In a recent post to the Without A Box forums I said that dealing with the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification was something of a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Kafka’s The Castle.
But on Friday, after a nearly two hour long phone call where in we tried to get an explination as to why some sexually explicit films, such as 9 SONGS and NEW SEX POSITIONS, VOLUME 2 receive R-ratings, while DAMON AND HUNTER gets an X-rating, and can’t even get an exemption for a one-off screening at a Gay and Lesbian Documentary festival (“The OFLC is aware we’re discussing an award-winning documentary film, right?”), things took a turn for the truly bizzare.
Moments after hanging up the phone, we received, by post, a request from the OFLC to retain our film for use in their Classification Training Workshops.
No, I’m not kidding. The OFLC would like permission to lift 3-4 minute segments to be used on training members of the film, television and videogame industry about the classification process.
As you try to wrap your brain around this, please keep in mind that only two days before the OFLC informed us that if an Australian counterpart to The Institute for Gay Men’s Health or The San Francisco Sex Information Hotline were to use DAMON AND HUNTER with their clients, or merely kept the DVD on their library shelves, they would be subject to fine and jail time.
The mind reels.
Meanwhile, the butchered re-edited version of DAMON AND HUNTER, per the OFLC’s instructions has been submitted to the OFLC with the promise that we’ll have an answer within 48 hours as to whether or not they will allow queerDOC to screen the censored version. The entire 46 minutes, censored version can be viewed online here: