Australian cops raid home after gay zombie porn screening

Filmmaker Bruce LaBruce is no stranger to stirring up things. After LaBruce's film L.A. Zombie was banned in Australia, Richard Wolstencroft, the founder and director of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF), decided to show it anyway. He's no stranger to stirring things up either, though getting raided and v& over this kerfuffle seems a bit silly. (Details at ABC News)

• [Brainspore]

  When I was living in Australia about 12 years ago they could still show nudity on broadcast TV and Sydney’s Gay Pride parade made San Francisco’s Castro district look like Salt Lake City. What the heck happened down there?

  • [alistairthegreat]

    Maybe someone has um, standards…..

• [Anonymous]

  This is not new. Australian censorship laws are very strict, far more so than most people are aware. A lot of hardcore porn is technically illegal – it’s just that those laws are rarely enforced to their full extent.

  Adult bookstores selling typical porn are generally left alone, even though a lot of what they’re selling would be considered illegal (the penalty being up to 10 years jail). Police turn a blind eye for the most part, except when there’s another agenda. Polyester Books in Melbourne has been raided several times for selling books of photographs by Mapplethorpe and the like.

  Oh, and did you know that Australian customs now requires all travellers to Australia to declare any porn in their possession? Bon voyage.

• [Blue]

  Politicians like to attack things and stop things. They use this as political currency to buy the support of certain demographics. They then use this power to make themselves feel like winners and top-of-the-hierarchy monkeys.

  Rinse and repeat.

• [boingaddict]

  i soooo want to get my hands on this piece of jewel….droooooool. Anyone know if its going to be on amazon for sale??

• [Anonymous]

  As the previous owner of Polyester Books I was continually hassled by the powers that be for selling literature and films.
  The Australian Government is over censorious, draconian and out of touch with contemporary thinking. Chuck the bastards out and vote for the Sex Party in the forthcoming Victorian State election.
  http://www.victorianelection.com.au/

• [Andrea James]

  FYI, song is “I Want to be You” by France de Griessen. LaBruce made two videos for the song:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f61rxCZGzmM

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOl2393A1Ew

• [mdh]

  Australia, the new Boston.

• [Matthew Gordon Long]

  I saw this film at the Vancouver International Film Festival last month, although apparently we saw a 60-minute “softcore” version which seemed to be anything but. It was a midnight screening and the audience mostly just laughed/cringed at everything and generally heckled throughout the running time. The whole thing amounts to little more than a repeating sight gag wherein star Francois Sagat penetrates various (campy) open body wounds while sporting a monstrous, black-semen-spurting zombie phallus with a rather unsettling hooked tip on it.

  There is also a random urolagnia scene, which I believe is illegal in New Zealand (and maybe Australia too?) It would be interesting to know which cut of the movie was shown in Melbourne.

• [tad604]

  It’s kind of funny, just earlier today I was reading a comment somewhere by someone Australian saying they “were glad they got the criminals and not the puritans.” I don’t know sometimes Australian culture seems more puritanical than the US or maybe it’s just about violence?

• [MrsBug]

  Okay, the gay porn thing – no problem. Zombie porn? :head explodes:

• [gwailo_joe]

  Gay zombies are gay.