I love a good documentary but there are some that are so much more than you might think going in. The latest Skin: A History of Nudity is pretty straight forward to what you are walking into, but could it actually be something more or will it just be a glorified reason to showcase even more nudity?

 

Skin delves into the gender bias concerning nudity in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has pushed for gender equality in feature films today. A deep discussion of pre-code Hollywood and its amoral roots, the censorship that “cleaned up” Hollywood and how the MPAA was formed leads into a discussion of how nudity changed cinematic culture through the decades. It culminates in a discussion of “what are nude scenes like in the age of the #METOO movement?”

​

It came as no surprise that the famed Jim McBride aka Mr. Skin was involved, because the guy has an insane encyclopedia mind of nudity in films. This time around he not only has a couple of appearances in the film he is also the Executive Producer. The film is obviously about nudity but there is so much more here. It showcases a great balance of not only the history of the nude scene itself, but the ins and outs of what went on behind the scenes to get to where we are today. Outside of the most famous of scenes they have compiled everything from the very beginning including clips and those involved to hear what really went on.

​

I loved that they also focused on the male side of it all which has always been an ongoing argument to why it seemed more taboo. Featuring a wide variety of actors, producers, directors and more viewers are taken on a historical film journey of what a lot feel is the dark side of Hollywood. Believe it or not there are a lot of the moments that were more about empowerment than just gratuitous sex and nudity. Sure there is a lot of that as well, but just hearing the stories and learning more about this side of the history of film was beyond interesting.

​

I expected just a fun flick talking about the various dude scenes and how they evolved but instead we get so much more. Check out Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies when it hits On Demand on August 18th from Quiver Distribution.