Hacker Cinema
If You Love This Planet
1982 · Film · documentary · 26 min
Directed by Terre Nash
Australian pediatrician Helen Caldicott delivers a lecture on the potential medical and societal consequences of a nuclear war, and advocates for nuclear disarmament. The film includes newsreel records of the beginnings of the arms race and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as film records showing the Japanese who were severely scarred and burned in the bombings.
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The US government hasn't been able to resist censorship entirely. Comedians have been arrested for "obscenity".
There is a federal law on the books against obscenity, but it has never been used to arrest a comedian. Comedians like Lenny Bruce, and Musicians like Jim Morrison have run into trouble with city governments. Bruce was ironically arrested in both San Francisco and New York. Morrison was more expectedly arrested in New Haven.
the Justice Department also briefly banned the Canadian film "If You Love This Planet" for being "foreign political propaganda"
The film was never banned, classifying it as foreign political propaganda meant that before it was shown the audience had to be informed: "This material is prepared, edited, issued or circulated by the National Film Board of Canada, which is registered with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., under the Foreign Agents Registration Act."
> The American way is voluntary self-censorship for commercial purposes.
The US government hasn't been able to resist censorship entirely. Comedians have been arrested for "obscenity". The FCC will happily go after certain violations in TV and radio. The US government has also censored news broadcasts and journalists.
Bush in particular was very aggressive in censoring the news coverage of his war. Most notably, the flag-draped coffins of dead American soldiers were banned from TV news. During the Regan administration the Justice Department also briefly banned the Canadian film "If You Love This Planet" for being "foreign political propaganda".