DVD release reveals inside story on film rating board.

In a three-story pinkish building with a heavy gate out front and a metal fence hidden by greenery in Encino is the Motion Picture Association of America, the studio-funded organization responsible lot rating feature films.

The activities taking place inside that building on Ventura Boulevard are the subject of "This Film is Not Yet Rated," a documentary by filmmaker Kirby Dick released on DVD on Jan. 23.

Dick interviews filmmakers, critics, authors, and others involved with the entertainment industry critical of the arbitrary decisions of the MPAA's film raters. His point of view is that what the raters do borders on censorship, and the process favors the major studios whose dollars fund the MPAA at the expense of independent filmmakers.

But the biggest target is the anonymity of the ratings process and the unknown faces of the full-time raters whose decisions can mean success or failure for a filmmaker.

And ratings do matter, said Paul Dergarabedian, the Encino-based box office analyst who makes a brief appearance in the film.

A rating can determine how many theaters show a film, what retailers will carry, the DVD and even whether a newspaper will run an ad, said Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

In its theatrical run, "This Film is Not Yet Rated" opened in two theaters and grossed $300,000. Still, it was a film that had tongues wagging in Hollywood.

"It is a very insider kind of movie," Dergarabedian said.

But not inside enough that one isn't drawn in by how Dick and his hired private investigator (now working for an investigation agency in Calabasas) track down and identify members of the rating board (officially titled the Classification & Rating Administration, or CARA). Toward the conclusion, the camera unmasks the appeals board filmmakers can go to if they don't like the rating their work receives.

"The filmmakers did a good job of presenting a mysterious world and opening it up and putting a spotlight on it," Dergarabedian said.

The film does not advocate scrapping the ratings system, just making it more fair and open.

To that end, it may have done some good as the MPAA announced during last month's Sundance Film Fest that changes would be made to the ratings process.

For instance, CARA will now post at the association website the ratings rules and the standards for each. Ratings board members will remain anonymous but the demographic makeup of the board will be made public.

Rule revisions include improving the educational training for raters; not allowing raters with grown children to stay on the board; and allowing filmmakers to reference similar scenes in other movies when appealing a rating.

MPAA officials could not be reached at press time.

"The documentary made it clear that we probably haven't done as much as we can to explain how it all works," MPAA chief Dan Glickman was quoted as saying in Daily Variety.