A controversial film depicting sex between a real life lesbian couple has been banned from screening at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF).
Ashley and Kisha: Finding the Right Fit, by American film maker Tony Comstock, has not been granted festival exemption by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), on the basis that Comstock’s last three films were classified X, a decision which has outraged the director.
“The X classification is why the OFLC wouldn’t allow our previous film, Damon and Hunter, to play…last year. I asked why Destricted, which features work by Larry Clark, whose previous film [Bully] was refused classification, was given a festival exemption and they could not answer.”
President of MUFF, Richard Wolstencroft, told MCV, “It’s ridiculous. We‘ve already had police presence at the festival this year to make sure we aren’t playing anything illegal, but it doesn’t make sense to ban X rated films from small film festivals when you can buy them from any adult shop in the State. They need to make the rule universal.”
Spokesperson for the OFLC, Nick Perrett said, “A film does not have to be viewed to get an X rating, and in this case the filmmaker’s previous films were rated X; and therefore we assume from the information we have that this film would not be suitable for public viewing.”
MUFF will run a forum on censorship in place of the film this Saturday September 29 at 10.15pm at The Glitch Bar and Cinema, 318 St Georges Rd, North Fitzroy.
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