Laid back Australia

[GePap]

Entertainment
07/05/2003 13:43:35 EST Australia Police Shut Down Film Showing



Police shut down a public screening of a U.S. movie banned in Australia because of its explicit sex and violence, sparking outrage from free speech advocates.

"Ken Park," a provocative film by "Kids" director Larry Clark and Edward Lachman, catalogues the dysfunctional lives of teenage skateboarders in the suburbs of Visalia, Calif.

Its underage sex scenes and graphic violence led Australian authorities to refuse it a classification - effectively banning it from cinemas across the country.

To protest the move, about 500 people attended a public viewing of the movie late Wednesday in the upscale Sydney suburb of Balmain.

No one was arrested, but police seized the DVD on stage and took the names of four people who admitted to pressing the play button, among them movie critic Margaret Pomeranz and Australian Broadcasting Corp. broadcaster Julie Rigg. If they are charged with illegally screening the banned film, they face a maximum sentence of a year in prison.



Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Evil Knevil]

Australia has a long history of bigotry and stupidity. Look at the white Australia policy

Still, it can be nice.

[Nubclear]

"For we are young and free........"

[Provost Harrison]

Censorship of the worst variety...Gore would be proud

[Sirotnikov]

bah.

I wonder if the people who banned this "bunch of nudie pics" realized what statement the movie was making.

I guess movies are not allowed to show reality or make statements about it.

Good work, Australian government

[SlowwHand]

Underage sex scenes. You commies are even for that?

Dang. I was all set to come in here and say there was a big difference between being laid back and being comatose; then I find a lair of pediophiles.

[Asher]

Censorship trumps actors portraying underage sex between consentual people.

Sorry Sloww.

[Agathon]

Only the sheep are laid back in Australia.

Trust me, we have to destroy Australia before it is too late.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Asher
Censorship trumps actors portraying underage sex between consentual people.

Sorry Sloww.

As long as the actors are not underage themselves of course!

[Asher]

Originally posted by PLATO1003
As long as the actors are mot underage themselves of course!

You think they're really having sex?

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Asher

You think they're really having sex?

Regardless of weather they are "really" having sex, involving underage actors in sexually explicit scenes trumps censorship. If the actors were of age and merely playing underage characters then the censorship issue is valid

[Asher]

Personally I don't think it should be illegal for underage people to pretend to have sex in a movie.

But that's just me.

Maybe you should get over the fact that kids will have sex, and it's not going to hurt anyone to pretend to for a film?

[Dauphin]

It would be interesting to apply similar logic to "DO you really think these actors are being knifed and shot?" or "Do these actors have firearms licences?".

The reality of the actors lives are unimportant, its the portrayal of what is being shown and told in the movie that counts.

[SlowwHand]

Asher, you're not noted for having moderate views.
But that's just me.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Regardless of weather they are "really" having sex, involving underage actors in sexually explicit scenes trumps censorship.

I think that's Bull personally. Movies portray reality. This is portraying what happens in real life (ie, people under the age of 16 or 18 have sex ). Since it is not actually underage sex, I see nothing wrong with it at all. The reality is what matters, IMO, contrary to BC's idea .