Had to choose between showing a banned film at my library or not, here is what happened.

I work at a small library in Austin and last month I had to pick between hosting a screening of "The Battle of Algiers" or canceling it after a board member complained. The film is banned in several countries for how it shows guerrilla warfare and colonial violence. I went ahead with it and only 12 people showed up, but we had a really good talk about censorship afterward. Has anyone else run into pushback for showing something that was banned elsewhere?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_carr134d ago

I had a similar thing happen at a small film club I used to run in San Antonio back in 2008. We screened "The Act of Killing" about the Indonesian death squads and a local veteran's group got wind of it. They sent a letter saying it was unpatriotic and we should cancel it. I kept it on the schedule and about 15 people came, but one guy in the back kept muttering about how it was all communist propaganda. The discussion after got pretty heated when someone pointed out the film showed actual killers bragging about their crimes. It was a mess but I think that's the whole point of showing these things.

umabailey4d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back a little on this one. Screening a film like that in a room full of people who already agree with its message is just preaching to the choir. The real issue is that movie, like a lot of documentaries, picks a side hard. If you're not careful, you're just showing propaganda yourself, just a different flavor. That old guy muttering might have been a jerk, but he had a point that the film's framing is one-sided. I'd argue a good film club should pick something more balanced so people can actually argue from the same set of facts, not just yell past each other.