Nudist Cinema

This page is meant to share additional information about the relationship between nudism and film.

Late-1950s and early-1960s/Exploitation Era
In the late 1950s, many nudist-oriented films had been released due to changes in the laws regarding nudity in film. These changes meant that filmmakers could include male and female nudity in their films, so long as it was shown in a nudist setting, and did not include male or female genitals. This change, paired with others, birthed the exploitation era of films. These films served the purpose of making the most of these new rules. However, because genitals could not be shown, women would often either be completely nude, but carry around a towel in a way which would cover the pubic region, or where the lower half of a two-piece swimsuit. It also meant men would rarely be nude, and would usually where a swimsuit (usually briefs, not shorts), although rear-nudity (for men and women) was allowed.

By the end of the 1960s, these rules were relaxed a bit, and full-frontal nudity was allowed in many cases. The relaxing of some of the rules also saw many of the nudist film creators move over to sexploitation, and so the nudist film sub-genre began to die out.

Post-Exploitation Era
After the exploitation era, nudist cinema had become more-or-less obsolete. The 1980s did see the release of Educating Julie, but most films about nudism were documentaries, usually made for TV. The 21st Century saw a few more fictional nudist films being released, most notably Act Naturally in 2011 and Patrick in 2019, as well as seeing the release of Confetti in 2006, which included numerous scenes which focused on nudism. Aside from the few feature-length films, there have been numerous nudist-oriented short films released, though most are usually produced outside of the US and the UK.