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We’re having the wrong conversation

The banning of the film Of Good Report by the Film and Publications Board has us all talking about the wrong issue.

BACK in 2008 the Film and Publications Board (FPB), the regulatory body responsible for content classification in South Africa, issued a ban on an Argentinean film that was scheduled to be shown at the Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on the grounds that it constituted child pornography.

The board justified its decision by stating that the film could be seen as child pornography because the characters are portrayed as underage. The fact that the actors were over 18 years old was irrelevant.

The board’s decision was later overturned by the Film and Publications Review Board, but it hasn’t stopped the now-infamous FPB from banning another film on the same grounds five years later.

The film in question is Of Good Report, a South African film directed by local filmmaker Jahmil XT Qubeka and deals with the issue of sugar daddies, an issue that’s so prevalent in our communities that the government has erected giant billboards to warn young girls about it.

A scene in the film depicting a sexual encounter with a teenage girl (played by an actress in her 20s) and her sexual predator of a teacher has so shocked the FPB that they’ve made the decision that you and I shouldn’t be able to see it, because it constitutes child pornography, never mind the fact that no actual children were involved. Because of this the FPB didn’t even give the film one of those R18 ratings but refused it classification altogether, effectively making it illegal to watch the film or be in possession of a copy of the film. Clearly they mean business.

By ignoring the Constitutional jurisprudence on the classification of “child pornography”€ (which it is bound by), as well as the decisions of the Film and Publications Review Board (which ought to guide its work) classifiers at the FPB wrongly banned a movie which could have been a catalyst for a national conversation on an important issue either because they are ignorant of the law in terms of which they must exercise their powers, or because they decided to be guided by a misplaced, conservative, moralistic fervour rather than by the law that they are bound by.

Leaving aside the fact that the FPB has ignored its own decision regarding the XXY case and have acted inconsistently , the ban imposed on Of Good Report, a film that tackles a real social issue that needs serious discussion and consideration, has completely eclipsed that issue.

Instead of talking about a real problem affecting so many young girls, their families and our communities, we’re talking about censorship. It’s a sad state of affairs in a country where teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS are widespread, and it speaks volumes about where our priorities lie as a country.

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