Cleanflix

CLEANFLIX raises provocative questions about artistic vision, consumer rights, film ownership, and self-censorship as it follows the sanitized movie industry from inception to collapse—an industry born from the collision of Kate Winslet’s bare breasts in Titanic and the Mormon film goers who didn’t want to see them. Because Mormons are counseled by their religion’s leaders to avoid R-rated films, dozens of businesses in Utah were able to create a niche in the DVD market by stripping Hollywood films of sex, violence, and profanity and then selling and renting “clean” versions of these films at retail stores not only in Utah, but throughout North America. When news of film sanitizing reached the likes of Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Redford, and Martin Scorsese, they and other members of the Director’s Guild of America responded with outrage over what they saw as the desecration of their art and a violation of held copyright. In 2006, a US District Court judge ruled in accordance with the DGA’s arguments, ordering the retailers of cleaned-up films to close their doors. However, dozens of sanitized-movie retailers defied the judgment and remained open well into 2007 and beyond, supported by their largely Mormon customer base, who saw the Hollywood filmmakers behind the suit as self-important and morally bankrupt. During the time these stores were operating illegally, James and Ligairi had unprecedented access to dozens of renegade stores and their Mormon owners, including the infamous Daniel Thompson. CLEANFLIX follows this publicly open but privately conflicted man through the legal and moral battles he would face, while offering a revealing look behind the scenes of the sanitized movie industry and the Mormon culture that created it.

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