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Despite the advent of the Production Code in 1930/1934, which was supposed to empty local censorship boards of their substance, they continued to act, particularly in the Jim Crow South. The Southern censors used their status to fight against film representations that they considered likely to disturb public order. The control of Hollywood cinema became the place where the political opinions of the South were expressed – mostly those of white Southern women. Censorship committees were organized within Women's Clubs, Parent-Teacher Associations, and Better Films Committees (BFC). From Florida to Alabama, the Better Films Committees allowed these women to occupy a space where their political voice could be expressed, opposing any representation they deemed 'obscene'. This article examines the ways in which women made their voices heard, through censorship, in the face of a male-dominated Hollywood industry and Code administration. Censorship of Hollywood films constituted another locus of politics for women in BFCs, even though they did not have access to the vote until the ratification of the 19th Amendment and were very little represented in political institutions. Women censors negotiated constantly with the PCA and Will Hays and saw themselves as the moral center of the United States – which meant that they fought against attempts to push them to the margins of cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British colonialists employed cinema from two key viewpoints; the first was the use of cinema in consolidating and promoting the economic and political agendas of the imperial project. Secondly, cinema became a critical medium through which the moral and social welfare of the natives in the British colonies were promoted. The considerably scattering of scholarly works on African cinema have explored colonial film censorship in some parts of Africa, however, the specific case of the Gold Coast (Ghana) has been an under-studied subject. The article engages a critical dialogue on how early film censorship was practised and further seeks to interrogate the nexus between the imperial project and the British colonial film censorship activities in the Gold Coast. While this paper does not claim an exhaustive treatment of the field of film censorship practices in Ghana, it endeavors to lay out an initial inroad, generate interests and critical debates in this neglected field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid to late 1920s, the Chinese film industry experienced a severe setback. Driven by the Ming Xing Film Company and the 'Merchant Movement', the Shanghai Film Guild was established in September 1927. It was the first filmmaking industry guild in the history of China. It was relatively outgoing in safeguarding the interests of the industry. It played an important role in maintaining the image of the industry, forcing the film censorship authority to revise its policies, and resisting those foreign films that insulted China. However, it did not form effective industry regulations to address industry autonomy. It did not change the vicious competition in the industry significantly, either. The establishment and operation of the guild was obviously affected by the wave of nationalism at the time, which caused it to perform more intensely in some situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a socialist country with a large population, China has a tight censorship system in various visual fields, including film, television and online communities. To censor films, China's central and local film authorities have successively established their own censorship systems. This article analyses the contemporary formation of local film censorship committees by combing through the history of film censorship in China. By discussing the relationship between intellectuals and the power behind film censorship, this study seeks to penetrate why and how intellectuals are co-opted by power and define the location of intellectuals in Chinese politics. Authorities reviewing films in a screening room symbolizes their 'powerful' gaze in the darkness, this visual mechanism of intellectual complicity with power, which requires Chinese filmmakers to learn how to survive under the combined influence of 'self-censorship' and intellectual vision. Furthermore, when exploring film censorship in contemporary China, the political logic of socialist China needs to be touched upon, where film censorship experts are in fact only the eyes of the power, not the power itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between late 1936 and early 1937 Italy and China became embroiled in a series of diplomatic exchanges about two controversial films. One was Abyssinia (dir. Kopalin, 1936), a Soviet documentary feature about Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, whose screening in a Shanghai cinema triggered a riot in February 1937. The other was The General Died at Dawn (dir. Milestone, 1936), a Paramount melodrama set in 1920s war-torn China whose international exhibition in late 1936, including in Italy, was criticised by the Chinese government. This article describes the reactions of diplomats and of local pressure groups to the exhibition of these films and to their 'offensive' representations of Italian colonialism and of China's internal politics and people. Research in classified diplomatic files shows the involvement of the Italian authorities in the organisation of a violent attack on the Isis cinema in Shanghai in February 1937, and provides rich detail about the inner workings of Fascist government officials in Rome and in Shanghai which could not be obtained from press reports alone. Both film cases foreground the limited power of intervention of national censorship boards and illustrate the types of actions and actors involved in transnational film exchanges where questions of national prestige or political authority are at stake. They also bear witness to a momentous time of geo-political transition and alliance-making in the lead-up to the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the early career of Irene Dunne (1898-1990). I argue that by reconstructing her stardom using film analysis alongside contemporary newspapers and magazines, we can greatly enrich discourse surrounding the star, situating her as a feminist figure. Contemporary publicity reveals that, although often situated as a quasi-Victorian lady, Dunne's independent personality, ambition, and unconventional marriage were emphasised to fans. Indeed, both Dunne's onscreen characters and press coverage often stressed modernity, validating working women and 'companionate marriage'. In investigating the duality of this messaging, which presented Dunne as conventionally 'feminine' and as a career woman, I argue that her image expanded contemporary conceptions of femininity. Her engagement with taboo themes such as divorce and adultery is also explored, and placed in the context of Dunne's own Catholicism, as well as increasing film censorship. Ultimately, I claim that her importance within the film studies academy has been under-stated to date, arguing that her 'ladylike'-ness, modernity, and strong religious faith combine to form a unique stardom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 'A Clockwork Orange myth'. It argues that this myth came about due to the controversy surrounding Anthony Burgess's book and its ban in some parts of the world and due to the controversy surrounding Stanley Kubrick's cinematic adaptation of the book. Based on extensive research at the Stanley Kubrick Archive, article examines the background and details of Stanley Kubrick's commercial decision to embrace and even take advantage of these controversies for promotional purposes. The article considers the influence that the myth surrounding both the film and the book had on the promotion and how it was used in the film's marketing strategy. The article provides insights into the public reaction to Burgess's book and Kubrick's film; the surrounding censorship issues that resulted; and the publicity campaigns that emerged for the film in response to the growing media controversy following its release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores local film censorship in Northern Ireland, examining the ways in which individual local authorities and committees imposed their own conceptions of what was acceptable for the cinema-going public. Drawing on material from the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI) this work begins with the setting up of local censorship systems in the newly created Northern Irish state in the 1920s, and maps the interventions by a range of local councils across the decades including objections to films such as Frankenstein, The Outlaw and Garden of Eden. It offers a comparative focus of a specific geographical region and argues that understandings of film censorship must move beyond a straightforward national verses local model in order to acknowledge a more nuanced picture that encompasses local sensitivities, regional politics and religious feeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will examine the position of critical cinema in socialist Yugoslavia by analysing the archives of the only documentary festival in the country, the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival in Belgrade (founded in 1954). It will compare the festival's most prosperous years, when a series of internationally acclaimed Black Wave films were screened (late 60 s/early 70 s), and its final socialist phase, when a series of 'patriotic' films, mostly seen as uninteresting by international programmers, were shown (late 80 s/early 90 s). Analysing the ideological change in the festival's programming, the article will show how Yugoslav documentary moved from a critique within a socialist perspective in the 60 s to the promotion of a predominantly anti-socialist and nationalist perspective in the 80 s. In doing so, it will demonstrate that although often regarded as 'the' dissident cinema of Yugoslavia, the Black Wave was in its essence in dialectical dialog with the socialist state, unlike the critical films of the late 80 s and early 90 s, which were arguing for regime change in favour of a nation-state. The article will shed light on the paradoxes of Yugoslav censorship and film exhibition opportunities, in the specific context of the only European country that was ruled by a communist government but that was outside of the Eastern Bloc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the authenticity principles connected to Hollywood's portrayal of China and the Chinese through three important American films screened or banned in China – Broken Blossoms (1919), Shanghai Express (1932), and The Good Earth (1937) – but with a special focus on both the historical reception and censorship of these films within China itself. It is argued that the feeling of (in)authenticity played an important role in Chinese audiences' appreciation of Hollywood narratives about the Chinese. Rather than focusing on the realistic or unrealistic depiction of the films, it is more effective to consider authenticity as a felt experience of emotional engagement and deeply felt sensuality. The felt authenticity signifies different constructed experiences and views which are rooted in different cultures and societies. The frequent appearance of 'Chinese' in American films produced in the first half of twentieth century had a ripple effect that impacted the Chinese public's own self-perception and self-recognition. The yearning for authenticity – expressed in the form of the government's censorship standards and procedures, as well as widespread protest in Chinese communities domestically and abroad – connected profoundly to the emerging sense of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the banning of Monty Python's Life of Brian by 39 local councils in the United Kingdom in late 1979 and early 1980. Focusing on three of these local areas – Harrogate, Dudley and Swansea – it draws on discursive analysis of local newspaper debate generated by both editors and readers, and the various arguments and strategies they employed to question the right of the local council to remove Life of Brian from their communities, including arguments relating to consumer choice and freedom and local trade and cultural reputation. Through doing this, the article foregrounds an approach that has yet to be explored extensively within the emergent body of work on local film censorship in the UK, advocating for the fruitfulness of a community-based historical analysis of resistance to local film regulation as well as the more commonly employed council-based analysis of local government files and archives. The article also considers the Life of Brian case study as an example of local film controversy where the themes and features of the film itself were drawn on by local resisters of the ban in a range of creative and productive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid spread of cinema throughout the British colonies in the 1920s was regarded as a major threat to the stability of the empire. Following the lead of the British Colonial Office, the Australian federal government introduced the censorship of films specifically for Indigenous audiences. This policy was implemented by the Commonwealth Censorship Board headed by W. Cresswell O'Reilly, a moral crusader and fervent advocate of eugenics. In 1929, this experimental prohibition commenced in the Northern Territory where it was enforced by Doctor Cecil Cook, the Chief Protector of Aborigines. Also, a passionate eugenicist, his racial philosophy differed radically from that of O'Reilly's. This article examines the censorship of films specifically for Indigenous audiences between 1928 and 1950. It investigates how the proscribing process was informed by competing eugenicist principles and will argue that the federal intervention into Aboriginal spectatorship was an attempt to further regulate and control their lives and was used to aid racial and social engineering. It also explores Aboriginal spectator responses to film and argues that during this period the cinema gave rise to one of the first Indigenous urban cultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the reader to the 1940s history of the documentary film in post-war Poland when the tense relationship between the Communist government and the small community of documentarians determined the contents of factual cinema. The author argues that the formal and thematic choices made by the 1940s filmmakers fuelled the future growth of the Polish School of Documentary. Despite repressive censorship and close political scrutiny, the 1940s directors produced numerous subjective film visions of the social reality around them. Some worked in line with the political propaganda; others capitalised on the available margins of creative freedom; however, small the latter might appear from today's perspective. Not only do these films testify to an unprecedented early proliferation of authorial creativity among Polish documentary film-makers, but they also form social and political chronicles of their time, a potentially valuable material for the history of everyday life under Communism. As micro-historical film records, they can complement the conventional macro-historical approaches, which with only some exceptions, tend to dominate the Western studies of the world once hidden behind the Iron Curtain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we are concerned with how the Hollywood Tarzan productions of the 1930s and 1940s were received in Belgium, a country with a long and troubling history of colonizing. The MGM Tarzan films were hugely popular but they seldom reached Belgian audiences uncut, due to the practices of the Belgian Board of Film Control. Apart from the obvious downside to this practice of mutilating films, there are some more productive sides to this as well. Censorship is also a significant social response to representations, thus making it a fascinating issue for studying a society in flux. From an international perspective, it is interesting to see how particular movies like the MGM Tarzan series have caused troubles with censorship boards or not, and how censorship practices interfere with local societal and political sensibilities. In the Belgian case, Tarzan films have been severely cut because of their violence, but as this article tries to show, not all violence was alike. The persistence with which they cut out violence on whites but made almost no problems over violence on blacks serves as an unwitting testimony of Belgian attitudes and views about colonialism. We use the censorship and newspapers’ reception of the six MGM Tarzan productions of the 1930s and early 1940s as an indicator for the dominant colonial and racially prejudiced discourse in Belgium. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores local authority responses to the cinematic release of Last Tango in Paris in Britain. Using a range of archival material from the BBFC, the National Archives and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, it offers a detailed, comparative case study of three different locations; Belfast, Newport and Oxford. It argues that comparing local censorship decisions with the national decisions of the BBFC offer little in the way of regional nuance. In order to effectively understand the workings of local censorship, a deeper understanding of local discourses is needed as well as acknowledgement of broader pressure group activity and its impact on the local picture, such as that of the National Festival of Light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Birleşen Yollar/Crossroads (Yücel Çakmaklı, 1970), which pioneered the Islamic National Cinema Movement in Turkey. The film discursively constructed Turkish secularist modernization as cosmetic Westernization and promoted the Islamic way of life as the only means to true happiness—a popular theme of Islamic cinema in the late 1980s and 1990s. Although the film-makers discursively posited it as an ‘alternative’ film, they followed the narrative conventions of melodrama, the most popular genre of the time. Moreover, they worked with famous mainstream stars. In other words, the film-makers chose to communicate the then marginal message of Islamism by reconfiguring and Islamicizing the mainstream rather than rejecting it all together. In this respect, Crossroads was an early example of the Islamist project to Islamicize modernity in Turkey that would gain momentum in the 1990s. The article attempts to reconstruct the film’s historical and continuing significance by locating it within a broader discursive context and by exploring its historical development from its production through to its passage through censorship and public reception. The article also discusses the continuities between the film’s discourse and current debates on secularism and Islamism in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the U.S. motion picture industry's creation and promotion of family-appropriate films in the 1930s. Focus is given to the level of impact the Production Code developed by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. (MPPDA), had on the industry's shift away from the production of more adult-themed features during this period. Also examined is the connection between the rise of family films and the industry's embrace of sound in motion pictures. Family films discussed include "Little Women" and "Alice in Wonderland." The Catholic Church's role in the development of the MPPDA'S Production Code is also highlighted.

The article discusses film censorship in the Southern U.S. in the post-World War II era, with focus given to the cases of the films "The Burning Cross," which criticized the racist organization Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and "Band of Angels." The author connects censorship to the lack of civil rights enjoyed by Southern African Americans, as films that challenged the Southern hierarchical race system were largely the ones being censored. Other topics addressed include white attitudes towards miscegenation, the Civil Rights movement, and the relationship between the protection of free speech and censorship. Particular consideration is given to the work of Virginia's state censorship board in regards to the two movies.

The article presents a historical overview of the rise in popularity of films that focused on spivs, or black market criminals, in Great Britain during World War II and examines how this theme in filmmaking was influenced by American crime and gangster films. It explores ways in which black market crimes were covered by the British press and in British literature during wartime, describes how the language, behavior, and dress of young British men showed evidence of the influence of gangster films on their lives, and discusses the black market for food in Sheffield, England amidst wartime rationing. Other topics include a description of the image of the spiv in motion pictures, the clothing entrepreneur Cecil Gee, and the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC).

This article reports that a common-sense understanding of propaganda often associates it with the machinery of the state. The distribution and dissemination of propaganda in the cinema is an interesting case study, particularly in the First World War era, because both the institution of cinema and the notion of state involvement in propaganda were relatively new phenomena. This article examines the ways in which companies made and distributed their cartoon propaganda films, and also analyze the ways that the trade press played a role in this. Annette Kuhn, in her excellent study of film censorship, has spoken of the problematic "text context dualism" which constitutes film texts and the social, historical and institutional contexts in which films are produced, distributed and consumed as distinct objects of inquiry, so rendering virtually insurmountable the task of exploring, without recourse to determinism, their interaction. Kuhn's aim was to break out of this dualistic way of thinking and attend to the way that censorship was not something that was done to films by a set of institutions, but was rather something which emerges from the interactions of certain processes and practices.

Discusses the British government's reform of the system of film censorship and regulation of children's cinemagoing activities during the 1930s. Emergence and evolution of a distinctive set of constructions of the child cinema audience; Rise in the public profile of the activities of the British Board of Film Censors and its system of film classification.

Focuses on the postwar censorship of Great Britain to the 1943 film `Titanic' in Germany. Analysis on Britain's perspective to the film; Role of the press to the film's showing; Discussion on the film's distribution when it opened on February 7, 1950.

Recounts the official censorship of films from the United States in Ireland from 1923 to 1954. Reason behind the censorship; Information on the filtering process given to the films before entering Ireland; Examples of films that were banned and edited.

Reconstructs the circumstances surrounding the decision to ban the 1936 Irish War of Independence film `Ourselves Alone,' directed by Brian Desmond Hurst in Great Britain. Reason behind the ban; Brief biography on Hurst; Description on British and Irish film censorship.

Discusses the censorship of the British motion picture `Jew Suss' when it was shown in London, England, New York City, United States and Vienna, Austria. Making of the film; Film script; New York showing; Vienna showing; Film ban in Vienna; Showing in Germany.

Describes the Brazilian film industry under Cinema Novo during the time of strict military censorship from 1964 to 1974. Background on Cinema Novo; Major international recognition of Cinema Novo film directors; Socio-economic context of Brazil's film industry; Ideology of the Brazilian military regime; Evolution of Cinema Novo directors; Three censorship periods.

Traces the history of motion pictures social control in United States from 1907 to 1968. The fight of the movie industry against censorship; Establishment of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) to deal with federal censorship; The Formula, the Don'ts and Be Careful and the Production Code as explored by Hays Office; The moral classification of movies by the Catholic Legion of Decency.

Focuses on the relationship of the Catholic Church and the motion picture industry in United States. Role of Catholic Church in forcing Hollywood to adopt rigorous self-regulation from 1934 to early sixties; Analysis of the Catholic Church and Irish-American reactions to the film `The Callahans and the Murphys'; Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer's reaction to the protests of Catholic Church.