• Home
  • About
  • Objectives
  • Membership
  • Donations
  • Activities
  • Research Reports
  • Submissions
  • Newsletters
  • Contact

SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

  • Censorship
    • Censorship & New Technology
    • Film Ratings
    • Films
  • Crime
    • Rape statistics
    • Television Violence
    • Violence
    • Youth Crime
  • Enforcement
  • Family
    • Anti-smacking Bill
    • Families Commission
    • Marriage
  • Gambling Addiction
  • Political Advocacy
  • Pro-life
    • Abortion
  • Prostitution
  • Sexuality
    • Child Sex Crimes
    • Civil Unions
    • HIV/AIDS STIs
    • Homosexuality
    • Kinsey Fraud
    • Porn Link to Rape
    • Pornography
    • Sex Studies
    • Sexual Dysfunction
  • Other
    • Alcohol abuse
    • Announcement
    • Application For Leave
    • Broadcasting Standards Authority
    • Celebrating Christian Tradition
    • Children’s Television
    • Complaints to Broadcasters
    • Computer games
    • Film & Lit Board Reviews
    • Film & Lit. Board Appointments
    • Human Dignity
    • Moral Values
    • Newsletters
    • Newspaper Articles
    • Recommended Books
    • Submissions
    • YouTube

Ant Timpson and his defunct NZ film festival – Films that set out to shock and offend

August 23, 2015 by SPCS Leave a Comment

“FILMS THAT SET OUT TO SHOCK AND OFFEND” NEW ZEALANDERS in 2002

Evening Post Editorial Comment on Anthony (Ant) Timpson’s now defunct Becks Incredible Film Festival [BIFF]. The last BIFF was staged in 2004. May it R.I. P.

Three Films were withdrawn from the [now defunct] BIFF in 2002, prompted by the actions of the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc: Baise Moi (a sexually explicit French Rape film), Visitor Q (featuring necrophilia, incest, gratuitous violence and rape) and Bully.  Interim Restriction Orders were granted by the Film and Literature Board of Review and High Court (in case of Baise-Moi) so that the classifications could be reconsidered by the Board de novo.

“Public debates on censorship serve the useful purpose of refining and fleshing out public attitudes on important moral questions. But in a sense, the debate over censorship begs a very important question. Films such as Baise-Moi and Visitor Q (a Japanese film notable for an explicit sequence involving sex with a corpse) invite attention from morals campaigners because they highlight – even celebrate – violence, perversion and degradation. Their potential to shock and offend is unabashedly used as a selling point by organisers [such as BIFF Director Ant Timpson] of events such as the [now defunct] Beck’s Incredible Film Festival. Society might well ask whether it has lost its way when such festivals rely so heavily on films that focus relentlessly on the dark side of the human condition.” (Evening Post 23/05/2002)

Below: Complete Editorial Comment – The Evening Post, Wellington New Zealand. May 23, 2002

Films that Shock Editorial re SPCS and censorship

For background story see:

https://www.spcs.org.nz/revitalised-campaign-against-gratuitous-sexual-violence-in-movies-ignites-censorship-debate/

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Censorship Tagged With: Ant Timpson, Anthony Timpson, Baise-Moi, Beck's Incredible Film Festival, Visitor Q

SPCS revitalised campaign against gratuitous sexual violence in films – ignited censorship debate

October 5, 2014 by SPCS Leave a Comment

Prior to its application to become a registered charity with the Charities Commission, the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS) engaged in a “revitalised campaign” against gratuitous sexually explicit movies screened in New Zealand cinemas, focusing on those such as Baise-Moi (French = “Rape-Me”) which was scheduled as an opening show-piece in the now defunct Beck’s Incredible Film Festival (B.I.F.F.) directed by Mr Ant Timpson. The R18 classifications issued to this morally putrid film and others like the Japanese film Visitor Q, were appealed by the Society to the Film and Literature Board of Review, to test whether or not the Chief Censor Bill Hastings and his staff had correctly applied the censorship laws to safeguard the “public good”.

Both films were effectively shut out of Timpson’s B.I.F.F. and after protracted litigation through the courts, the Court of Appeal issued decisions upholding in large part the concerns raised by SPCS. The Society contended that the Chief Censor had well passed his “use-by date” as a competent censor, having become “desensitised” by excessive exposure to the injurious, corrupting and toxic impact of so many films containing explicit sexual content and gratuitous sexual violence he had had to view. The vast bulk of publications (films, videos, DVDs and magazines etc) he had “examined” over his lengthy career as a censor involved the degradation, dehumanisation and demeaning of women and are “injurious to the public good”. The Society’s concerns about the Chief Censor and his Deputy Ms Nicola McCully, were taken up by a number of MPs in the House of Representatives and eventually Hastings left the job.

Bill Hastings served as NZ’s tenth Chief Censor from October 1999 to July 2010. Prior to that he was Deputy and Acting Chief Censor from December 1998 to October 1999. He was a member of the Indecent Publications Tribunal from 1990 to 1994 and Deputy President of the Film and Literature Board of Review from 1995 to 1998. He played a key role as Deputy of that Board in issuing a highly controversial decision that banned the “talking heads” Living Word videos. This decision was subsequently overturned  by the Court of Appeal and the videos were classified as “unrestricted”. The Board was forced to concede the obvious – the videos contained nothing that remotely came within the five censorship “jurisdictional gateways” of the censorship Act – involving “sex, horror, crime, or cruelty or violence” – the basis upon which a publication can  be classified “objectionable”.

Download a high-resolution PDF version here.

David Lane SPCS - Revitalised campaign against gratuitous sexual violence in films
David Lane SPCS Revitalised campaign against gratuitous sexual violence in films

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Print

Filed Under: Censorship, Film Ratings, Porn Link to Rape Tagged With: Ant Timpson, Anthony Timpson, Baise-Moi, Beck's Incredible Film Festival, BIFF, Bill Hastings, Bully, Chief Censor, David Lane, Film and Literature Boiard of Review, free speech, Karl du Frene, Living Word videos, Paramount Cinema, sexual exploitation, sexual violence, Visitor Q

SPCS Facebook Page

Subscribe to website updates:

The Pilgrim’s Progress

Getting "The Pilgrim’s Progress" to
every prisoner in NZ prisons.

Recent Comments

  • John on The term ‘Homophobia’: Its Origins and Meanings, and its uses in Homosexual Agenda
  • SPCS on Corporate corruption in New Zealand – “Banning badly behaving company directors”
  • Anne on Corporate corruption in New Zealand – “Banning badly behaving company directors”
  • Jake on John Clancy: Troubled Global group costs Christchurch City Council another $37,000
  • Jake on John Clancy: Troubled Global group costs Christchurch City Council another $37,000

Family Values & Community Standards

  • Coalition for Marriage
  • ECPAT New Zealand
  • Family Voice Australia
  • Parents Inc.

Internet Safety

  • Netsafe Internet Safety Group

Pro-Life Groups

  • Family Life International
  • Right to Life
  • The Nathaniel Centre
  • Voice for Life
(Click here for larger image)

Copyright © 2019 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.