IU Cinema shows Kinsey Institute films

When most people think of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction,  they think of sex, pornography and — well — more sex.

They might not think of research or studying sex academically, but that’s what former IU professor Alfred Kinsey intended when he opened the institute in 1947.

Kinsey devoted his life to researching human sexuality, an extremely controversial topic during the 1940s and 1950s.

Today, the institute holds an extensive archive of all things related to Kinsey’s sex research, spanning more than 2,000 years of human history, and now the brand new IU Cinema is offering a glimpse into some of Kinsey’s preserved films.

The archive includes more than 14,000 films and video, some from as early as 1915.
Jon Vickers, director of IU Cinema, said this semester the IU Cinema already has two programs with the Kinsey Institute, including a lecture by experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, for whom Kinsey became a father figure, according to biographer Bill Landis.

Anger’s films are part of Kinsey’s collection and will be shown at the IU Cinema.
“A lot of his personal belongings have been donated as well — artwork, photographs, his lifetime achievement award,” Vickers said.

He also noted that films from the Kinsey library will be shown “purely from an academic standpoint.”

“The hesitation to show many of these films is because they could be seen as pornographic, but it has to be put into context,” Vickers said. “We wonder if students will be able to look at explicit material in a different light.”

He also noted the collection’s significance.

“This is a massive, important collection. Much of it is unique, one-of-a-kind and something that researchers around the world use to understand human behavior.”

Senior Abbe Vallen said she doesn’t have too many concerns about students at IU seeing the films for what they are.

“I think we’re mature individuals, so we should be able to watch it and not look at the material as if it’s porn,” Vallen said. “We should look at it for the history.”

At the Kinsey Institute, Liana Zhou, director of the library and archives, said she was quite excited for Kinsey’s films to be involved.

“It will be a proper introduction for the interested students, faculty and scholars about the richness of the Kinsey collections,” Zhou said. “Any Kinsey film programming will be in line with our mission, which is to advance sexual health and knowledge worldwide.”

When it comes to showing films that might raise a few eyebrows across the IU community, Zhou elaborated on what other kinds of films the Kinsey library has.

“While there are erotic films archived here at Kinsey for research purposes, often times people are unaware that many of our films are sex education films and documentaries about body images, sex research, sexual awareness, sexual knowledge, concerns about gender and reproduction,” Zhou said.