The History and Humor of Sex Education Films with SEX(ED) THE MOVIE Director

Filmmaker and USC Professor of Cinematic Arts Brenda Goodman talks about her fascinating documentary Sex(Ed) The Movie, which takes an in-depth look at the history of sex education films and the ways they played a role in sex ed training efforts.

Goodman – who started out her media career in the political advertising business – said she was partly attracted to the film’s subject matter through her own upbringing in North Carolina.

“There was sort of a prescribed way of behavior, how you would comport yourself in all situations, and some of it very positive. Southerners are seen as very mannered and very polite,” she said. “But the flip side of that is that you were expected to behave in certain ways, and there were messages about that behavior – and certainly about romantic behavior sexual behavior, how to be a lady, those sort of messages, and I remembered them.”

She said it was curiosity about those messages and how they were disseminated that spurred her interest in the historical aspects of sex education. “So I had that interest, and at the same time, there was this happy coincidence that USC has an amazing archive of films,” said Goodman who then decided to look into how sex education was communicated through film.

“As the time have changed, the films have changed. So we were talking about the films during the war – those films were aimed at soldiers – like if you’re the good soldier, you’ll protect yourself and wear a condom, and there were no issues about condoms.”

She said that in today’s modern media world, many sex education films are now being posted on YouTube or elsewhere online. “There are still sex ed movies, but the whole educational film industry changed substantially a few years ago. For a while it was incredible filmmakers working in the industry, and a lot of studios.

Goodman said she even received animation cells that were drawn by for the artist for Bullwinkle, and were for use in sex education movies.

Also discussed is a sex ed film called Sex Hygiene – which was produced by 20^th Century Fox and directed by iconic classic movie director John Ford – the first such film made for soldiers in World War II.

She said that she became aware of the inadequate state of consistent sex education in personal interactions with her film pupils. “So many students have found their way to my office and there are issues in their lives about relationships, and in talking to them I realized that they’ve had very deficient sex ed,” she said.

This was evidenced even more when she decided to expose students to clips from some of the sex ed films used in the documentary during a showing at a large theater on the USC campus. The screening was so well attended that she said a couple hundred students had to be turned away.

“So we showed some of these clips and then we passed the mike – we had an open mike night where people could talk about their reflections about their own sex education. And it was shocking how deficient it seems that we are in that area.”

Watch the full interview to also hear Goodman’s take on the current state of documentaries, as well as the increasingly frequent use of graphics and music to improve film narration.