Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision

Circumcision has been in the news a lot lately - San Francisco is considering a ban and many of the men's rights activists consider it on par with female genital mutilation. This documentary has a bias, but it tries to offer both sides, and it's still interesting.

Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision

July 12th, 2011

Director Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon takes a personal – and local – look at the controversy involving infant male circumcision in his documentary, Cut.

A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ungar-Sargon interviews professors from that school and from the University of Chicago as he examines the pros and cons, ethical and physical, of a procedure that, for Jews, has signified the covenant between God and Abraham for centuries.

It’s a relative newcomer in the United States, routinely performed only since the post-Civil War/Victorian period in the belief it discouraged masturbation and prostitution. On-camera experts debunk more recent health benefit claims.

Ungar-Sargon queries his Orthodox Jewish father and brother as he wrestles with his own feelings about the procedure, which some consider a human rights violation; he also calls on mohels and rabbis, mothers and fathers who follow the tradition and men who regret their circumcisions (the footage of the foreskin-regenerating Tugger device alone makes this unsuitable for younger audiences).

Viewers are left with a pretty clear notion of what the Orthodox Ungar-Sargon will do if and when he has a son, but in this informative and thought-provoking film, he gives both sides their say.

Tags: Cut, Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision, circumcision, boys, penis, religion, culture, Judaism, faith, Rabbis, foreskin, Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon, controversy, documentary