AUG 2 — Under the Home Ministry’s instruction, the Film Censorship Board will review the locally-produced film “The New Village” following claims accusing the movie of promoting communism, forcing it to postpone its screening. It has attracted great attention and triggered a controversy. I have not watched the film and thus am not able to comment more on it. However, the incident reminded me of a person and one of his films.

His name is Michael Moore, a famous American director.

According to Wikipedia, he has directed many sensational films, including “Roger & Me” that exposed the hypocrisy of tycoons, “Bowling for Columbine” that explored the American gun control issue, “Sicko” that boldly exposed the hidden goings-on of the US health care system; and “Fahrenheit 9/11” that criticised the Iraq War.

The 2004 documentary film took a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and its coverage in the media. It also exposed the long-term close relationship between the Bush family and the family of Osama Bin Laden.

Please do not think that such an “anti-war” film could be screened in the US, the model of democracy, without any resistance. In fact, it had gone through a number of ordeals.

One of the reasons for the “Fahrenheit 9/11” controversy was because it was screened in an election year and its director actually admitted that he had a stand. He said that the film would be a success if some people abstained from voting for Bush after watching the film.

Bush supporters attacked Moore and tried to ban the film from screening in the US. Some extreme right-wing activists even issued death threats to Moore and famous filmmaker Disney made an announcement under political pressure to ban the film from being screened in its cinemas.

However, the more disputes the film caused, the more it attracted the people’s attention. Moreover, the film was awarded the Palme d’Or, the highest award of the Cannes Film Festival, in May 2004. Eventually, the film overcame all obstacles and was screened nationwide in the US. However, it was rated R rating (under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian) by the Motion Picture Association of America. Nevertheless, the film became the second-highest grossing documentary of all time after Michael Jackson’s “This Is It”.

How about the fate of local film “The New Village”? Would it be screened eventually? One thing is for sure, the film has raised great attention in the country. It would be the best guarantee for its box office.

New villagers are part of the country’s founding history. Even if it was painful, it should not be locked forever. Maybe we should just leave it to the audience to judge whether it is a good or bad film. Those emotional extreme comments could be weakened only if we let the facts speak!

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.