Producer Gabe Hoffman has appealed to the Motion Picture Association of America, saying an R rating will make the documentary inaccessible to the teen audience it seeks to protect

A producer of An Open Secret, a controversial documentary about child sex abuse in Hollywood, has complained to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) after the ratings body gave the film an R classification, “for some descriptions of sexual abuse”.

The documentary explores the systematic grooming and abuse of young actors. It includes testimonials from men who claim they were drugged and coerced into performing sex acts at parties hosted by prominent film-makers.

In a letter to the MPAA, the documentary’s producer Gabe Hoffman wrote that the film-makers had purposefully included “extremely bland language” in the film to describe sex in order to make the documentary accessible to the teenage audience it aims to protect. “It is quite difficult to understand how such descriptions would qualify for an R rating, utilising either commonsense analysis or the MPAA’s own ratings precedents,” he wrote.

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The MPAA’s R rating prevents those under 17 from seeing a film without a parent or guardian. It is considered to negatively influence a film’s chances at the box office, as many cinemas refuse to show R-rated films.

“We were extremely disappointed to find our film – which discusses these issues maturely and carefully – thrown into the same category as films which display gratuitous sex and violence,” he wrote. “I am especially disappointed to think that millions of Americans, both young and old, may be misled by this rating, and conclude that the content of An Open Secret is not appropriate for them – when it most certainly is.”

Hoffman has asked MPAA chairman Christopher Dodd to review the decision and recategorise An Open Secret as PG-13. He wrote: “If just one single teen … finds their inner strength, and is able to escape their current abuse situation because of your decision, wouldn’t that make your time spent personally reviewing the film, and its rating, all worthwhile?”

The MPPA has not commented on Hoffman’s request.

Hoffman, a hedge-fund manager, told an audience at this year’s Cannes film festival that he had bankrolled screenings of the film in 20 US cities after American distribution companies had refused to touch it. He has since secured a distribution deal with Rocky Mountain Pictures. An Open Secret is on limited release in the US now and is yet to secure a release date in the UK.

