After 5 years of bringing art, creativity and imagination to Cave Creek, festival director Suzanne Johnson has resigned from the board of directors of the Cave Creek Festival of the Arts. Johnson’s resignation follows a decision by the Cave Creek school district to prohibit the screening of an Arizona made short film during the Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival. “Sex and Violence,” directed by Charles Peterson, was supposed to screen as the last selection of 12 short films on Sunday night, but was banned before festival attendees could see it.
Fine Arts Center coordinator Evelyn Holbrook cited violations of the “Facility Use Manual” as the reason for the ban. The films selected for the festival were screened at the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center located on the north campus of the Cave Creek unified school district, a K-12 school. The particular violation of the agreement fell under “use of speech or language that is offensive or inappropriate to the limited forum of the public school educational environment.” It was only after this particular film was brought to the attention of school board members by “another community member” that the decision to prevent it from being shown was made.
No other films were screened for offensive speech or language by school representatives prior to the festival.
Ironically, Johnson was informed of the decision to prohibit the film during the Fourth of July weekend. After her resignation from the board of directors, Johnson remained to conduct the festival, beginning the film screenings with a disclaimer that; some material may be deemed offensive by some, and viewer discretion was advised. To facilitate allowing parents with young children to exercise discretion, all films in the youth/young adult category were screened first. Following the youth screenings, Johnson again reminded the audience that the adult portion of the festival was about to begin and a strict, self-imposed, ‘NC17’ would be encouraged throughout the rest of the evening.
By the end of the screenings, the audience numbered between 20 to 30 adults, with “Sex and Violence” still remaining on the program. After a long silence and a blank screen, the house lights went up and a poster for “Sex and Violence” appeared on screen, a red circle with a line slashed through it and the word ‘CENSORED’ emblazoned upon it. Johnson approached the podium and read from a prepared speech, informing those still in attendance of the schools decision to ban “Sex and Violence” from the event. Johnson’s frustration turned to tears as she spoke to the stunned audience:
“The Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival does not censor but we cannot screen this movie short because we are in the wrong venue, as beautiful as this facility is for our purpose. We are on the grounds of the Cave Creek Unified School District and therefore this is the wrong place to host a legitimate film festival. This is a public school environment and as such, there are restrictions regarding public conduct on school property, restrictions applied to speech and language – never mind the every day utterances exchanged between students…regardless of the music lyrics celebrated by today’s youth…and in spite of what can be viewed on regular TV."
Johnson went on to commend the faculty and staff at the school “whose work imbues these walls with dignity.” Johnson added “I know many of the teachers and administrators in this district who are very serious about teaching our children how to think, not what to think.”
Johnson struggled with her words, as she concluded her statement to the attendees of the Film and Arts Festival:
“Art is supposed to stretch boundaries, challenge convention, upend expectations. Censorship disavows all that Art holds in Truth and there is no room for censorship in art. There is no room for censorship in a civilized society. What is immoral is the denial of any condition of life that does not comport with a certain fashion. Such suppression limits cultural horizons.”
The Cave Creek Film and Arts Festival continues tonight July 12, 2010 from 1800-2100 with presentations of original songs at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral 6895 E. Cave Creek Rd, Cave Creek Arizona. The festival “Coyote Awards Gala” takes place on Saturday, July 17 2010, at the Cactus Shadows Fine Art Center, 33606 N. 60th St. Scottsdale. Doors open 1630, with the awards ceremony from 1700 – 1830.
A profanity laden preview of the film “Sex and Violence”.
Comments
I actually have mixed feelings about this. One thing is it is a school. All it takes is one slip up and you've got every church group and Tea Bagger ready to tar and feather you. It's also not new or unusual for a school to do this. It's not a College right?
On the other hand-I'm dieing to see what was deemed inappropriate. I'd love to compare it with the other work. I wonder if they changed the name to "Love and Death" or anything else and Death if it would've been expectable.
And if the film is any good getting censored unfairly will only increase its
value.
This is a good article Bill. But I do want to know what it was about the film that caused it to get censored. Why the mystery in that area?
My advice to the filmaker is congratulations. Now all the kids want to see your film.
I was the Executive Producer for the Santan Short Film Festival. We screened at the Queen Creek Performing Arts Center, which is attached to a public high school. We had no such restrictions placed on us, but the audience let us know about it when we mistakenly allowed a film to screen that contained excessive profanity. I don't remember if we allowed it to screen all 3 of the scheduled times, but while I understand the need to maintain some rules, this kind of censorship is difficult to stomach.
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