IMDb Pretends to Proscribe Porn
Filed under: Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Celebrities and Controversy, Politics, Cinematical Indie
Just when you thought the IMDb was the greatest asset to movie lovers, the site has gone and revealed itself to be less a service to the cinematic community and more of a privilege from another corporate power worried about its public image. It isn't clear when the site instituted this, but as of today the IMDb has a search filter that makes it difficult to locate some titles, specifically pornographic or otherwise sexually explicit titles. These titles include the usual XXX fare, but also include more mainstream films like John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus and Caligula, which stars Golden Globe winner Helen Mirren. They aren't gone from the database, though. Shortbus can be found by way of Mitchell, who shows up when searched. The same goes for Caligula, which can be found in a roundabout way via its stars. But the IMDb isn't only filtering out the titles, it is also filtering out some performers who appear in adult titles. At least that's how it seems. The Rabbi Report experimented with the IMDb search and discovered that while most of the Shortbus cast doesn't show up, some large profile porn stars do show up. As further examples, I tested out the names Jenna Jameson, John Holmes and Ron Jeremy -- all were easily searched. Then I looked up The Brown Bunny and the documentary Inside Deep Throat -- neither was easily located.
I'm not sure of the technical difference between The Brown Bunny and Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, which The Rabbi Report points out can be found with a simple search. Both feature graphic oral sex, but 9 Songs also features other graphic sex, too. Could it be that the IMDb esteems Winterbottom over Gallo, or that it feels 9 Songs is done with more taste? Either way, the site is drawing a very thin line over what it deems appropriate to reveal to everyday searchers.
Supposedly the filter can be turned off, but only by paid members of the IMDbPro service. And there's no need for regular folks to get that service. Unfortunately it is hard to protest the IMDb by boycotting the site or its owner, Amazon (I just bought a new camera from them! Doh!), because they both continue to otherwise benefit our lives. So, I guess we have to think about what we care about more: an amazing film index and cheap consumer goods or art films with graphic adult content. Sure, erotic cinema isn't going to disappear just because the IMDb isn't promoting it, but I bet it will hurt those little indies already hurt by their NC-17 rating.
(via The Reeler)
Here is Shortbus actor Jay Brannan complaining about IMDb's "adult content blocker" and performing a song:
(via eugonline)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-16-2007 @ 7:04PM
Kirby said...
Anyone can turn on/off the IMDb adult filter, but it's sort of hidden. If you do a search that has adult titles that would've been returned, there's a link at the bottom of the search results that lets you turn it on. This goes to:
http://www.imdb.com/find/preferences?_adult=1
You do have to be logged in to do this, of course. If it's on, you can go to your search preferences and turn it off.
Note that none of this has changed in many, many months. I think it's been at least a year.
Some titles, like Shortbus, are tricky - they look enough like Adult titles to our scripts to slip through the cracks. This isn't aimed at a porn audience, though, and I see (peering into our internal tools) that we've removed the Adult flag from this title, and it should show up in the regular search results in the next few days (likely tomorrow afternoon.)
Of course, nobody can devise a solution for Porn movies that won't draw criticism. So, for all of you that want IMDb level of detail to your Adult Films, enjoy the knowledge of how to enable this - we do get and accept these submissions. Given the Adult Film industry's propensity for humorous variations on popular film titles, though, they'd show up in an unwelcome percentage of searches if it were on by default, so this solution really does reduce complaints.
-- Kirby, IMDb (speaking as a blog reader, and not in an official capacity in any way, other than that they pay me.)
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1-16-2007 @ 7:07PM
Christopher Campbell said...
Thanks for the quick and nearly official response, Kirby. I'm glad to hear that you guys are fixing the Shortbus issue. How about the others?
I had noticed that the porn filter had existed for some time, but the Shortbus, Brown Bunny and Inside Deep Throat pages have not been flagged for the past year. I'm pretty sure, anyway.
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1-16-2007 @ 10:52PM
Scot Colford said...
There's more to the adult filter setting in a registered account than first meets the eye. You don't need an IMDB Pro account to enable "adult content" searches. But you better not be using Internet Explorer! I don't know why yet, but in Mozilla Firefox, I can enable such searches in my free, registered account. But even with this setting enabled, I can't find Shortbus in Internet Explorer! And I can't even find the setting in that browser. WTF?!
Has anyone raised the question yet about why censor these things in the first place? I really don't get it. It's not like IMDB is screening the films. It's metadata. Big deal. And I thought Blockbuster was bad...
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1-17-2007 @ 7:22AM
Michael Colford said...
It's a tad bit more insidious than Kirby cops to above. International films Carlos Reygadas's BATTLE IN HEAVEN and Catherine Breillat's ANATOMY OF HELL are also censored, and they are not porn. That's the problem with censorship, one man's porn is another man's art. And what's with selectively censoring the actors who appear in these films? Search for Sook-Yin Lee and you'll get no results (she was in SHORTBUS). But do you think Helen Mirren is censored because of CALIGULA? Nope.
And while it's nice to know that you can turn off the adult filter, it would be even nicer if it wasn't hidden.
This is really quite disturbing, and hopefully will get a lot of people angry at imdb and its parent company Amazon.
Reply
1-17-2007 @ 6:36PM
Mark Rabinowitz said...
Thanks for the link and the shout out and for addressing the issue! "Fixing" the Shortbus listing does not, as other commenters have mentioned, fix the real problem of the IMDb effectively censoring many other films. Go to the IMDb here: http://imdb.com/helpdesk/contact and register a complaint!
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1-18-2007 @ 11:11AM
dave said...
The other IMDb matter that is causing problems is how original, episodic internet television series are being asked to "prove" how many views their episodes receive before being considered for a listing.
This is the only case of IMDb looking at "popularity" as a listing factor. Even series with Cast and Crew with many IMDb listings have to jump through hoops, taking months, to get listed; and, the only thing that really "legitimates" an "internet tv" series is if it gets "old media" (standard broadcast/cable) distribution.
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1-18-2007 @ 1:08PM
Jacqui said...
Funny, I had no prob finding any of the stuff, and I'm not registered. BTW, one prob w/ Caligula is that they have it spelled "Caligola". An acceptable spelling historically, but not the film's title.
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8-19-2007 @ 1:20PM
gohatto said...
I don't know if it is about some kind of proscription or a subtle censorship but also, when you look for Shortbus in Yahoo!Movies there are no search results. Then, I tried with director's name and it worked. Anyway, Shortbus is coming to Japan this week! (at last)
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