Nudity, sex and controversial politics

The past 12 months were wild ones, and this didn’t fully sink in until a reader approached me at the dungeon synth show I promoted at the Locals bar here in Des Moines. He was a former Des Moines Register reporter and shared with me that he attended Mini-X theater in the late 1960s and early 1970s. What amazed me was how many other people had sent me emails and messages about their visit to the same place. Besides attending the Mini-X, many shared one other similar detail: They all seemingly saw the Swedish erotic and political film, “I Am Curious (Yellow),” directed by Vilgot Sjöman, at the Eastown on Grand Avenue. This movie shares much of the same social unrest that many Americans feel today. 

“I Am Curious (Yellow)” is about a 20-year-old woman named Lena who collects information on everyone and everything, storing all that she finds into an archive. She indulges and experiments with relationships, political activism and meditation. But, there is also a strange meta moment. The actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. The movie is filled with nudity, sex and controversial politics, which had the film seized at customs, forcing the distributor to file an appeal. During one screening here in Des Moines, the projectionist reportedly pulled out a handkerchief and covered the screen during the raciest parts. Since it was screened as an adult movie, one has to wonder if it was the sex or the political activism that was covered up? I mean, no one wants a mood killer.

By any of today’s standards, this film is simply a hard “R.” Two years after the release of “I Am Curious (Yellow),” a different version of the movie was released called “I Am Curious (Blue).” It takes place before and after “Yellow,” but it also has the same scenes that played out differently, almost like an alternative reality. “Yellow” deals heavily with society and politics while Blue turns the camera toward intimacy and self-examination. It also focuses more on the director versus Lena.

The reader I met at Locals explained that he attended the screening on a cold night, not unlike the ones after the big snowfall we had in early December. He said they were tripping and stumbling over hills of dirty snow that had been plowed off the streets. Ice layered the roads, and the cold air flowed through their lungs, ever so gently. The theater was filled. 

“People flocked, but they were wearing ball caps and sunglasses at night to keep themselves anonymous,” he shared. 

This also came after the Des Moines Tribune ran a story on Oct. 29, 1969, about the censorship board criticizing the release of the film.

“ ‘Curious’ contained outrageous” sexual scenes. “If that doesn’t run against community standards, I don’t know what we’re here for,” Rosalyn Shecter, head of one of the film censorship boards, said. “The distributors refused to make the cuts. We timed the sex scenes in ‘Curious,’ and the actual sex scenes came to 40 minutes.”

Even before this, I had married couples now in their 80s tell me they saw the film during its Des Moines run and tell me, “We weren’t always old you know.” Obscenity be damned, the film had its run and played for several months in our city. It won its appeal after the seizure that opened the floodgates to what “art films” could contain.

Why am I writing about this film? The other commentary I frequently about is the cycle of stress our citizens tend to go through. Civil unrest, gnarly politics and artists expressing themselves are not always geared toward the nuclear family. This past year was a rough one for some, but let us never forget that stress leads to change. ♦

Kristian Day is a filmmaker and writer based in Des Moines. He also hosts the syndicated Iowa Basement Tapes radio program on 98.9 FM KFMG. Instagram: @kristianday | Twitter: @kristianmday