"Damned In The USA"
- Artist/Author/Producer: Paul Yule and Jonathan Stack
- Confronting Bodies: Reverend Donald Wildmon, American Family Association
- Dates of action: September 1992
- Location: Aberdeen, Mississippi
- Description of the Art Work
- "Damned In the USA," a documentary about censorship, includes an interview
with Donald Wildmon along with footage of artworks by Andres Serrano,
Robert Mapplethorpe, and others.
- Description of incident
- Wildmon sued the film's producers last year, claiming that a contract he
had signed with them before granting an interview for "Damned In the USA" gave him
the right to control the film's distribution. However the court ruled
that the ambiguous wording of the contract, which Wildmon's own lawyers
had written, did not require the producers to seek Wildmon's permission
before showing the film in the US. Wildmon objects to the film, which
was made for Channel Four in England, because it juxtaposes his interview
with footage of artwork Wildmon's American Family Association has
opposed.
- Results of incident
- In Early September 1992, a district court judge in Mississippi had ruled
that Wildmon did not have the right to stop the film's distribution in
the USA; however, less than a week later, the same judge ordered an
injunction against screenings of the documentary while Wildmon prepares
an appeal. That order was vacated on September 22, 1992 by the
appellate court, allowing the film to be shown at several festivals and
fundraising events in late September.
Source: ACLU Arts Censorship Project Newsletter, Fall 1992