown. “I think they should be eliminated for the simple reason that they have a great influence on people, on human beings’ mentality. So I think that they should do away with all the violence and the sex in the films in order for people to… adapt to reality.” He advocates for government regulation.

04:44Copy video clip URL Another interview. A man says that there is too much violence on TV and in movies. When asked, he muses that that violence must influence people. He talks about reasons that he and other people might see violent movies. He gives the example of Clint Eastwood westerns. 

05:49Copy video clip URL A police officer walks by but declines to speak to the filmmakers. 

06:10Copy video clip URL A young man tells the filmmakers he doesn’t like to see movies downtown because they’re “spooky.” 

06:50Copy video clip URL A passerby talks about a violent movie playing at a downtown theater. He doesn’t think that movies actually influence viewers to become violent, but he still doesn’t understand why the violence movie should exist. 

09:10Copy video clip URL A young couple on the street agrees that there’s too much sex and violence on TV and in movies, and that it influences people who watch it. They both think that the movie Superfly influenced a lot of people. 

12:16Copy video clip URL A man shares that he does think there should be a little less sex and violence in films. He goes to see violent movies because he likes the action, but he thinks that they should be restricted to adults. The interviews take place in front of a theater showing the horror movie Alice, Sweet Alice, whose poster features a baby doll with a bloody knife in its back. 

13:37Copy video clip URL An older man talks about a “very good” movie he saw at the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Ave. He tries to remember the name of the movie, which starred Marcello Mastroianni and “what’s her name… that Italian actress that played in it… I’ve forgotten her name but it’s a very good movie. I would say it’s a four-star movie.” He says he’s fine with sex and violence in movies. He doesn’t like Saturday Night Fever, which is playing on State St., because it has too much obscenity in it.

15:12Copy video clip URL A young woman says she doesn’t see many movies downtown. 

16:00Copy video clip URL A man doesn’t think that movies are very influential, and that movies provide people with what they want to see. Though if he were in charge, he says, he’d probably want tamer movies: “more Walt Disney,” he says. 

16:32Copy video clip URL A young man talks about his expectations for gory movies. He thinks that violent movies might influence mentally ill people and young people, but not most adults. He thinks that movies give people what they want. He keeps referring to The Exorcist as an entertaining gory movie, but he objects to the obscene language in it. He muses about the reasons people see violent movies. 

18:56Copy video clip URL Another man says he doesn’t think that violent movies influence people and that the public is smart enough to differentiate between art and reality. 

20:00Copy video clip URL Another man does think that violent movies influence people who see them. 

22:10Copy video clip URL Another man talks about toning down the violence in ad campaigns for movies. 

23:30Copy video clip URL Another man doesn’t think there’s too much violence in movies, because violence is a fundamental part of human existence and has been since the start of history. A view of the poster for Alice, Sweet Alice. Panning up and down the street, including the theater marquees.