Mockumentary of Nude Olympics receives attention from officials

You may have caught sight of their fliers calling all aspiring nudists to their auditions earlier this month and wondered more about what exactly Brittany Blockman '03, Teniqua Crawford '04 and Josephine Decker '03 had in mind. The three aspiring producers were casting their planned 'mock-umentary' on the Princeton Nude Olympics.

Banned by Trustee decree in 1999, the Nude Olympics have passed into Princeton lore to provide fodder not just for the directors but also for the film's cast of fictitious Princeton students. A sophomore tradition on campus since 1970, the Nude Olympics began at midnight in the courtyard of Holder Hall after the first snowfall.

The participating students would run around the courtyard to celebrate the snow wearing nothing but footwear and the occasional winter accessory.

The Trustees who believed the tradition posed serious risks to the students' health, wellbeing and safety, banned it four years ago.

The film will portray personal stories of a group of freshmen so disappointed by the Olympics' prohibition that they found an on campus nudist colony of their own.

This tongue-in-cheek documentary in the style of "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman" "isn't about gratuitous nudity at all," Decker said, but it plays on the power of suggestion and the actors' own improvisations.

The directors and crew have also volunteered to bare it all alongside their cast during the few scenes that will be filmed in the nude.

Willingness to appear nude was not a deciding factor in the casting process.

.Kimberly Woods '05, who was auditioning, said she was "a little nervous about the audition and what [she] would have to do."

Indeed, the casting call left much to be inferred not just by aspiring cast members, but also by Public Safety officials, who sent a written warning email to Blockman and also appeared in person at the Feb. 10 auditions.

Public Safety reported to have been tipped off to suspicious activity by the casting fliers distributed around campus.

At the auditions held in Decker's dorm room, Investigator Charles Peters and Officer Maleci Malec expressed concern that the production might try to reenact the Nude Olympics for the sake of filming.

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Staging of the Nude Olympics is an offense punishable by yearlong suspension.

Following the 1999 ban on the Nude Olympics, a standard penalty was outlined and is detailed each summer in a letter to incoming freshmen and their parents.

The email Blockman received from Public Safety was a duplication of page 49 of "Rights, Rules and Responsibilities" which similarly outlines these penalties.

Blockman, Decker and auditioning actors Kimberly Woods '05 and John Lurz '03 were surprised by Public Safety's aggressive stance towards the production:"What surprises me was that even the discussion of nudity was suspicious," Blockman said.

The auditions took place entirely clothed and far from Holder courtyard, yet the attending officers still appeared on the day the University was officially closed in order to investigate.

Lurz, who arrived to audition shortly after Public Safety left, said, "the Nude Olympics wasn't so much about being comfortable and nude – it was about being drunk and nude and cold. This is about nudity not being an issue. Sort of paradoxical considering how much of an issue is being made about this 'non-issue.' "

When reached for comment, a spokesman for Public Safety claimed that there was no open investigation into the production and that their officers were "probably just being proactive. They didn't want to see them get in any trouble."

Nevertheless, Public Safety's appearance left Blockman and Decker un-phased and auditions proceeded as planned. The pair had dreamed of making a film together since their freshman year at Princeton.

They joke that Decker has long been obsessed with nudists and so the theme of their film came to them over a casual lunch discussion at Ivy Club and that Crawford, equally thrilled by the premise joined the team later.

Decker and Blockman hope to establish a production company after graduation this year and see this independent project as an important means of gathering experience.

Once it is completed in early April, the trio intends to submit the short film for consideration by the Princeton-in-Hollywood Film Festival's documentary category.

The festival will include exposure for the film, and the winners will have the opportunity to work with Hollywood producers.

Although the directors said they see their work as a learning experience to earn entrance into the movie industry and are currently working without the benefit of University funding, they have committed any future profits they might make from their film to breast cancer research.