Anti-porn men to picket film

Press, 8 May 1986, Page 5

Anti-porn men to picket film

A new Christchurch group, Men Against Pornography, will picket the screening of a film at the Westend Theatre this evening; the group claims the film is pornographic. “Sweet Movie,” being screened at the 1986 Canterbury Film Festival, is promoted in the festival pamphlet as being for responsible adults. A spokesman for the anti-pornography group, Mr Nigel McKenzie, said the promoters had not committed themselves to a full description of the story line for fear of publicly stating that the film was pornographic.

The film was also shown at a similar festival at Auckland, and the story line in the Auckland booklet gave a fuller description than the Christchurch booklet, he said.

“Men Against Pornography believes there is an undeniable connection between pornography and sexual abuse and we believe no responsible adult is entertained by images of fornication, masturbation, mutilation, urination, defecation, molestation and the murder of children — things which were all included in the Auckland promotion of the movie,” said Mr McKenzie.

The manager of the Westend Theatre said the group was quite welcome to picket the film and was entitled to its claim. “I have no comment to make about the film because I have not seen it,” he said. He had not seen the Auckland booklet and said he was not aware of any change.