Andy Kirshner: "Sex Radical" Premiere Events in Ann Arbor
SEX RADICAL, the latest film from Stamps Professor Emeritus Andy Kirshner, tells the story of the woman who dared to challenge the Comstock Act, a late 19th-century federal law that prohibited the distribution of information about sex, contraception, or abortion through the U.S. Mail.
The timely documentary-drama will be released in Ann Arbor this month with events that include a panel discussion and a red carpet world première.
Ida Craddock was a late-Victorian feminist, scholar, and sexual mystic. Championing the right of a woman to “control her own person,” Craddock’s frank instructional pamphlets about sex ran afoul of the puritanical “vice-hunter” and U.S. postal inspector, Anthony Comstock. Despite facing repeated arrests, prison sentences, commitment to an asylum, and the forced destruction of her books, Craddock persevered in her fight for women’s sexual equality and her own First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion.
Kirshner based his screenplay on Craddock’s own words, using archival sources such as diaries, letters, newspaper articles, and leading “sex radical” magazines of the era. Her nine-year personal battle against Comstock’s censorship is portrayed through an innovative blend of archival footage, firsthand accounts, dreamlike sequences, and stylized reenactments.
Kirshner notes, “When I first started working on SEX RADICAL, I was struck, not only by Ida Craddock’s powerful story, but also by how closely the ‘culture wars’ of the late 19th-century resemble the ‘culture wars’ of today. Those social conflicts were also largely about sexuality and gender, and about the role that religion should or should not play in public life. But frankly, I never dreamed that the 1873 Comstock ‘obscenity’ Law would be experiencing a revival in 2025.”
On Wednesday, October 22, Stamps Gallery will present Project 2025 is Project 1873, a panel discussion on the film and the current threat to reproductive rights posed by a revival of the 1873 Comstock“Obscenity” Act. The panel, at U‑M’s Stamps Gallery, is moderated by Deborah Field (U‑M History), and features Kirshner and special guest Leah Litman (U‑M Law School), co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast.
On Thursday, October 30, the film will première at the Michigan Theater with a red carpet reception. After the première, the film will be available to stream online from October 31 — November 4.
On November 13, the film will have its festival première at the St. Louis International Festival. The screening will be followed by a discussion between the filmmaker and Leigh Eric Schmidt, historian and Professor of Humanities at the Danforth Center for Religion and Politics, Washington University St. Louis.
For more information about SEX RADICAL, visit sexradicalmovie.com.