More on film censorship-AMF

Film Censorship Leaves Viewers in the Dark
Lynette Lee Corporal
Asia Media Forum: October 21, 2008

http://www.theasiamediaforum.org/node/904

It’s film festival time in the Thai capital, but many movie enthusiasts still feel, well, left in the dark by the recent banning of the Japanese-Thai film ‘Children of the Dark’, which was deemed too sensitive by the authorities.

This is especially in the wake of the new Film Act, which favours a rating system over making cuts in films.

The feature film ‘Children of the Dark’, which is about child sex slavery, never saw the light of day at the 2008 Bangkok International Film Festival on Sep 23-30, 2008, because Thai censors — via a statement released by festival officials — deemed that it was ‘inappropriate’ and touched on a ‘sensitive’ issue.

The ban puts under the spotlight the country’s – or at least its higher-ups’ – seeming unwillingness to let go of the Film Act of 1930, when Thailand was still under absolute monarchy. That law gave a Board of Censors the power to impose cuts or to ban a film it deems inappropriate. Apart from officials of the Royal Thai Police and the Ministry of Culture, the board  gets advice and inputs from the religious community, academe and other sectors.

BLACK PATCHES

In April 2007, the internationally acclaimed Thai film, ‘Syndromes and a Century’, was withdrawn from commercial release in Thailand by its director Apichatpong Weerasethakul after censors demanded that several scenes be cut. In April 2008, the film was shown on a limited run, with the censored scenes replaced by black patches as the director’s way of protesting the censorship.

But on Dec. 20 that year, the new Film and Video Act of 2007 became law, due to take effect in October 2008. Unlike the earlier film act, this new law promotes instead the ratings of films into several categories. Still, critics are unhappy with the fact that films can still be subjected to censorship or an outright ban if they are found “to undermine or disrupt social order and moral decency, or might impact national security or the pride of the nation”.

“Authorities always think that viewers need to be protected and shielded from real issues. They still have that kind of sentiment that the media should function as a gatekeeper. That is, let the good stories in and the bad ones out. It’s okay in certain circumstances but not when talking about real, serious issues,” Thai documentary filmmaker Pipope Panitchpakdi told AMF in a phone interview.

NO KISSING

“This country has no problem with hypocrisy; we don’t see anything wrong with double standards. We have sex workers in corners of the city, but we can’t watch people kissing,” said Pipope. “If you do a film about Cambodia now, it’s most likely to be banned. It is all about relativism to the extreme,” he added, referring to the volatile situation that Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia are in now due to the disputed Preah Vihear temple at their border.

In his blog, www.thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com, a Bangkok-based journalist who calls himself Wise Kwai, questioned the banning and stated that “the old ways still cling” and that this South-east Asian country is “still predominantly conservative with leanings toward authoritarianism”.

“When will they learn that when they ban or censor a film, the ensuing stink that’s raised causes more problems than if the film had been allowed to quietly unspool? Perhaps if people had seen it, they might criticise it, but they’d also talk about the problems in society that allow children to be exploited,” he wrote in a blog article entitled ‘Children of the Dark Ban Mars Start of Bangkok International Film Festival’.

Given the trafficking of women and children in the region, the producers of ‘Children of the Dark’ thought it was a good way to raise awareness about the issue. Not surprisingly, they were dismayed at the turn of events.

WIDER AUDIENCE REACH

In a statement released by the film producers after the ban, the producers expressed their desire to have the film shown in Thailand and the rest of the world. “This film is not just about Thailand. It’s about the whole region, helping people on the outside to understand the problem,” Japanese producer Masaomi Karasaki was quoted by newspapers as saying.

For MTV Thailand campaign director Simon Goff, film as an educational medium can be a very powerful tool, as proven by the widely popular ‘ MTV Exit: End Exploitation and Trafficking’ documentary launched in 2007. ‘MTV Exit’ has since been distributed across the region in 12 versions, including Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Tagalog, Lao, Khmer, Burmese and Vietnamese.

“If you can get a film shown commercially, then it can be a hugely successful way of educating people. Films are very powerful tools and if it’s really a good film that shows the issue in its ugly reality and if it’s accurate, then I would see no reason why it should be banned just because it’s distasteful,” Goff said. He cited the award-winning 2006 movie ‘Blood Diamond’ as an example, one that brought to light the plight of those involved in diamond trading.

He declined to comment on the banning of ‘Children of the Dark’ in particular, because he has not seen the movie yet.

ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), a non-government organisation working to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children, also abstained from making comments under the circumstances.

“It is very difficult to give a blanket statement as to what is beneficial or not [without having seen the film itself],” stated ECPAT communication officer Caroline Liou.

She, however, reiterated that ECPAT follows strict guidelines when it comes to media coverages involving children.

ECPAT believes that “media can play an important part in promoting children’s well-being and respect for their rights by portraying children in a positive way, by seeking children’s opinions, and by providing children with avenues for exchanging information and opinions”.

Stereotypes, sensationalism, sexualised images of children, to name a few, are no-no’s during media coverages, according to ECPAT’s media guidelines.

FILMS FOR AWARENESS

Goff clarified that unlike the Japanese-Thai film, theirs is of a different format. “It’s not for commercial reasons and we don’t aim to sell programming. Ours is educational documentary, not a drama format,” he said, adding that the anti-trafficking documentary was given away to Thai authorities, local government organisations and police forces.

Hopefully, he said, MTV’s negotiations with Thai PBS to show the documentary to local audiences will pull through soon. “We haven’t fallen foul of any issues about censorship and we work with local authorities here and other countries. We play by the book and we haven’t had anything censored or banned. We’re careful to do it sensitively to ensure that all identities of people in the film are protected and will not adversely affect their lives,” said Goff.

Pipope noted that while there are indeed movies that, instead of pushing important issues, are self-serving and merely highlight the skills of the director, censorship still has no place in the industry. “I am all for film ratings and not censorship, and this includes all kinds of films, yes, even the self-serving ones,” he said.

“If they (audience) don’t like it, they can picket in front of theatres or boycott the film,” he added.

Unfortunately, he noted, the Thai public are not as involved as he would like to expect. “Thais, as a whole, don’t care because they don’t feel it’s tampering with their rights. There’s not enough public debate going on about this.”

According to United Nations and other studies, human trafficking has a total market value of 32 billion U.S. dollars. More than half of 2.5 million victims of trafficking worldwide are in the Asia-Pacific. At the U.N. General Assembly for Children in August 2007, it was reported that about 1.8 million children became victims of commercial sex trade in 2000. About one million children in South-east Asia are said to be involved in this trade.