One of the most interesting people in the field of sexuality education is Dr. Mark Schoen. He has used his talent for film making and his PhD in Human Sexuality Education to bring the two together in a unique and brilliant way.
Mark Schoen, Ph.D. is the Founder of SexSmartFilms.com which is an online resource for preserving, archiving and distributing sexual health films. He is an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator and an AASECT approved provider for continuing education. For three years, he served on the National Advisory Council on Sexual Health led by former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher.
As an award-winning filmmaker and human sexuality expert, he produced more than 50 sexual health films that have been used in clinical and educational settings and viewed by the general public throughout the United States and abroad. He is the author of the award winning children’s book and video Bellybuttons Are Navels. His productions have included projects for SIECUS, The Unitarian Church, and Planned Parenthood. Dr. Schoen won six prestigious Telly Awards as well as other noted film awards for producing and directing in the sexual health field. His film Betty Dodson: Her Life of Sex and Art won the AASECT Best Film Award in 2009 and Best Feature Documentary at FilmOut San Diego, 2008.
The True Story of How Babies are Made is his latest animated short film which received an Honorable Mention from AASECT in 2010.
He received the Distinguished Public Service Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) and the AASECT Professional Standards of Excellence Award in 2010. Dr. Schoen has been quoted in numerous publications and appeared on many television & radio shows.
Dr. Schoen was gracious enough to agree to an interview for Examiner.com and provided some great detailed information about SexSmartfilms and also his classic Children’s sexuality education book “Bellybuttons Are Navels.”
What is SexSmartfilms?
SexSmartFilms is person seeking sex information’s dream. It is an anonymous way to get accurate sexual information in the privacy of your own home. It is a web site that preserves, archives and showcases films addressing sexual health issues. There are classic and contemporary films. There is content appropriate for all age groups. Subject, age group and content are used to categorize the films.
What can people find at SexSmartFilms.com?
Visit and you’ll find more than 350 films, from the first screen kiss (1896) to the latest in sexual education and therapy. There are more than a hundred Sexual Public Health messages from more than thirty-five countries.
What are some of the current projects you are working on?
"Finding New Hope" is a feature length documentary in production focusing on the severely misunderstood, but rapidly expanding community of transgendered men, women, and children in the world today.
In 1952 when Christine Jorgensen burst upon the scene before an unsuspecting public, little was understood about what the pioneering Dr. Harry Benjamin was later to call the "Transsexual Phenomenon." Now almost 60 years later the general public, and even many members of the medical profession, are barely more knowledgeable about the transgendered community than they were then. Distracted and misled by prurient TV talk shows that present transsexuals and cross dressers as oddities of nature in a circus side show, much of the mainstream audience has come to regard gender variant individuals as deviants or freaks in need of psychiatric treatment to correct an extreme medical disorder.
But behind the scenes a quiet revolution in information has occurred ...on the Internet. Here transgender people of all ages have established an extraordinary community – a quantum leap in knowledge and communication for all to see.
As a result the transsexual community has begun to expand rapidly as people have discovered that they could not only put a name to their sense of "dysphoria," but that this is a condition that occurs naturally ... not a disease or a disorder that needs a cure.
Today there is another Christine – Dr. Christine McGinn who has been down this path herself, and is now dedicating her life to the care and treatment of this growing population of disenfranchised people who have been denied medical and social services of all kinds. At the same time the noted educator and policy advisor Jamison Green has stepped forward to fight for transgender rights and a greater understanding of transgender issues all over America.
This is a story whose time has come. It is a story of discrimination and injustice...of hope and courage.
A remarkable story of a growing community of extraordinary people whose greatest dream is to be able to lead an ordinary life.
How do you think the films you provide help sexuality education?
The films are easily accessible 24 hours a day and can be viewed on a computer in your home or on a large monitor in a classroom. Many colleges are using SexSmartFilms.com in classes. Many therapists are prescribing SexSmartFilms to their clients.
You also wrote the best Children’s book-Bellybuttons are Navels. Can you tell us where we can find that?
When grandma asks for a bedtime book suggestion, four year-olds John and Megan choose an old favorite, Bellybuttons Are Navels. The book helps them discover some simple truths: boys and girls have some of the same body parts and some that are different, too. All have accurate names. Grandma's calm, confident manner models wholesome discussion.
Bellybuttons Are Navels is designed primarily to illustrate honest adult-child discussion, but also to help children develop healthy acceptance of the total body; to provide a basic vocabulary for introducing the topics of human sexuality, reproduction sexual anatomy and sexual abuse awareness; and to model sex-positive roles for children and adults. Bellybuttons Are Navels contains an illustrated picture book and twelve minute video that will help parents have comfortable, matter-of-fact discussions about anatomy with their young children. By age three, children should know the correct names for body parts and begin to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility for their bodies.
What projects do you hope to complete in the future?
We are hoping to produce more short films on current sexual issues for the site. The latest short is Libido Lost.
What would you like people to know about SexSmartFilms?
We have FREE video and subscriptions and pay-per-views. Subscriptions start at $16.99 and pay-per-views start at 99 cents. Considering the cost of a single DVD SexSmartFilms is truly a bargain.
If you are looking for a great resource for films about sexuality this is the website for you. There is nothing else like it available and the quality of the work is outstanding. There are classic films, PSA’s, current topics in sexuality, sexual health films and more. The content is thought provoking as well as educational. Go to www.SexSmartFilms.com and look around. You comments on what you view are welcome here!
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