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"Menacing Environments: Ecohorror in Contemporary Nordic Cinema" by Benjamin Bigelow explores the emergence of Nordic horror cinema as a counternarrative to the seemingly perfect and happy Nordic societies. Bigelow focuses on the subgenre of ecohorror, which critiques the Nordic countries' environmental exceptionalism and blurs the boundaries between society and nature. The book provides close readings of several Nordic horror films, highlighting their dystopic and threatening portrayal of the Nordic region. Bigelow argues that these films serve as a dissident voice, exposing the hollowness of Nordic ecohumanist environmentalism and challenging popular idealizations of life and politics in the Nordic region. [Extracted from the article]

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]

Immediately after India's independence, the Indian revolutionary martyr Bhagat Singh became the focus of several competing biopic projects. A censorship controversy erupted around the making of the now-lost film Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh (1954), the first biopic on the martyr. It became a contentious site where the interests of the filmmakers, former revolutionary colleagues of Bhagat Singh and his family members, and various other stakeholders like public representatives, intersected with an almost disinterested state. Following Debashree Mukherjee's (2019) methodological approach of considering film censorship 'as a productive material site for the study of lost films', this article enters into a microhistory of this controversy by utilising bureaucratic paperwork and filmic and nonfilmic paratextual material to compensate for the absent film element. By tracing the very first attempts which were made to mount a biopic on Bhagat Singh, I try to investigate personal and political motivations behind the race to make the first biopic on the revolutionary martyr. For this purpose, I employ Chris Moffat's (2019) mobilisation of the metaphors of corpse, corpus and corps, which he productively uses to understand the politics behind the multifarious afterlives of Bhagat Singh and wrangle over his revolutionary inheritance in the post-colonial period, and make a case for the importance of the study of Bhagat Singh's hitherto neglected biopics by arguing that the time of their making, their production contexts and attendant controversies afford us unique insights into what Moffat terms the politics of 'India's revolutionary inheritance'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines one of the areas of activity for restriction of information – the system of military censorship in the Soviet military press: what remained unchanged and what was transformed in its work on protecting information, which was a military secret between 1944 and 1945. The study focuses on the regulatory framework of military censorship, the objects of the ban, the censor's personnel, technology of censorship control. Until December 1943 in the Red Army, there was a 'Regulation on the organization of military censorship' of 1935, which did not meet wartime requirements. The new 'Regulation' corrected the situation. The change and addition of the composition of the information constituting military secrets were directly affected by the course of combat operations during the Red Army's campaign in Europe. The subject of censorship prevented the disclosure of military secrets, political errors, and information undesirable to publish in the military press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a book review of "Opinie, prudenţă şi cenzură: Filmul de actualitate în România comunistă (1965-1989)" by Ion Indolean. The book explores the topic of "actuality cinema" during the Ceausescu regime in Romania. It provides unpublished factual information and analyzes the creation, production, and censorship of films during this period. The author argues that these films can be seen as historical documents that document the societal transformations of Romania under communism. The review praises the book for its comprehensive analysis and precise writing style. [Extracted from the article]

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]

Technology changes the look of the film industry, particularly regarding marketability through online streaming platforms. Online streaming provides a second option for viewers, which has altered Malaysia's film-viewing culture. This difference is significant between watching movies on TV screens and in cinemas, regulated and filtered by the Film Censorship Board (Lembaga Penapisan Filem, LPF), compared to streaming online via platforms not bound by LPF regulations. Through qualitative and library research methods, this study examined the development and changes in film-viewing culture in Malaysia and the relevant acts. The Culture of the Streaming Model was used as a guide to explore the development and changes in film-viewing culture in the Malaysian film industry. In conclusion, the changes brought about by the advances in technology have significant implications for the film industry, particularly ensuring that inappropriate content does not reach young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collection of articles delves into the complex relationship between censorship and sexual science in various national and political contexts throughout the 20th century. The articles highlight the dual role of sexual scientists as both censors and censored agents, as they navigated restrictions on sexological knowledge while advocating for sexual liberation. Strategies such as self-censorship, euphemistic language, and resistance tactics were employed to navigate censorship. The importance of considering local and global contexts in understanding the relationship between sexology and censorship is emphasized, and the articles call for further research in this area. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides a summary of the book "Northern Ireland, the BBC, and Censorship in Thatcher's Britain" by Robert Savage, which examines the role of the media, particularly the BBC, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The author argues that his book is the most comprehensive and thorough treatment of the period, exploring the impact of censorship, the role of the UK government, the British Army, and the paramilitaries, as well as the challenges faced by the BBC in maintaining its editorial integrity. The article also mentions another book, "The Last Bohemian: Brian Desmond Hurst, Irish Film, British Cinema" by Lance Pettitt, which offers a comprehensive look at the career of director Brian Desmond Hurst. The article acknowledges that Hurst's work may not be highly regarded in standard cinema reference works. [Extracted from the article]

Film censorship in the UK is predicated on a two-tier system whereby the British Board of Film Classification (formerly British Board of Film Censorship Censorship) (BBFC) recommends a classification for a film and this classification is then implemented by local authorities. In cases where local authorities disagree with a BBFC decision they can change the classification or ban the film entirely. Conversely, they can also screen a film which has no BBFC certificate. This local decision-making is permitted under the powers granted to local authorities to oversee cinema exhibition and licensing. Using The Snake Pit, Rock around the Clock and Ulysses, and offering a broad historical and geographic sweep, this article explores local council archives and local press reporting to map local censorship across the UK, drawing attention to inconsistencies in different areas and how councils justified the decisions they took on specific films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a book review of "Living and Working in Wartime China," edited by Brett Sheehan and Wen-Hsin Yeh. The book focuses on the experiences of ordinary Chinese people during the Japanese invasion from 1937 to 1945. It offers new insights into the daily lives of Chinese citizens during the war, highlighting their struggles, survival, resistance, and collaboration. The book also explores topics such as urban daily life, wartime culture, state bureaucracy, and China's borderlands. Overall, it provides a valuable perspective on the lived experiences of ordinary Chinese people during this tumultuous period. [Extracted from the article]

Christopher Hilliard's book, "A Matter of Obscenity: The Politics of Censorship in Modern England," explores the history of the English Obscenity Law from the Victorian period to the late 1970s. Hilliard argues that censorship has been a contentious issue throughout history, with debates about culture, freedom, and order. The book draws on various archives and examines the impact of censorship on literacy, democracy, feminism, gay rights, multiculturalism, and the internet. It also highlights the changing significance of censorship over time. This book is recommended for those interested in political philosophy and the governance system of the United Kingdom. [Extracted from the article]

Some moderation strategies of online content have targeted the individuals believed to be the most influential in the diffusion of such material, while others have focused on censorship of the content itself. Few approaches consider these two aspects simultaneously. The present study addresses this gap by showing how a socio-semantic network analysis can help identify individuals and subgroups who are strategically positioned in radical networks and whose comments encourage the use of violence. It also made it possible to identify the individuals and subgroups who act as intermediaries and whose statements are often the most violent. [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]

The debate on film censorship in colonial India is rife with assertions that censorship was introduced to empty Indian films of their nationalist content. But the examination of the Bengal Board of Film Register shows that for the period between 1920 and 1928, indigenously produced films counted for much less than American films, and film censorship during the silent era was more focused on female sexuality rather than nationalism and politics. Most of the cuts affected in films exhibited in Bengal Presidency were sexual rather than explicitly political in nature. And by the end of the 1920s, the discourse of film censorship in India would metastasize around the moral need to protect the white woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Hong Kong Crime Films: Criminal Realism, Censorship and Society, 1947–1986" by Kristof Van den Troost explores the genre of Hong Kong action-crime films from a historical perspective. The author argues that previous discussions of the genre have focused too narrowly on films from the mid-1980s to early 1990s, overlooking the rich and diverse cinema that existed before that period. Van den Troost examines the narrative significance of crime in Hong Kong's social realist films of the 1950s and the impact of censorship on creative expression. The book also provides a detailed history of film censorship in Hong Kong, challenging conventional wisdom about the lack of government intervention in the industry. Overall, "Hong Kong Crime Films" offers a comprehensive and expert analysis of the genre, shedding light on the cultural and historical context in which these films were made and consumed. [Extracted from the article]

I explore how film censorship has increasingly shaped film production and circulation at film festivals, public screenings, and theatrical releases in post‐2000 Turkey. I argue that film censorship in Turkey now works through two levels. First, through direct intervention, whereby state institutions continue to censor film production. Although the renaming of control commissions from previous decades via the 2004 "Cinema Law" creates the illusion that censorship boards have been abolished, fieldwork data proves otherwise. Secondly, state institutions designate various non‐state actors as proxies of the state and grant them well‐calculated power to employ on their behalf when necessary. I draw upon fieldwork data and case studies to analyze how the political climate in Turkey has suppressed cultural production, freedom of expression, and political resistance to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government both through bans on artistic expression and processes of delegitimization, targeting, threats, and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the debates on film exhibition and censorship during the war years in India. The First World War (1914–18) was a watershed moment for the rapidly burgeoning cinema exhibition business in India. During the war, the government of India was caught by surprise at the pace with which the business had spread in the country. When the need for cinema propaganda arose in India, the government began to assess the nature of commercial networks the cinema exhibition companies had been able to build. Throughout the war years, the Government of India debated ways of intervening in the cinema business either by competing with the monopolistic cinema companies or by introducing censorship laws to control exhibition spaces and content. At the behest of the war propaganda department in London, the government of India found itself playing a reluctant arbitrator in a bitter competition between two influential cinema companies – Madan and Bandman – for the exhibition of Britain Prepared. This article further draws attention to the continuities between pre-war censorship debates and the war-year debates that led to the enactment of the first Cinematograph Act (1918) in India. By exploring the pre-war censorship debate about the exhibition of Johnson-Jeffries film, this article reviews a commonly held assumption in Indian film history that film censorship began in the country during the war years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and fake news about the virus have abounded, drastically affecting global health measures to oppose it. In response, different strategies have been proposed to combat such Covid-19 collective irrationalities. One suggested approach has been that of epistemic paternalism – non-consultative interference in agents' inquiries for their epistemic improvement. While extant literature on epistemic paternalism has mainly discussed whether it is (ever) justified, in this paper, I primarily focus on the potential implementation of widespread epistemically paternalistic policies (such as no-platforming and censorship) and its consequences. I argue that pursuing epistemic paternalism to combat Covid-19 collective irrationalities leads to a hitherto unnoticed puzzle for proponents of epistemic paternalism. Central to the puzzle is the idea those (governments, corporations, social media giants) who actually can (i.e., have the requisite power to) enact widespread epistemically paternalistic policies seem the institutions who are least suited to having such informational control over the populace. Thus, epistemic paternalism appears a sword without a hilt; while it may prove an effective strategy in tackling Covid-19 collective irrationalities, we do not have any way to use it without incurring serious risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Modernity at the Movies: Cinema-Going in Buenos Aires and Santiago, 1915–1945" by Camila Gatica Mizala explores the experience of cinema-going in Buenos Aires and Santiago during the early 20th century. The book examines how early film audiences perceived and experienced the technology of cinema, as well as the business strategies of film companies and the reactions of government and civil society to film content. Mizala argues that going to the cinema was seen as an expression of modernity in the everyday lives of residents in these cities. The book also delves into the societal perception of technology and the evolution of cinema from a technological novelty to an esteemed art form. [Extracted from the article]

The purpose of this chapter is to familiarize readers with contemporary challenges and censorship in school libraries and learning commons in Canada. The informal narrative reflects the viewpoints of seasoned advocates for intellectual freedom and social responsibility in the Canadian library sector. Content concentrates on the main sources of challenges, four common types of challenges that can lead to censorship (content, curriculum, genre, and book leveling), an essential two step strategy and related resources for dealing with challenges and combating censorship, and a pointer for educators in library and information programs. The chapter closes with an expression of appreciation and concern for the individuals who take personal and professional risk in managing challenges and combating censorship in school libraries and learning commons in Canada and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to study the recent debate over censorship of entertainment content produced and disseminated over several Over-the-Top (OTT) Platforms so as establish a parity between regulation of theatrical cinema and entertainment content over these platforms. The prime objective of this study is to analyse the difference between Certification and Censorship of Films so as to justify the demand for Self-Regulation by various OTT platforms. Further, the study proposes recognition of Right to say No and Right of Choice as social freedoms in the context of nature of entertainment content is sought to be viewed by the consumers. This shall further the peaceful exercise of right to free speech and expression of producers of content and every such OTT platform where such content is broadcast. With the Government releasing "The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Ethics) Rules 2021", several questions pertaining to self-regulation of OTT platforms have emerged. This research discusses if censorship of OTT platforms may curtail their right to free speech and expression, and therefore evaluates the need for self-regulation over the former as a method of grading the nature, quality and appropriability of content available over these platforms. The research concludes that the censorship is a misnomer and cannot be applied to OTT platforms as the nature of content between cinema and web-based entertainment is completely different. This is the result of India gradually becoming an 'experience economy' where the viewer's choices and web-based entertainment content have garnered a much wider demand than theatrical cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O alvo do presente artigo é estabelecer uma leitura comparada de Técnica do golpe de estado, de Curzio Malaparte, e Técnica do golpe de censura, de José Cardoso Pires. Apesar da distância cronológica que separa a publicação dos dois ensaios, é possível salientar determinadas afinidades entre o texto de Malaparte e o de Cardoso Pires, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à maneira de abordar o seu assunto. Se o ensaio malapartiano concentra toda a sua atenção sobre o funcionamento técnico dos modernos golpes de estado prescindindo das intenções que os norteiam, Cardoso Pires empreende uma análise igualmente desideologizada do fenómeno censório. Ambos os objetos são considerados a partir da sua eficácia técnica, abordagem que se afirma como única estratégia viável para compreendê-los e encontrar o seu antídoto. Ressaltar o modus operandi destes dois textos ensaístico-narrativos contribui para aprofundar a problematização da realidade portuguesa empreendida pela literatura de Cardoso Pires. The primary objective of this article is to provide a comparative reading of Curzio Malaparte's The Technique of Revolution and José Cardoso Pires's Censorship as a Technique. It is possible to recognize affinities between Malaparte's and Cardoso Pires's essays, especially as far as methodology is concerned. Both works share a particular view on dictatorship. Malaparte's essay is focused on the technical functioning of modern coups d'état regardless of their specific intention, while Cardoso Pires develops a nonideological analysis of Salazar's censorship. Both revolution and censorship are considered from the point of view of their technical efficiency, thus enabling the authors to also discuss subversive strategies against them. My analysis provides an interpretation of this modus operandi that highlights how Cardoso Pires merges essay and narrative in order to question the Portuguese reality. [End Page 117] [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]

In the history of Hong Kong, the two largest and most impactful waves of social movements took place in the 1960s–70s and in the 2010s. The two documentaries-pair, 香港保衛釣魚台示威 (The Protect Diao Yu Islands Protest in Hong Kong) (1971) and 給香港的文藝青年 (To Hong Kong Intellectual Youths) (1978) produced by the anarcho-pacifist 70年代雙週刊 (The 70's Biweekly) syndicate, and 佔領立法會 (Taking Back the Legislature) (2020) and 理大圍城 (Inside the Red Brick Wall) (2020) produced by Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers effectively construct a 'We' of the protesters in alliance in the Butlerian sense. In the case of the 2020 films, this 'We' is unwittingly expanded by the government by imposing censorship on them, thus creating another layer of alliance with some Hong Kongers who might not have even watched the films, but stand in solidarity with the filmmakers in defending freedom of expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of censorship associates with authoritarian regime; however, it is not unequivocally, i. e., also in a democratic country there may be obstacles that create barriers for artistic self-expression and limit the artistic process by stimulating the topicality of self-censorship. Also, in Latvia the parliamentary democracy creates legal framework that formally excludes the ideological censorship of creative process and artistic creativity. Simultaneously, the society's attitude towards artistic expressions, as well as dominant ideologic values among various groups of society and within the country may create critically condemnatory or supportive framework for certain expressions of art. The main aim of this article is to find out how the artists of today comprehend and explain manifestations of artistic freedom, censorship, and self-censorship in Latvia nowadays. Eighteen in-depth interviews involving the Latvian directors of the films were conducted in the framework of FARP "The art of nationalism: Social solidarity and exclusion in contemporary Latvia". In general, the study (1) reveals multi-shaped manifestations of censorship in the creative activities and dominant conditions in which it forms, (2) allows to follow up the sources of self-censorship for artistic activity, and (3) draws conclusions on the conditions and barriers of creative freedom in Latvian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between policing, film censorship, and right-wing extremist politics through a case study of the Detroit Police Department Censor Bureau’s censorship of leftist cinema during the 1930s. This period saw the police Censor Bureau repeatedly target films suspected of harboring sympathy for communist ideology as well as films openly critical of Hitler and fascism. I place this history within the context of the rise of nativist and fascist movements in southeast Michigan as a whole, and within the Detroit Police Department in particular, during the years leading up to the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last major American city with legal authority to continue the practice of censoring films was Memphis, Tennessee. The practice ended when a federal judge in 1976 ruled that the authority that governed the city's Board of Review was unconstitutional. Memphis held on to the practice of censoring films into the 1970s while almost all other US cities had stopped the practice in the mid-1960s. Memphis held on so long because of the city's legacy of censorship and its goal of retaining old-world values in the changing era of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper gives a history of the Board of Review in Memphis to demonstrate how censorship was used as an attempt to hold onto outdated values in changing times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong film historiography, the films from the Union Film Enterprise Ltd (1952–1967) are totally separated from socialist arts and politics. In this paper, I argue that the working masses in Union's films are derived from the legacies of leftism, which manifest in films about the anti-Japanese War of Resistance (kang ri). The Chinese leftism legacies, since the 1930s, are concerned with how human beings are formed socially rather than morally, that aesthetics are not separated from politics, and that learning and labor are not separated. Both Road (Lu 1959) and Sea (Hai, 1963) are directed by the same director Ng Wui. They share similar thematic concerns and aesthetic motifs of glorifying the heroic masses in the anti-Japanese war of resistance. These films can see how the ideas and practices of the New Democratic Revolution about the working masses in art and literature, born around the Second Sino-Japanese war, informed the left-wing films in Hong Kong. Also, given the censorship of films in colonial Hong Kong, these films shift the focus from showing the political parties (Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang) and army to the solidarity of the working masses. [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 offers the first systematic investigation of the institution of opera censorship in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. Drawing on new archival sources, it examines censorship legislation, the organisation of dramatic (i.e., theatre) censorship, the workings of its bureaucracy, censors' reports and protocols and Nicholas's personal decrees on productions of specific operas, and printed and manuscript librettos. From these, it distils the patterns of state intervention in opera, revealing a remarkable fluidity – even capriciousness – of approaches. Decisions to ban or permit, and specific intrusions into the texts, were based on the censors' adherence to or disregard for the Empire's censorship laws, Nicholas's inclinations and impulses, changes in cultural policy, practical needs of the Imperial Theatres, the shifting political climate at home and abroad, and, most of all, the national point of origin of the operatic work under review. In addition to surveying the trends, the article offers three case studies: Glinka's Zhizn' za Tsarya (A Life for the Tsar), Verdi's Rigoletto and Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second World War, Buenos Aires's Government censored a number of films that they viewed as potentially having a detrimental effect on the political outlooks of its people of Buenos Aires. These bans, which were later extended to the whole nation, were due to the intervention of international and local politicians and diplomats in an attempt to influence the citizens' opinion of the Axis powers. Films such as Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) and The Great Dictator (1940) were only screened once the war was over. Through specialized cinema magazines published in Buenos Aires, this article problematizes the different geographical scales in which censorship took place in Argentina during the Second World War. Moreover, it discusses the reasoning and discourses of culture and morality as the main ideas behind the censorship of these films in Buenos Aires, and Argentina more generally. [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]

Film censorship screens the nation as a 'way of seeing' that is both fundamental to the art of governance and vulnerable to the flexibility of contemporary global images. In Thailand, this historically-conditioned regime arose in the geopolitics of the 1930 Film Act, the Motion Pictures and Video Act of 2008, and a coterminous regulation of visuality as a form of cultural governance. I pursue a close reading of two banned films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Nontawat Numbenchapol, respectively, to illustrate the aesthetics of film censorship in light of the development of a national cinema, especially to consider the strategies that film-makers use to negotiate the governance of vision. [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]

The postcolonial government in Kenya has embarked on a sustained war against identity by banning locally and internationally produced motion pictures that depict LGBTQ themes in the ongoing national discourse on gender identity. In 2014 and 2018, the government effectively banned two films by local directors (The Stories of Our Lives and Rafiki) for including the LGBTQ community in this discourse. Within the same period, officials banned The Wolf of Wall Street and Fifty Shades of Grey, both by international directors, for their explicit sexual content. The bans attracted public attention and triggered a debate over the country's censorship laws in particular and gender identity in general. However, while paying specific attention to postcolonial censorship laws that aimed to retain the status quo, the debaters failed to ground their arguments in their proper historical context. To better understand censorship in Kenya, we must first understand its history during the colonial period (1895-1963), a period that saw the colonizer attempt to construct for the colonized a morally acceptable identity. This construction saw the British colonial government shield African cinema audiences from films that they thought would teach them undesirable behaviors. To achieve this goal, censorship officials censored films with "questionable" scenes. This study connects the present and the past, broadens present censorship and gender debates by deepening our collective imagination of real and imagined laws, and incentivizes the debaters to think broadly about continuity without change in Kenya. It vacates rigid chronologies and does not purport to provide a definitive history of censorship and identity during the two historical periods, even if such a history were possible to produce. Broadly, the study situates censorship within a long history of framing and re-framing identities and, consequently, contributes to a more complex understanding of the chaotic interplay among power, art, and identity. [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 essay is driven by the question of how Candra, the writer and director of Dewi pulang (2017), is able to sustain his cinematic practice, despite the controversial nature of his films. Considering the notion of landscape of possibility , this essay traces processes that precede and go beyond the production of a particular film, but which are nevertheless constitutive of its becoming. These entanglements are explored through concrete stories in dialogical engagement with film practitioners in Indonesia. Adding these to the conversation of what constitutes a film conceptually and analytically, the desired gesture of this essay is less a representation or documentation of Candra's practice or Indonesian film communities but rather a provocation to approaches in film studies that operate on binary assumptions of landscape as an external backdrop (of text and context, film and maker, state and film production). I will argue that the evolution of film communities in Indonesia challenges commonly held assumptions about the role of the state in 'independent' film, and the linear 'assembling logic' from 'grassroots' to 'mainstream'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "Local Film Censorship's Last Stand: The Memphis Board of Review, 1967 to 1976", Thomas J. Hrach looks at the last major American city with legal authority to continue the practice of censoring films. Hrach argues that the review board was motivated by the city's legacy of censorship and its goal of retaining old-world values in a rapidly changing era. Growing up I always felt this strange link to Richard Nixon because we shared a birthday. [Extracted from the article]

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]

In order to distribute their films in China, U.S. filmmakers must submit them to Chinese censors for approval, which frequently require changes to films to portray China and the Chinese in a more favorable light. Given the millions of dollars to potentially be made in the large Chinese market, filmmakers have been willing to comply with Chinese censors, and have even begun to censor themselves by anticipating China's concerns and tailoring their films appropriately. In this way, China is able to influence the way it is portrayed in films not just for audiences in China, but in the United States and around the world. To combat the spread of Chinese propaganda in this way, Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill, dubbed the SCRIPT Act, that would prohibit filmmakers from obtaining government assistance with their films unless they refrain from making changes to film content to accommodate the Chinese government. This Article examines whether the SCRIPT Act, by denying government support to filmmakers based on the content of their films, violates the First Amendment. While a bill might be crafted to do this in a way consistent with constitutional requirements, certain aspects of the SCRIPT Act make it likely to be unconstitutional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]