What does one do with over 14,000 sex films collected for serious scientific research and illumination into the sexual workings of the human animal? Films gathered and studied by the famous Dr. Kinsey of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction? Why, you open up an educational cinematheque, of course.
The new Indiana University Cinema is currently sitting on what’s called The Kinsey Collection, some 14,000 films that span from sex education movies to vintage Hollywood sex films, including the Brazilian erotic classic “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” as well as 2,000 historically valuable one-reel stag films made between the ’20s and the ’60s, back when porn could put a person in jail.
Jon Vickers is the first director of the new university program, and dealing with The Kinsey Collection has been tricky—the films have been locked away in what’s called the “Kinsey Cage,” a section of the film storage area made from a converted bowling alley on campus. And, while everyone seems to want the collection to have more public exposure, they’re going to be selectively showing the films in conjunction with conferences and events. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean a regular programming schedule. The Kinsey's director of library and archives joked that there won’t be any Saturday Kinsey Nights. Too bad.