Gay-themed films gets a bashing

Withdrawn, retained and censored - three films featuring gay themes have been given the short shrift by the authorities.

Devotee, directed by French director Remi Lange, was retained by the Board of Film Censors (BFC), who refused to sanction the film for a public screening, not even under a R21 rating. Upon enquiries, the BFC relented and allowed the organisers to retrieve the film so they could delete the stated objectionable scenes.

They did, but only to replace those scenes with still frames indicating an incision have been made (see picture). Again, the BFC refused to license the film, and insisted that the submitted film be retained.

With a stored safety copy, the organisers went back to remove the still frames and resubmitted the film. It was finally passed under R21 rating and screened to a full house at the Arts House cinema on 14 August 2009.

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Film censors behaving like bullies

Two locally made films, Tanjong Rhu (dir : Boo Junfeng) and Threshold (dir : Loo Zihan) was yanked just days before its public screening at the 6th annual Singapore Short Cuts festival. The festival is jointly organised by National Museum and the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) which operates under the auspices of the Media Development Authority (MDA). Both films have earlier been passed by the BFC under R21 rating.

To date, no official reason have been given for the sudden withdrawal.

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'Tanjong Rhu' and 'Threshold' cut from short film festival in Singapore