When it comes to dealing with the gay community, and "gay" content, there is ALWAYS a double standard that applies. It's sad, but true.
-Aaron, US
posted by ajhigley on 22-Aug-2006 5:54
Banned!
Banned Boys
Date: 21-Aug-2006
After a runaway success at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Damon And Hunter: Doing It Together was sledged to appear at QueerDOC in September - that is until it was recently banned by the Australian Office Of Film And Literature (OFLC).
The organisers are in negotiations to show the film in an edited form, much like the organisers of 9 Songs, which shows depictions of hetero sex. The OFLC granted an R-rating to 9 Songs in it's original, unedited, sexually explicit form because the sex was depicted "in context" - it has so far rejected giving Damon And Hunter the same consideration.
It seems odd that a film held in the Kinsey Library at the world-renowned Kinsey Institute at the University Of Indiana and one being used by the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York and by the San Francisco Sex Information Hotline would be banned, especially after being passed around by delegates at the 16th Annual HIV/AIDS Conference in Toronto.
And apparently it's something that the government of Australia needs to keep the people of Sydney, especially the gay men of Sydney, from seeing.
Stay tuned...
The organisers are in negotiations to show the film in an edited form, much like the organisers of 9 Songs, which shows depictions of hetero sex. The OFLC granted an R-rating to 9 Songs in it's original, unedited, sexually explicit form because the sex was depicted "in context" - it has so far rejected giving Damon And Hunter the same consideration.
It seems odd that a film held in the Kinsey Library at the world-renowned Kinsey Institute at the University Of Indiana and one being used by the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York and by the San Francisco Sex Information Hotline would be banned, especially after being passed around by delegates at the 16th Annual HIV/AIDS Conference in Toronto.
And apparently it's something that the government of Australia needs to keep the people of Sydney, especially the gay men of Sydney, from seeing.
Stay tuned...
3 comments, 883 views, last reply:24-Aug-2006 6:14
Comments:
Hello. Tony Comstock here.
We've been in contact with the OFLC, and try as I might, I can't seem to find the word to describe the encounter -- some sort of a cross between "Alice in Wonderland" and Kafka's "The Castle". Some highlights:
* The OFLC will consider a festival exemption if the film is re-edited to remove all sex. Of course there's no time to do this in a craftmenly way, and even if there were, it sort of defeats the point, doesn't it. The whole reason for making a film like DAMON AND HUNTER is to show that sex between people who care about each other is a wholesome and beautiful thing. (I hope that everyone, no matter where on the political spectrum we might fall, can agree upon.) How do you show that something is wholesome and beautiful if you can't show it? Some time later today we will be posting a version of the film on our website, edited to the specification of the OFLC.
* In our conversation with the OFLC, it was determined that the only place in Australia where the film can legally be screened is in a booth in a sex shop in the Capital District. (Of course we shouldn't be surprised. Everyone knows the only places suitable for gay sex are road side toilets and porn shop wank booths, right?)
* Here in the States D&H is used by prominent gay men's health outreach programs and clinics, but if an Australian clinic were to show the film to its clients, or even keep the film on their library shelves, they would be breaking the law.
* As to why "9 SONGS" was given an R-rating, we were told that because my previous works had been classified as X, it set a president for how my films would be classified by the OFLC. And here I thought the OFLC evaluated each work individually! Silly me!
posted by tonycomstock on 24-Aug-2006 2:04
We've re-cut DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER as specificed by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification, and we are offering it for free online viewing.
For those of you on the podcast trip, you can subscribe to the Comstock Films Video Podcast here:
feed://feeds.feedburner /ComstockFilmsVideoPodcast
If you're not down with podcasts and you need a direct link to the media file, it's here:
://media-c02m02.libsyn /a3dteJp2nHvJeJZ7bHVqqpqoZXSY/podcasts/comstockfilms/OFLC.mov
posted by tonycomstock on 24-Aug-2006 6:14
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