Black Swan gets green light
The country’s Film Censorship Board yesterday, a week after banning it from being shown in cinemas because of “offensive sexual behaviour”, said it would allow it to be screened under an “R” rating which restricts admission to persons 18 years and older .
The decision came after an appeal by Managing Director at Olympus Theatres John Morgan. The cinema has already put ‘Black Swan’ on its schedule, showing it twice daily.
The ban had prompted an outcry from film goers and other residents. It spawned a Facebook group entitled 'For Freedom of Thought and Expression in Barbados' and also prompted an online petition, 'Against the Affront to Freedom of Expression in Barbados by the Barbados Board of Film Censors' which had gathered 313 signatures up to the time the ban was lifted.
Morgan posted a note thanking people for their support.
“My thanks to everyone who commented on the banning of the film as it was your voices that made reason prevail,” he wrote. “It seems that the global wind of listening to people has come to us in our own little issue of decrying censorship. Black Swan may not be for you but it’s not anyone's right to unilaterally decide that but yourself.”
Morgan recommended that movie goers do their own research on the Internet Movie Database, at imdb.org, for “a neutral account of what's in all movies and a snapshot of international ratings”.
Barbados had been one of just two countries in the world to ban ‘Black Swan’, the other being the United Arab Emirates. The movie features a scene depicting a lesbian encounter which is believed to be what prompted the Film Censorship Board’s initial ban.
Despite the Board’s chance of heart, the creator of the 'For Freedom of Thought and Expression in Barbados' page which now has more than 510 members has insisted that only half the battle had been won: “We still want a review of the Board and how it is run and the standards it is held to. We must keep fighting for that.”
“The movie being banned prompted the page because it was the straw that broke the camel's back, but it's not just about the movie. This is about having the government answer our requests to regularize the Board and make public their standard operating procedures and criteria for rating.”
‘Black Swan’ has won 48 awards and has been nominated for 166 others, including an Academy Award.
It is a psychological thriller film starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis, with a plot revolving around a production of Tchaikovsky's ‘Swan Lake’ ballet by a prestigious New York City company. A ballet dancer (Portman) wins the lead in ‘Swan Lake’ and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odette's evil sister, Odile, the Black Swan
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