Kinsey

Production: USA 2004 Genre: biographical, drama Director: Bill Condon Screenplay: Bill Condon Medical topic: sexology Description: Alfred Kinsey was a professor at the University of Indianapolis who laid the foundations for the field of sexology. In 1938, he conducted extensive surveys on the sexual lives of U.S. residents, starting with questionnaires filled out by his students and interviews with homosexuals. Later, the number of social groups studied was expanded—Kinsey identified over 200 of them! He collected between 400 and 1,000 interviews with representatives from each of them. The results led to a reevaluation of existing views.  The newspaper headlines left no room for doubt: "Kinsey drops his atomic bomb." The next stage involved large-scale film documentation of masturbation and sexual intercourse among female volunteers. The published results caused incomparably greater outrage than the findings of the same observations conducted on men. Kinsey lost the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was unable to raise funds to write another book. “Even the latest technological advances are being used in a vile manner. The gasoline engine has brought us the pleasure of a car ride, as well as the far more ruinous roadside brothels. Electricity has brought shameful visual displays. Over the telephone, a young woman can hear the voice of a suitor. / On the pillow, right next to her. Nor can we forget the most scandalous of all inventions: the zipper, also known as the slide fastener. It provides all men and boys with quick access. / To moral ruin."—this is an excerpt from a sermon by Father Alfred Kinsey, which his son had to listen to during his childhood. This biographical film depicts the extraordinary life of a man raised in a strict Puritan family who changed the prevailing understanding of sexuality and its treatment as a taboo subject. And he contributed, among other things, to the creation of a college course such as Reproductive Medicine with Sexology.