Welcome to the 7th Advent Calendar of Curiosities! You can find all prior content on the main page! Subscribe to the feed, or simply follow me on Twitter to be notified of new content. Enjoy! ^_^
Paint Drying is a 10-hour movie directed by the British filmmaker Charlie Lyne and released in 2016. It literally shows a single, unbroken shot of white paint drying on a brick wall.
With this movie, Lyne is protesting against the practices of the British Board of Film Classification, specifically against censorship and mandatory classification: all movies shown in UK cinemas have to be reviewed by the BBFC, and the filmmakers have to pay around 500 GBP per hour of film material.
But on the flip side, the BBFC is also required to watch the movies submitted to them in full. Lyne raised the money for submitting the film on Kickstarter. According to a BBFC spokesperson, "Examiners are required to watch a very wide variety of content every day, so this didn't phase them."
The movie was rated "U" for "Universal".