From: Ronald Gregg (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Sep 11 2009 - 08:36:19 PDT
Thanks to Marilyn, Fred, and Chuck. These are the kind of
discussions and histories that I value on Frameworks.
On Sep 11, 2009, at 11:16 AM, Chuck Kleinhans wrote:
> On Sep 10, 2009, at 11:25 PM, Fred Camper wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> It was at the New York Filmmakers Coop, and we rented it from them
>> and showed it at MIT in 1970 or 1971. It *was* "misunderstood" --
>> suddenly kids from the dorms who never came to our shows were
>> there for the "porn." Jonas Mekas had attacked the final section,
>> using, inappropriately, words like "child molesting," though no
>> adults were involved in the final section, which is playful, and
>> has no actual sex. Perhaps Stan felt that if even Jonas could
>> misunderstand it...
>
>
> No one seems to be pointing out in this discussion the rather
> obvious problem that although censorship of sexual images had
> lessened in many locales in the US in the early 70s (but usually
> more urban ones), that most jurisdictions and police and
> prosecutors would find any images of naked children potentially
> obscene.
>
> And certainly the US Postal Service was one of the main ways state
> censorship was applied. The Coop shipped their films by USPS at
> that point, which was, along with Customs, a watchdog gatekeeper
> for obscenity.
>
> Brakhage's misgivings might have been also motivated by legal and
> practical considerations.
>
> CHUCK KLEINHANS
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.