Following the ban of the gay themed love story by the Bahamas Plays Films Control Board, many Bahamians have expressed anger and disappointment over what they feel is the denial of their right to free choice.
“It seems like you have a group of people who are telling grown men and women what they can and cannot watch. I can understand if they want to give this movie the highest rating they can – and then enforce the rating not to allow anyone under 18 to see the movie – but I cannot understand denying people the right to make their own choices.
“The (board) rejects when it is called the censorship board, but now it seems to be living up to that name,” veteran Bahamian director of plays and actor Philip Burrows told The Tribune yesterday.
Mr Burrows said that although he personally had no great interest in seeing the film, he thinks he has to stand up for the right of adults to make their own choices.
Following its release in the US late last year, Brokeback Mountain was finally advertised to be shown in the Bahamas at the Galleria 6 cinema on John F Kennedy Drive starting last Friday.
However, before movie-goers got the chance to see the film, the Control Board – following a request by the Christian Council – pulled Brokeback Mountain from the country’s cinema screens.
An irate reader yesterday told The Tribune that he fears that the banning of Brokeback Mountain presents a dangerous precedent for the Bahamas.
“This is nothing to do with censorship or Christianity. It’s simple-minded prejudice. Violent films have come here recently that inspire a real blood lust in the audience and no one bats an eyelid. Yet here we have a critically acclaimed movie that would do no damage to society, but backwards thinking is preventing it from being shown. It sets a dangerous precedent he said.
Brokeback Mountain, which has won three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes among many other film prizes, depicts the epic love story based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx and adapted for the screen by the team of Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana.
Set in Wyoming and Texas, the film tells the story of two young men – ranch hand Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) – who meet in the summer of 1963 and form a life-long connection.
While censors in Jamaica and Singapore – both countries with stringent laws against homosexuality -passed the film for release, the Bahamas on Friday made the decision to ban the movie due to its “extremely homosexual content.”
“The board chose to ban it because it shows extreme homosexuality, nudity and profanity, and we feel that it has no value for the Bahamian public,” said Chavasse Turnquest-Liriano, senior executive officer at the Ministry of National Security and liaison officer for the Control Board.
Mrs Turnquest-Liriano said that although there are many homosexuals living the Bahamas who may have an interest in watching the movie, the Control Board came to the conclusion that Brokeback Mountain would hold no interest for the “broad audience.”
Chairman of the Control Board Olga Clark yesterday did not wish to comment on the decision to ban the film.
Christian Council president Rev William Thompson said that the council made the request to have the movie banned as it “promotes homosexuality.”
Rev Thompson said that he is aware of the fact that many Bahamians have already watched the film on bootleg DVDs.
“We can’t regulate what people watch behind closed doors, but we cannot condone it being shown
publicly. We stand against all immoral movies,” he said.
Despite films such as “The Hills have Eyes” – an intensely violent movie with sexual content and profanity – currently being shown at Galleria, Rev Thompson emphasised that the council also takes the same stand on movies that promote violence.
“We request for a lot of movies to be banned: Sometimes the film board bans those movies, sometimes they don’t,” he said.
Criticising the banning of Brokeback Mountain,”‘ gay rights advocate group, the Rainbow Alliance of the Bahamas, yesterday called the Control Board “a farce created to appease the Bahamian people.”
The Alliance in a press statement said that most Bahamians find no rationale in “the idea that a small group of appointed individuals, that are all presumably Christian, can provide the moral compass for the entire country.”
“Ironically, the demand (for the movie) in the Bahamas comes mainly from straight or heterosexual movie fans, who don’t find rational the idea that homosexuality or a movie that discusses the issue of homosexuality can destroy the Bahamas, Bahamian life or our respect for ethics and morality,” the statement read.
Concerned citizen Liz Roberts, who has a background in film direction and production, said that the subject of Brokeback Mountain is one that should be tackled openly.
“This is not a movie to be banned. This is not a subject to be censored, or covered over or to have a blind eye turned on to it. It is a subject to be aired, a subject to be confronted openly.
“Going to see a movie is a choice we make, as are the books we read, the web sites we go onto, the TV programmes we watch, where soon anyone will be able to view this movie, in any case,” she said.
By KARIN HERIG, Tribune Staff Reporter
