Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary features interviews with art experts, authors, gallery directors, wealthy collectors, museum curators and docents, librarians, and art restorers who discuss the reasons behind the cultural suppression and control of erotic art and literature, who decides what is acceptable based on public morality, the difficulty society has in accepting sexuality as an appropriate subject for art, and how many and what erotic masterpieces remain hidden today. Basic concepts analyzed are the nature of power and knowledge in different cultures today. Viewers are taken into locked rooms, warehouses, bank safes, private homes, and museum cellars to view parts of collections of erotica, some of which have never been filmed or photographed before. Items from the British Museum, the National Library of France, Munich’s National Graphics Collection, and the Vatican were photographed in their homelands as well as items in Sweden and the U.S. Few people are aware that the Vatican is home to the world’s largest collection of pornography.

Video techniques and effects are skillfully and thoughtfully woven together. Editing of the photographs of the public places and homes as well as the paintings or sculptures is judicious and effective. These DVD’s are suitable for adults of all ages. Academic and public libraries will want to purchase to show viewers examples of the type and variety of art that is not generally on public display.