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Press Release FREEDOM OF THE SCREEN By Laura Wittern-Keller
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For immediate release, December 14, 2007
The Unsung Heroes of the Censorship Wars
Lexington, KY--From the Federal Communications Commission's attempt to censor provocative song lyrics to the controversy surrounding the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, the censorship of "inappropriate" content in the media has always generated impassioned debate. Conflicts between proponents of artistic freedom and advocates of community decency are nothing new, and movies have been at the center of the debates since the days of D.W. Griffith. In Freedom of the Screen: Legal Challenges to State Film Censorship, author Laura Wittern-Keller explores the origins and evolution of censorship and the movies.
Motion pictures were born in the twilight of the Victorian Era when the social mores were much different from today. It is no surprise that this emerging new medium, which depicted with unprecedented clarity intimate scenes and personal lives in front of mixed gender audiences in dark theaters, would antagonize Victorian moralists. Fearful of how movies might negatively affect children, immigrants, and the uneducated, moral reformers pushed for individual states to enforce "prior restraint"—the examination of media content for moral discrepancies before release to the general public—a type of legal action which had not previously been used to restrict any form of media.
State governments could now decide which scenes within a film were unsuitable and could even deem an entire film inappropriate, preventing its release. Surprisingly, it was not the largest film companies in Hollywood that fought this strict censorship—they viewed accepting the restrictions as less expensive than fighting and even profitable in some cases. The battle against prior restraint was spearheaded by independent film distributors initially motivated by the government's interference with their smaller profit margins.
These distributors challenged the right of states and cities to infringe free speech rights of movies and argued that they should be allowed to deliver more mature-themed films. By drawing attention to the unfairness of prior restraint, the distributors forced a reluctant judiciary to modify its interpretation of the First Amendment in light of a growing national trend toward free speech. This eventually led to a greater appreciation of artistic freedom in popular culture and compelled Hollywood to drop its content restraints on motion pictures.
By researching previously unexamined state censorship records, legal documents, and archival records of the ACLU and the MPAA, as well as conducting numerous personal interviews, Wittern-Keller debunks the popular belief that Hollywood was responsible for the relaxing of film censorship by challenging the government through high profile court cases. In Freedom of the Screen, she tells the true story of the people who, despite being relatively minor players in the film industry, shaped censorship in the movie industry, allowing American audiences to enjoy more provocative, modern, and relevant films.
Laura Wittern-Keller, is visiting assistant professor of history and public policy at the University at Albany (SUNY) and the recipient of the New York State Archives Award for Excellence in Research. She also lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, with her husband.
Freedom of the Screen · Laura Wittern-Keller
Publication Date: January 11, 2008 · $55.00 cloth · ISBN: 978-0-8131-2451-3
Media contact: Mack McCormick
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