Govt. defends ‘Sex Tape’ ban

The Chief Censor, Lei’ataua Niuapu Lei’ataua, has defended the Film Control Board’s decision to ban a comedy movie called “Sex Tape” from being screened in Samoa.

The film featuring Hollywood stars, Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel, who made a sex video and then spend the rest of the movie trying to keep anyone from seeing it, was supposed to have premiered at Apollo Cinema last week.

Asked to explain the decision, Lei’ataua told the Samoa Observer they are merely doing their job.

“The reason why we’ve banned the public screening of the movie is because of the explicit scenes of sex and sexual activities,” he said.

“This will affect our culture and traditions if we allow this movie to screen publicly. So we’ve decided to ban it.”

The decision, he said, was in line with the mandate of the Censorship Office and they are merely following guidelines provided by the Film Control Act 1978.

Further, he said the Act provides businesses with the right to appeal the decision made by the Chief Censor and the Film Control Board.

Last week, the Manager of Apollo Cinemas, Arnold Dulguime, criticised the decision, saying not only that it is unfair, it is also bad for business.

“It’s a comedy,” he said. Mr Dulguime was especially unhappy because this is the second movie the Film Control Board has banned.

Earlier this year, they stopped the Cinema from showing “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

“They told us that it’s too violent and the sex scenes will influence the young people,” he said.

“However at the end of the day, half of Samoa still went ahead and watched the movie elsewhere. So I don't understand."

“We find it very unfair. As a business, it hurts us because it costs us a lot of money to bring these movies and when they are rejected, it costs us money to send them back again.”

Lei’ataua, however, is standing by their decision.

“We believe that we are doing our work, he said. “We have seen the movie and we believe that this movie will influence the young people in using technologies to pass around these kinds of videos.

“If this is a way where the Censorship Office can help reduce the violation of laws and prevent these kinds of things from happening here, then we will do it.”

Asked why then they allow other R21 movies to be sold by local video stores, Lei’ataua said:

“Within a month, between 80-100 DVDS’s are banned from video shops and sometimes more than that.”

He said they work closely with local movie businesses to help them understand the Film Control Act 1978 on what movies are allowed and what are not.

“In most R21 movies, they are classified as R21 because of the language, sex scenes, violence and drugs.”

“However, with the comedy “Sex Tape” it’s above R21 because of the explicit sex scenes and that’s why we banned it.”

Told that their decision is hurting businesses like Apollo Cinemas who spend a lot of money bringing films to Samoa only to have them stop it, Lei’ataua was unrepentant.

“With every business, they should consider giving and taking,” he said.

“There will be time’s when they will make losses and there will also be a time they will get a profit.”

“I think business people should always look at the positive and the negative sides of shipping products over. And if banning the movie has caused the Cinema a great loss, then I apologize.”

“However, they, like everyone else, must follow the procedures that have already been spelled out in the Film Control Act 1978.”

What about people who obtain the banned film through other means?

“We don’t have any control over that,” said Lei’ataua. “The only thing that we can control is people making money out of this movie and that we cannot allow.”

Mr Dulguime strongly disagrees.

“From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t matter how hard they try to ban these kinds of movies, the public will always find a way to get it.”

“The question is, is it a good idea for others to sell the same movie to people and yet we can’t even make any money out of it, especially when we are paying premium prices to bring these movies to Samoa?”

Mr Dulguime said the Censorship Board should be consistent with their decisions.

That’s to say that if they ban the Cinema from showing such movies, they should ensure the video stores are not selling it.

“They should make sure all the R21 movies openly available for public viewing at the video stores should be banned,” he said.

He added: “Watching a movie is just like buying a smoke and alcohol. If people want to drink or smoke, they can. If they want to watch the movie, they can but if they don’t, then it’s up to them.”