While the events and people who inspired Andy Kirshner’s latest film, Sex Radical, might date back more than 125 years, the University of Michigan professor and filmmaker said its subjects of freedom of expression and women’s rights feel as relevant now as they did then.

Exploring turn-of-the-20th-century American history through the words of little-known feminist, spiritualist, and sex educator Ida Craddock, Kirshner said the documentary-style drama illuminates a message that feels appropriate for current times amid a backdrop of lawmakers seeking to ban books and mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in school.

“Even though it's a film that's set in the past, I feel like it's very much resonant with the present,” said Kirshner, who is a joint professor emeritus with the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Stamps School of Art and Design. “It was a different time, but some of the same cultural conflicts about separation between church and state and about gender roles are kind of the same struggles in a lot of ways.”

Premiering at the Michigan Theater on October 30, Sex Radical showcases these battles over free speech and censorship between Craddock and powerful U.S. Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock.

On a mission to save America’s youth from “sexual sin,” Comstock (played by Joey Albright) goes to great lengths to limit the mailing of obscene and sexually explicit material after Congress made it illegal to send information about sex, contraception, or abortion through the U.S. mail. A free-thinking sex educator who published instructional guides for newly married couples, Craddock attempts to send sexual education pamphlets through the mail that are found to be “obscene and unmailable,” later leading to her repeated arrests and charges with obscenity behind the questionable tactics of Comstock.

The story of Craddock (played by Emily Sutton-Smith) is told through the perspective of another more celebrated first-wave feminist Emma Goldman (played by Priscilla Lindsay), who adds her own takes on Craddock’s life, her various legal battles with Comstock, and how it all applies to modern times.

While Goldman described Craddock as “one of the bravest champions of women's emancipation,” Kirshner said he aimed to bring both of the women’s perspectives into Sex Radical intentionally, even when they differed on key topics like birth control and religion.

“I felt like these two different women had very parallel struggles even though they never met,” Kirshner said. “I also thought it would be an interesting counterpoint to have these two characters who were so different, and to have Emma kind of leavening the piece with a bit of humor, and a bit of sarcasm, and kind of tempering some of what Ida Craddock says."

Ida Craddock (Emily Sutton-Smith) is arrested for her "indecent" publications in Sex Radical. Image by Andy Kirshner.

Craddock first came to Kirshner’s attention after being moved by a biography of her by Leigh Eric Schmidt around 2010. After learning that diaries of Craddock’s psychic experiences still existed at Southern Illinois University, he traveled there to pore over the text, personal letters, unpublished manuscripts, and a few published articles to gain a better sense of her voice.

As a result, much of what Sutton-Smith speaks throughout Sex Radical is read verbatim from Craddock’s archives, Kirshner said, revealing a multi-dimensional protagonist he felt provided many possibilities for a compelling documentary film.

“She was just a very interesting character,” Kirshner said. “She was, I think, by all accounts, brilliant, but was denied a university education because she was a woman. She also had an interest in psychic phenomena, and she believed that she had a spirit husband, which led several people to think that she was crazy, including her mother, and she heard voices and so forth. But she was very brave in fighting against Comstock censorship.”

Prior to Sex Radical, Kirshner wrote what is best described as experimental music theater and opera pieces. With no feature film experience at that time, he thought about turning Craddock’s story into a piece for the stage, but it felt too unwieldy. Setting the project aside for a number of years, Kirshner made three other films, including his previous documentary-drama Manufacturing Hate: 10 Questions for Henry Ford, giving him enough confidence in his feature filmmaking process to return to Sex Radical around 2020.

Kirshner started shooting scenes with Sutton-Smith, doing voice recordings of some of Craddock's old letters and psychic diaries in February 2023. With five test scenes in the bank, Kirshner had enough for a trailer. He went back to shoot most of the film in November and December of 2023, before spending most of the following year doing editing and post-production.

Kirshner wrote, produced, and composed the score for Sex Radical, his secret sauce for keeping things within budget, even if it takes more time.

“This is kind of my approach to low-budget filmmaking: Any of the work that I can do myself, I do,” Kirshner said. “I wouldn't say that I'm a master of any of these crafts, but I can do a good enough job, especially if I have a lot of time to do it. So I'm able to make films, especially doing a film which is essentially a period drama, on a low budget—which is typically really difficult to do, and it's mainly because I can do the post production work.”

Ultimately, Sex Radical aims to shine new light on Craddock’s fight for free expression and women’s rights while detailing the heavy price it came with, including asylum and her eventual death by suicide.

In the current context of debates of free speech and sexual autonomy, Kirshner aims to keep the messages of Craddock and Goldman alive with Goldman’s famous message of “dim as our torch may seem today, it is still the one flame” delivered in the film’s closing scenes.

“These two women share this kind of common goal of having women's equality, control over their own bodies, freedom of speech, and were kind of involved in the same struggle against Comstock,” Kirshner said. “As a consequence of their speaking out, they were both exiled in some way.”

“The battle for civil liberties is never really won,” Kirshner added. “It's just fought again and again. I don't necessarily find that depressing. I just find that that's the reality.”

Martin Slagter is a writer and reporter with 18 years of experience in print and digital media. He also writes about Michigan-based music in his weekly newsletter Radio Amor. 

"Sex Radical" premieres at the Michigan Theater on Thursday, October 30, at 8 pm. Tickets for the premiere of “Sex Radical” can be purchased online. A stream of the film will be available after the screening here. “Sex Radical” is 76 minutes long and rated PG. More information on the film can be found at sexradicalmovie.com.