Index on Censorship » documentary

India: Documentary banned for depicting insurgency

Intern — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:44:11 +0000

New Delhi’s Central Board of Film Classification has refused to certify the documentary Flames of the Snow. The body stated that any film which romanticises and promotes the violence of the Maoist groups in Nepal is inappropriate viewing for the general public. The feature documents over 200 years of relations between Nepalese rebels and the Indian establishment. The director of the film, Ashish Srivastava and its Kathmandu-based producers, Group for International Solidarity, intend to launch a campaign to oppose the banning. Another film entitled, Village of Widows, which features Benazir Bhutto vehemently criticising the Indian state and the burning of an Indian flag in Kashmir has also been censored by the authorities.

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Israel: Director to appeal banning of spy documentary

Intern — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:30:25 +0000

Nir Toib, director of a banned film which exposed an espionage scandal within the Israel Defense Forces[IDF], is to appeal the documentary film’s banning at the Supreme Court. The Secret Kingdom features interviews with Brigadier General Yitzhak Yaakov, Israel’s first chief scientist and a former research and development head for the IDF, who is accused of espionage in the documentary. Toib refutes the military censor’s claims that the film divulged nuclear secrets, instead arguing that the majority of the information which was cut from the original version of the film was already within the public domain.

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Filmmaker ordered to release Amazon footage to oil company

Intern — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:28:36 +0000

On 6 May, a US federal judge ruled that Chevron could subpoena footage from “Crude”, a documentary about the company’s involvement in the pollution of the Amazonian rainforest in Ecuador. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in favour of Chevron’s request to view 600 hours of outtakes from the documentary. Joseph Berlinger, director of the documentary, said turning over footage to the courts would violate journalistic privilege and undermine a lawsuit in Ecuador.

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