Charles Mac Farland

Charles Mac Farland

Charles MacFarland is an Australian videographer, photographer, and producer who makes films (available on DVD and VHS video formats) through his company Synetech Video featuring naked people in social settings. Locations include naturist resorts and beaches all over the world, including France, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Synetech also has videos about yoga, recreation, family nudity at home, body painting, and naked parties.

His films aim to challenge existing laws on nudity in public places and rethink some traditional moral views on the unclothed human body and sexuality. One of the unique approaches MacFarland has used is interviewing people on the street who witness his film subjects go naked in public. He also has shot his subjects at a distance to see if removing the camera from the film shoot would affect how people respond to the unexpected nudity without knowing the subject is being filmed or they are being filmed. This approach was also used in the Allen Funt film What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? (1960).

Charles MacFarland received a B.S. in Physics at MIT and taught Physics in the Peace Corps in Malaysia. Then he did an M.A. in English at the University of Virginia, after which he emigrated to Australia and taught English and Physics for about 12 years.

In 2003, Charles collaborated with Body Freedom Collaborative in producing Naked In-Sight. Daniel Johnson wanted to produce a film with segments he felt were groundbreaking in film dealing with society's response to public nudity. Charles agreed to provide segments from his various videos on the topic and Mark Storey, BFC's co-founder, directed the film, while Johnson carried out the editing as directed by Storey. Mark Storey, gave this description of the 47-minute documentary in advance of the premiere screening at the 2004 Naked Freedom Film Festival in Seattle: "Australian videographer Charles MacFarland contends that laws against public nudity are obsolete. His films record women and men as they walk naked in public, usually to the amusement and applause of those who pass them by. Naked In-Sight explores MacFarland's vision of a naked society, where offense at mere nudity is a thing of the past.