In August last year, film director Richard Wolstoncroft decided to engage in some civil disobedience.
He had wanted to screen the film LA Zombie, an explicit gay film about zombies, at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF). The Australian censors did not grant permission for him to do so – it’s illegal to publicly screen porn in Australia. Angered by the banning of the film, Mr Wolstoncroft organised a “public disobedience freedom of speech event.” No police turned up so he went ahead and showed the film.
Then in November, police raided his home demanding a copy of the DVD. He said he’d destroyed it. They threatened to confiscate all his DVDs and computers but finally relented.
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Yesterday he went to court to face charges of… well, I don’t know what, to be honest. Screening a porn film in public or similar. He could have been given a $28,600 fine and spent 2 years in jail. Instead, the magistrate gave him a diversionary order and fined him $750 (plus all costs). He was ordered to pay the money to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Let’s go beyond the insanity of our laws that make it illegal for consenting adults to view an adult film in a cinema because I think the absurdity of the situation speaks for itself.
What’s more interesting is the way Mr Wolstoncroft has been told to effectively donate to a charity to expunge the sin of showing other adults a porn film. A children’s hospital. Are you picking up the message loud and clear here folks? The implication is that the showing of LA Zombie caused harm. And somehow that harm was to children, apparently. Hence restitution for the crime of watching porn is to pay money to the children’s hospital.
Never mind that nobody was actually harmed, that adults happily attended the screening with out any ill effect, that police didn’t give a damn about it for months (it does seem that in November somebody higher up got a few phonecalls from a Christian lobby group and felt compelled to act).
The other thing is the rather mixed messages it sends. 2 years in jail for showing an adult film is just horrific. The $750 fine seems to suggest the law doesn’t want to take such a ridiculous “crime” seriously. Except to send a veiled message that porn somehow harms children in hospitals.
I’d love to hold a porn film festival in Australia. Perhaps we could just dispense with all that messing about in court and I could just donate some money directly to charity. A couple of grand to the children’s hospital to erase all the sin of watching explicit sex and we’ll call it even. Kind of like six hail marys but with swearing in between.
Or we could, oh, I don’t know… change the fucking classification laws in this country to reflect the 21st century.
Richard is holding a free speech event and mystery film screening to help pay for the court costs this Sunday. Check out the details here.
God that’s so annoying! You are astute to make that link between what they are saying about the ‘crime’ and the ‘punishment’ being doled out.
Think of the children!