Film Regulation in a Cultural Context

This book examines a sampling of cinematic works that provoked censorious impulses throughout the shift away from formal film censorship in the late modern West. The public controversies surrounding Fat Girl, Irreìversible, Ken Park, The Brown Bunny, Wolf Creek, and Welcome to New York, each highlight significant stages in this cultural shift, which necessitated policy revision within the institutions of formal film censorship in Britain, Canada, and Australia. Parallels and distinctions are drawn between governmental film regulation policies in these countries and social control mechanisms at work within a wider network of institutions, including news media, film festivals, and advocacy groups. The study examines the means by, and ends to, which the social control of film content persists in the “post-censorship” media landscape of Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States, and how concepts of film “classification” manifest in commercial market contexts, journalistic criticism, and practices of distribution and advertising.