Cinema and Censorship

Catalog description

This course provides a historical survey of film and television censorship from the origins of motion pictures to the early twenty-first century. The first half of the course places emphasis on specific censorship cases in the United States. We will study the foundations of the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America, the Production Code Administration, the studio ratings system, and approaches to content regulation that have occurred since the ratings system was adopted in 1968. In the second half, we will take on case studies from around the world, examining films and controversies related to politics, religion, and sex.