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Censorship for a Day

Hannah Woodford, Year 13 —

Last Wednesday, Year 13 Media Studies students were kindly invited to ‘Censorship for a Day’; an event organised by the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

Firstly, we got given a legal lecture, in which we were given a brief explanation about the legal proceedings and laws regarding film classification. It was a very insightful lesson - I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we had no idea how much work actually went into classifying films, and how many legal rights you had to think about.

After our legal lecture, we got to watch an unreleased film. We watched ‘Mid90s’, written and directed by Jonah Hill. The film follows a young boy, Stevie, who lives in 1990’s LA, and gets mixed in with the wrong crowd. Throughout the film we discover that Stevie has a problematic home life and a bad relationship with his big brother, which fuels his desire to fit-in with an older group. Hill showed this coming of age story in an unconventional way. He uses the story to speak to a generation of teenagers, and successfully conveys a message that endorses perseverance, as we see Stevie fall down, but consistently get back up. Even though the movie can be raw and difficult to watch at times, I would recommend the watch.

Following the film, we were able to give the film our own classification. The decision was based on many factors, such as violence, language, and sexual content. It was exciting to be able to give a classification to a film, and to hear everybody’s opinion about the content.

Overall, it was an extremely thought-provoking day, and since this experience I have been more thoughtful about what I am consuming, and why. I would highly encourage anybody who has a love or passion for films to attend this event. 

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