Film & Video

NCAC Proudly Announces Its Student Film Contest Winners

By |2023-11-07T16:57:17-05:00November 6th, 2023|News|

NEW YORK – The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is thrilled to announce the winners of its Youth Free Expression Student Film Contest. This year's competition brought together young filmmakers from all walks of life to celebrate and advocate for the unyielding power of free speech through creativity.  The contest, which invited students to submit three-minute films addressing themes [...]

Legal Filing Argues that Netflix Can’t be Held Liable for Depicting Suicide in its Series 13 Reasons Why Under the First Amendment

By |2023-06-13T11:07:44-04:00June 13th, 2023|Blog, News, Press Releases|

(NEW YORK) – PEN America, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) on Monday jointly filed an amicus brief to support the First Amendment rights of Netflix in a lawsuit over the series 13 Reasons Why, which depicted suicide. Netflix is being sued for damages following a 15-year-old girl’s [...]

ACLU, NCAC oppose removal of abortion-related art from exhibition at Idaho college art gallery

By |2023-03-03T15:12:55-05:00March 3rd, 2023|Blog, Letters, News, Press Releases|

Lewis-Clark State College announced that it will pull several artworks addressing abortion care from an upcoming exhibition for fear of violating the state’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act LEWISTON, Idaho – In a letter sent to Lewis-Clark State College President Dr. Cynthia Pemberton, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, and the National Coalition Against [...]

A CENSORSHIP TSUNAMI

By |2023-03-10T16:51:24-05:00March 2nd, 2023|Censorship News Articles, News, Press Releases, Statement|

The National Coalition Against Censorship is deeply concerned by the decision to cancel the publication of a self-help book by cartoonist Scott Adams because of offensive remarks he made on YouTube. It comes during a time of an increased policing of ideas. We are in the midst of a national censorship crisis in public schools and libraries. Pressure on [...]

MK Asante, Leora Kahn & NYFA Chairs Named Film Contest Judges

By |2020-01-03T15:50:44-05:00April 12th, 2018|Press Releases|

The National Coalition Against Censorship continues its support of student-led protests by extending the deadline for its protest-themed film contest to May 15th. This year’s contest invites aspiring teen filmmakers to create short films on the value of protest as an instrument of social change. In the weeks leading up to the March for Our Lives and National School Walkouts [...]

Meet Maggie Budzyna: A Young Filmmaker Determined to Resist Injustice

By |2018-06-28T11:49:55-04:00April 9th, 2018|Blog|

Maggie Budzyna's debut film, CENSORED, tackles the slippery slope of banning words from public dialogue. We spoke with the 17-year-old filmmaker about censorship, youth activism and the importance of using her artistic freedom to resist injustice. Watch her film and read the interview.

Departure of MassArt Professor Saul Levine Raises Academic Freedom Concerns

By |2020-01-03T15:50:41-05:00April 3rd, 2018|Press Releases|

After anonymous complaints about brief images of sexual acts in an avant-garde film shown in class, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design launched a sexual harassment investigation. Saul Levine, the professor teaching the class and the target of the investigation, who is also a well-regarded avant-garde filmmaker, resigned in protest. This incident raises serious concerns beyond the individual case.

NCAC Writes to Hanover, VA: School District’s Fix Could Actually Make Things Worse

By |2016-01-25T10:59:04-05:00January 12th, 2015|Incidents|

School officials resisted a challenge to a documentary film. But their new policies on instructional materials, while intended to reduce complaints, could actually do the opposite--giving would-be censors more power over what is taught in class.

NCAC Joins Worldwide Secret Cinema Screenings to Protest Censorship of The Interview

By |2020-01-05T23:18:47-05:00December 22nd, 2014|Blog|

On Sunday, Dec 21st, NCAC joined Secret Cinema and Spectrum to screen Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator in protest against the cancellation of The Interview. As NCAC noted in a statement regarding the cancellation, threats of violence have become increasingly successful in suppressing cultural expression. Before Sony Pictures Entertainment withdrew its film, The Interview, from all outlets of circulation and distribution, we saw London’s [...]

Cancellation of The Interview: There is an Urgent Need to Affirm Our Commitment to Free Speech Amid Threats of Violence

By |2019-03-07T22:47:50-05:00December 19th, 2014|Incidents|

NCAC issued the following statement and joined forces with the Secret Cinema Society to protest the cancellation of The Interview: There is an Urgent Need to Affirm Our Commitment to Free Speech Amid ​Threats of Violence In an age of anonymous communications and instant publicity, threats of violence have become increasingly successful in suppressing cultural expression. Just this past year, [...]

Then and Now: The Triple X Edition

By |2019-03-15T16:09:16-04:00June 19th, 2014|Blog|

Sex. It's impure, shameful, dirty, immoral, and… harmful? Taboos around sex have existed through the ages, so much so that the American legal system classifies obscene sexual material as a rare exception to First Amendment protection. We rely on judges to tell us if our sexual imagination is obscene or acceptable, and 41 years ago this month, the Supreme Court [...]

School Film Club Disbanded in New Hampshire

By |2017-01-26T15:44:45-05:00May 18th, 2014|Incidents|

NCAC's Youth Free Expression Project sent a letter to the Newfound Area School District warning of the "constitutionally suspect" dissolution of a high school student film club. The official reason for disbanding the club was its supposed failure to advance "student performance in core academic subjects like reading and mathematics” or “complement their regular academic program.” But in conversation with [...]

Turn It Off, Dammit! — Opposition to Film Screening

By |2020-01-03T13:47:44-05:00June 11th, 2012|Blog|

Turn Me On, Dammit!, an indie Norwegian film about a 15-year-old girl’s struggling with her burgeoning sexuality and dealing with high school tensions, has been widely acclaimed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, controversy led to the cancellation of a screening in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the film was scheduled to be shown as part of the Arts [...]

Fact Sheet on Media Violence

By |2017-10-12T14:08:33-04:00July 1st, 2011|FEPP Articles|

This Fact Sheet answers some frequently-asked questions about social science research into the effects of media violence. The bottom line is that despite the claims of some psychologists and politicians, the actual research results have been weak and ambiguous. This should not be surprising: media violence is so pervasive in our lives, and comes in so many different contexts and [...]

A Virtual Demonstration Against Censorship

By |2019-03-07T23:19:39-05:00June 28th, 2010|Blog|

A Second Life user films a demonstration opposing the virtual world's ban of Rose Borchovski's The Kiss, which was intended to be shown at SL's 7th birthday celebration. For more about the incident, see "Second Life Censors Machinema Film Over Artistic Nudity."

State Governments Use Money to Censor Movies Filmed In Their States That Disturb Their Sensibilities and Egos.

By |2020-01-03T13:38:05-05:00June 17th, 2010|Blog|

Should states withhold film incentive because a film criticizes its anti-immigration policies or shows too much violence, or because a state official just finds it “objectionable”? As a way to bring business and revenue to their regions, various states have started creating tax incentives for filmmakers to make their movie there.  A film’s cast and crew can bring millions of [...]

School Defends R-rated Films as Essential Teaching Tools

By |2020-01-03T13:37:03-05:00February 11th, 2010|Blog|

The school board at Council Rock School District in southeastern Pennsylvania decided last week that teachers may continue to use R-rated movies in class.  Their defense of the policy comes after an extended controversy that began last fall when parent Diana Nolan asked that all R-rated films be removed from high school curricula.  Parents were required to sign permission slips [...]

Avatar, Smoking and Free Speech

By |2020-01-03T13:36:33-05:00January 20th, 2010|Blog|

Avatar has incited controversy over Sigourney Weaver's character's smoking in the film, even though the character is decidedly not, as director James Cameron describes, "an aspirational role model" for teenagers. Anti-smoking advocates fear that children will mimic the vices they see onscreen -- another theory in a long line of efforts to attribute social ills to media or other cultural [...]

Tin Drum Censors Have Tunnel Vision

By |2016-02-01T10:33:21-05:00August 5th, 1997|Blog|

  NEWSDAY Tuesday, August 5, 1997   What can explain the fact that The Tin Drum could win an Academy Award for best foreign film and Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979, and be faced with the claim that it is "obscene" and "child pornography" in 1997? Were we all blind to obscenity and child pornography then? [...]

National Groups Condemn Ongoing Censorship in Oklahoma City

By |2020-01-03T14:12:51-05:00July 16th, 1997|Incidents|

NEW YORK, N.Y.  - National anti-censorship groups representing librarians, artists, writers, booksellers, religious leaders and educators today denounced on-going efforts by Oklahoma City authorities to suppress a wide range of First Amendment-protected material, including the Academy Award-winning film, The Tin Drum. The National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Campaign for Free Expression, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the American [...]

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