The Curmudgeony Librarian writes “Just in time for Banned Books Week, the Granville County Library system, in North Carolina, is facing a censorship request. Local citizen, Rev. Curtis E. Gatewood is demanding the removal of the 1915 film “Birth of a Nation” from the library’s collection. Rev. Gatewood is quoted as saying
“Allowing the movie to be circulated through public systems such as the library is equivalent to publicly providing materials that would support, celebrate, and recruit members to join violent groups such as those who rained ‘terror’ on this nation September 11, 2001.”
While unapologetically and blatantly racist, the film is considered a groundbreaking film in terms of cinematic technique. It is also historical significant in its contribution to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century. The library director Louise Dorton says that this is the first challenge to the film in the three years it has been in the collection. Dorton wishes to meet with Gatewood to see if some sort of compromise would satisfy his concerns and still keep the movie on the shelf. If Rev Gatewood files an official complaint, then a special committee comprised of a library board member, staff member and a member of the community will review the movie and decided whether it should be removed.”
Ripple effect
This is a pretty fair illustration of the ripple effect of censorship: no matter that the medium is high art, the ideas are offensive so it must not be allowed.
Re:Ripple effect and turning the tide
I’m with you Fang-Face…if this one goes, so goes the Union.
I watched this film way back in my college days (70’s) for a Film History course. Being a native New Yorker and a girl who’d been in love with the book “Gone With the Wind” at age 14, I was disgusted by the film’s content…just goes to show how untouched my own life had been by racial prejudice.
It seems to me that the good Reverend might be better served to borrow this very film, which he’d “never seen”!, and arrange a showing of it inviting both his congregation and others and arrange for discussions afterwards by a broad range of speakers including a film historian. If anything, this film, besides being noted for its place in film history, would be an excellent jumping off place for discussion on the “Old South” and today’s South – if not the Rev., perhaps Ms. Dorton?
There endeth my sermon.