From: bryan mckay (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Apr 16 2010 - 10:22:15 PDT
If you Google the text from that policy, the only site that comes up
is Yale Film and Video in Burbank, California.
On Apr 16, 2010, at 12:28 PM, Joan Hawkins wrote:
> HI all, I've run into a problem this term and I guess I'm wondering
> how common it is, and how you handle it.
>
> I teach film history and criticism courses, but in my avant-garde
> classes I always allow
> students to do a film as part of their final project. In the past,
> I've never had any problem, even when
> content as well as style was provocative and edgy. This semester one
> of my students, who is also enrolled in advanced production, sent
> footage--enough
> for two class films' worth of shots-- to a lab for processing and
> printing. The lab processed the film but refused to print it
> because they found the
> material objectionable.
>
> From what I've been able to piece together from the production
> prof's report and the student's account, there are suggestive scenes
> but no actual sex, someone in a corset and about 5 secs of full
> frontal male nudity. We're sending the processed film to a different
> lab in LA or NY for actual printing, the student is calling to talk
> to them first and then the production prof and I will provide
> documentation, if necessary, that this is for a
> class project (actually 2 class projects). Ironically, this entire
> brouhaha broke the day I was planning to discuss the NEA Four and
> the culture wars of the 80s/90s in class, so we had quite a
> "teachable moment," as my husband wryly called it.
>
> I haven't been able to persuade the production prof to tell me the
> name of the lab that refused to print the film; she only says the lab
> is in the South. She did send me their printed disclaimer, which
> I'm pasting in below. What I'm wondering is how common this is and
> how
> you all handle similar situations. Should I make a practice of
> warning students that they need to alert the lab first if there's
> suggestive material?
> And what in the world counts as suggestive material?-- this
> disclaimer covers much of what goes on in mainstream Hollywood
> movies and television.
>
> As a caveat, I haven't SEEN the film yet, so I don't know what the
> footage actually looks like, but the description I got from both
> the student and my colleague make it sound like stuff you could see
> any night on cable. Thanks for any suggestions you can send. Joan
>
> The published lab caveat is as follows:
>
> "SUBJECT MATERIAL POLICY
> We realize that the artist has full and total choice of expression.
> However, we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. As a
> policy, we do not and will not process, print, repair, or transfer
> any film containing: nudity, pornography, sexual acts (either real
> or simulated), lewdness, satanic, occultic, religiously blasphemous,
> exploitative of children, debasement of women, containing S & M,
> anything illegal, or in any way extremely offensive to us. Nor will
> we participate in the desensitization of or the glorification of
> killing, rape, violence, gore, suicide, torture, profanity, etc.
> whether in visual or audio form. "
>
>
> --
> Joan Hawkins
> Indiana University
> Dept of Communication and Culture
> 800 E. Third St
> Bloomington, IN 47405
>
> office phone 812-855-1548
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.