Diary of a Teenage Nudist

One of my major influences in writing the Screening Room was the Brit documentary, "Diary of a Teenage Nudist" a well made, thought provoking film much maligned by naturists and non-naturists alike, and underrated by the community in general.

Amanda is one of the teens encountered by our protagonist, and when she turned fifteen, she started participating fully clothed. There is no doubt she still calls herself a nudist, and she states there have been many times when she would feel more comfortable nude, but being the only teenager made her feel very self conscious.

Most teens wonder why everyone is looking at them, because at that young age, they wouldn't believe anyone would be interested. This only turns them off to the lifestyle, and without proper education about the history of naturism and the legacy of the Wandervogel and the Natural Healing Movement, they would not feel inclined to return.

I do not own the above image, and if there are any complaints by the BBC, I will take it down. I regret I have to crop it, but I'm not familiar with the rules here on his blogspot.

Naturist Art (by Fidus)

Who Watches the Screening Room?

I've been noticing lately that the national naturist groups and most family naturist groups have paid no attention to this film. On the other hand, two naturist friendly polyamory groups have already lent their locations to the production of this film, at a very low cost.

This includes Live the Dream and the Southern California Polyamory Meetup, particularly Tom Nadeau who owns Yogaworks. And also, LANG, which is a homosexual naturist group, in a world that has in the past discriminated against gay naturists, this group has been more than generous.

They will definitely get a plug in the credits. But CFI, members of the Naturist Action Committee, Pandora, Dana Lange have just disappeared. Hopefully one or more will follow up. But I like to think there's some solidarity here.

Already, San Onofre has been threatened. How many nude beaches or clubs are we going to lose?

I hope the situation changes.

First Screen Grab from the film

Actors from Store Front starring in Screening Room

Some familiar faces from InArtMedia's Store Front, the online web-sitcom, appear in the Screening Room.

Pictured here are Cerina Da Graca (Janey), Chriss Anglin (Fred) and T. L. Young (Writer, Photographer).

A Funny Thing Happened During the Course of Filming

This post was copied from my skinbook page. I had some interesting comments:

An interesting thing happened while filming my nudist feature, "The Screening Room." On the one day we had nudists on set, none of the young people (anyone under the age of 40) would go nude, nor would they walk around with towels on to imply nudity.

As it stands there are no nude scenes featuring any women under the age of 40, and only one scene with a 25 year old man nude from behind.

Though distribution and production isn't happy with this, the funny thing is . . . it works.

The story revolves around Micky Littleton, aged 16 who is a nudist geek. He believes in the ideals of nudism and is against his resort wanting to hold a beauty pageant. So what would shock and offend this nudist? Not to mention the other teen nudists?

What else but girls in bikinis? Hot girls who won't take it off to participate, not even in the swimming pool where bathing suits usually aren't allowed. Even teen nudists who participate fully clothed will be offended because here are hot girls with bodies they envy are not willing to go native. A bit hypocritical, but realistic, wouldn't you agree?

Even the nudists in the audience will be shocked, offended, disheartened, disappointed, until the situation turns around at the end. That is the essence of good drama.

So I want to put it out there to my readers. Do you think a nudist film will work with no one under 40 going nude, at least until the very end? Or what about not at all, like the Simple Life? Wouldn't that make a stronger statement about the state of American Nudism?

San Onofre needs your help

This is not a place for political discussion, but some nudist news are too important to ignore. Though there is no room for the entire article here, I've reprinted it at my live journal. (tlyoung88.livejournal.com)

Long story short, they will be fining people for going nude at San Onofre beginning this week. A traditionally clothing optional beach that has been so for over 30 years.

The ignorance of these outsiders is overwhelming. Where were they thirty years ago? Nobody shuts down the church when their priests were molesting altar boys.

Details of this situation and specifics of the Cahill/Harrison Regulation and associated documents may be found on the NAC Web site:

http://www.naturistaction.org/sanonofre/