Screen Studies Conference 2025

Description

The two-tier system of British film censorship - overseen nationally but implemented locally - permitted local areas to undertake their own acts of censorship. While variously termed by those charged with enforcing it as ‘chaos’, ‘inadequate’ and ‘anomalous’ this system nevertheless prevailed. While acknowledging the importance of case studies of decades, of locations, and of contentious films, this paper argues that understanding UK film censorship requires a more detailed recognition of the role played by local tastemakers and how local interventions in film culture varied according to period, location, and political and social currents. Drawing on material from a range of town, city and county councils it demonstrates how responses to films including From the Manger to the Cross; Street Corner; Should Parents Tell; The Wizard of Oz, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves reveal the intricacies of local activity. Such interventions suggest that local censorship cannot be characterised as either Kevin Rockett’s (2004) ‘blunt instrument’ nor Annette Kuhn’s (1998) ‘potentially productive process’, but rather a complex, often painstaking, locally-inflected dialogue around popular taste and the cinema. This in turn suggests the significance of censorship activity as part of broader explorations of exhibition, distribution and reception.

Period	27 Jun 2025 → 29 Jun 2025
Event type	Conference
Location	Glasgow, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International