The day I made a gay film

[Officer Dibble]

"Some distributors think that the most important part of marketing is the boxtop"

They're right.



"and that there is a mug a minute."

More like 'a Muppet a minute', I would say.



"Whatever I do people come to me because my films sell."

Really? So, have you off-loaded that mountain of sluggish R18's you were hawking around?



"The UK adult inustry cannot compete with the USA because you have the illegal R18 rules and endemic corruption which is a serious handicap."

Do you reckon? Or could it just be that there is little appetite (apart from within the green-walled bedsit community) for UK films and their characteristically tawdry themes of scrawny chav birds and chortling oafs in pseudo-sexual activity?



"Larry Flynt is a revolutionary filmmaker, a fighter who cannot be controlled by the state and that is why the CIA tried to kill him."

Oh? CIA now is it, Mike? Hey, maybe it was the CIA who had your Wikipedia entry removed? Maybe they are out to 'shut you up'? ?Hmmm, you best be vigilant. From now on I would watch out for exploding condom packets, cyanide infused Vaseline and lethal camcorders that poke you in the eye if your retina matches the one that's been programmed in by the Agency.



Officer Dibble

[strictlybroadband]

Officer Dibble wrote:

> "Larry Flynt is a revolutionary filmmaker, a fighter who cannot
> be controlled by the state and that is why the CIA tried to
> kill him."
>
> Oh? CIA now is it, Mike?

More likely the FBI - the CIA doesn't tend to operate within the US. The CIA DID try to have Bob Marley killed, but that's completely O/T.

[eroticartist]

Alice,
You have blundered again as Larry Flynt was very lucky to survive and the assassination attempt was a President Kennedy modus operandum : a long distance shot fired from a sniper's rifle using a smokeless barium cartridge.
Mike Freeman.

[eroticartist]

Dibble,

Sarcasm is the lowest kind of wit. I started making films in the Sixties and have earned a living out of it all my life. With the creative talent in the UK we could have the most successful adult entertainment industry in the world except for state censorship and corruption. Why is there more illegal shops in Soho than legal ones and why should a customer buy a censored one when he can get an uncensored one a stones throw from the BBFCs offices?
Who illegally deleted the page English Porno Directors when asked not to do so specifically by Wikipedia until the discussion was closed?

I did have a few thousand DVDs to sell but if you now look at my web page you will find that I have stopped selling to the trade because of piracy.

If you know of any "skinny chav birds" put them in touch with me!

Repeal the illegal Video Recordings Act:


Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:33 am Post subject: WHY THE VIDEO RECORDINGS ACT IS ILLEGAL


In the English Parliament before a law can be passed it has to be debated on the floor of the House. Also it is extremely rare and almost impossible for a Private Members Bill to become law and illegal if it is not debated first.

The passing of the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA) was a conspiracy by the Thatcher government. The reason was that the Obscene Publications Act, the main state censorship device, was failing and juries were acquitting pornographers. I myself was acquitted for producing The Videx Video Show in 1983 a hardcore film. I said to the Director of Public Prosecutions "that I have smashed your Obscene Publications Act".

The state needed a new law that would be able to stop the flood of hardcore pornography into the UK. Mrs Thatcher hated porn and thought that it would corrupt the great British public. She stated that the "permissive society" was the greatest threat to our morals and way of life. This disciple of the free market wanted a free market in everything else but porn! Her friend was Mrs Mary Whitehouse the notorious anti Porn campaigner. They got together to draw up the VRA (Mrs Thatcher was a trained solicitor) which would stop the permissive society, born of the Sixties revolution, in its tracks.

A big campaign was started in the media against Video Nasties (horror films with a misogynistic plot) and there was an unholy alliance between the feminists, on the left and the right wing. How to get the Bill through
Parliament. Mrs Thatcher persuaded her Private Secretary, Graham Bright MP to introduce a Private Members Bill (PMB). Thatcher conspired with her cronies and the media and the Video Recordings Bill sailed through Parliament unopposed and undebated. This had never happened before in the history of the house.

The consequences in the UK for filmmakers who desire to make films with explicit sex scenes is that the VRA requires them to submit their films to the BBFC in order to obtain a licence. If the film is then classified R18 it can only be sold in licensed sex shops and it is illegal to sell by mail-order. For this privilege producers are forced to pay approximately 20 Euros a minute.

With the invention of digital camcorders and editing systems the making of films has become democratic. It should be a revolutionary time for budding filmmakers to enter the market and make money. However if they want to put their film on the market it must be submitted to the BBFC, with an upfront non-refundable fee. The cutting crew issue a cuts list if the filmmaker has decided to include any forbidden images. For example, a fist entering a vagina. Some women have smaller fists than penises and this is only one example of state censorship in this country.

The BBFC is not an independent body, as described on its website, but a state institution controlled by the Home Office who issue the criteria for censorship.

The rest of the European market have abolished such censorship years ago, Denmark being the first in 1969 after Dr Berl Kutchinsky of the Copenhagen Department of Forensic Science presented his findings on the effects of pornography The reason everyone in Europe followed the Danish experiment was that sex crimes against women dropped dramatically when pornography became widely available. Now here in the 21st century British filmmakers are still controlled by an illegal, artificial censorship device the VRA 1984.

Mike Freeman.

[Steve R]

I was particularly annoyed when the VRA came into force, as all my favourite horror movies were removed from the shelves of my local video rental shop.

Thanks to the internet, I was finally able to obtain uncut copies of the lot !happy!

[Officer Dibble]

?Dibble, Sarcasm is the lowest kind of wit.?

Sorry, Mike (chortle, chortle) I couldn?t resist.

Though I take my cap off to you for showing the way and blazing a trail (during the 80?s) for moody geezers to make some decent wedge, your mildly muddled musings and ramblings on censorship, conspiracies, and police corruption in Soho are fertile ground for mick-takers like my good self. Don?t take it to hard, Mike. At least you usually have something interesting to say ? unlike the ?Bang-Babe Bollox?, ?IDeee! IDeeeee!? mob.



Officer Dibble

[eroticartist]

The Home Office "farmed" the pornography business in the Sixties and those brown paper envelopes reached places so high that the world would be shocked even now if the truth emerged. The head of the OPS got a twelve and Bill Moody an eight but they were only the police, who are expendable, and they kept stumm like old squares and served out their sentences in Leyhill playing golf and going out with their wives!

The OPS are still bent and I know who the bag man is! The last time I was asked to pay was 1983 but they don't bother to ask me now. You don't ever have to get nicked if you play the game.
Mike.