Ron.Rothenberg@f460.n101.z1.fidonet.org (Ron Rothenberg) (02/12/90)
Index Number: 6664
[This is from the Advocacy Conference]
"Titicut Follies," filmmaker Frederick Wiseman's unblinking look at
life for inmates at Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts, which
has been banned from public viewing for more than 2 decades can be
shown as long as the faces of inmates are blurred, ruled a
Massachusetts Superior Court judge last September.
The ban is believed to have been the only time in U.S. history that a
movie has been censored for reasons other than obscenity or national
security, reported the Boston Globe.
"The fact that the nations's most liberal state" - Massachusetts - "is
the only state in the history of the United States ever to censor a
non-obscene film continues to be a shame on this commonwealth," said
Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz. "This is not a film
about faceless people. If they think they're protecting the rights of
the mentally ill" by banning its showing, "they're wrong."
If the ruling had come soon after the film was made 00 and banned -- in
1967, said a Bridgewater patients' attorney, "there might have been
more public outrage about what was going on at the facility."
(Note from Ron: It's not much better today.)
-rsr-
... Most Improved BBSer (1989) American Sighted BSers' Association.
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