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tyresiashttp://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/04/10/brokeback-prison-discipline.html
A correctional officer in Massachusetts is being disciplined for screening the award-winning film Brokeback Mountain for inmates.Diane Wiffin, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said this weekend that the disciplinary action was due to the film's "graphic nature of sexually explicit scenes." She denied that the action was because of the film's subject matter: a love affair between two gay ranch hands in Wyoming during the 1960s.
Wiffin said the officer failed to follow prison guidelines, which require those scheduling films for inmates to review the selections in advance for excessive violence, nudity and sex, as well as scenes showing assaults on prison staffers. The officer showed the film to inmates at a prison in Norfolk, Mass., on Thursday, two days after the film's North American release on DVD. Wiffin declined to identify the officer or discuss his punishment.
Based on the short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the Ang Lee-directed Brokeback Mountain was the critical darling of the past movie award season and won numerous film honours, including three Oscars. However, despite the acclaim, controversy has surrounded both the screening of the film in theatres and the release of the DVD. Certain theatres, for instance in the state of Utah and in the Bahamas, refused to screen the film. Last week a U.S. religious group protested retail giant Wal-Mart's sale of the DVDs.
A correctional officer in Massachusetts is being disciplined for screening the award-winning film Brokeback Mountain for inmates.Diane Wiffin, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, said this weekend that the disciplinary action was due to the film's "graphic nature of sexually explicit scenes." She denied that the action was because of the film's subject matter: a love affair between two gay ranch hands in Wyoming during the 1960s.
Wiffin said the officer failed to follow prison guidelines, which require those scheduling films for inmates to review the selections in advance for excessive violence, nudity and sex, as well as scenes showing assaults on prison staffers. The officer showed the film to inmates at a prison in Norfolk, Mass., on Thursday, two days after the film's North American release on DVD. Wiffin declined to identify the officer or discuss his punishment.
Based on the short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the Ang Lee-directed Brokeback Mountain was the critical darling of the past movie award season and won numerous film honours, including three Oscars. However, despite the acclaim, controversy has surrounded both the screening of the film in theatres and the release of the DVD. Certain theatres, for instance in the state of Utah and in the Bahamas, refused to screen the film. Last week a U.S. religious group protested retail giant Wal-Mart's sale of the DVDs.
