History of film censorship
There has been censorship of films in New Zealand since 1916. As technology and society changed over time, new laws were made to keep pace. An example of this was when soundtracks were first added to films in the late 1920s:
Films became more sophisticated with the arrival of sound, and were thus aimed at a more mature audience. In 1930, a record 102 films (3.9 percent of the 2,626 submitted) were banned, indicating that the censor was taking a cautious approach to the sound revolution.
- from Censored by Paul Christoffel, Department of Internal Affairs, 1989
New legislation for videos
In 1987 a new law was introduced to regulate restricted-level videos for home use: The Video Recordings Act. This meant that between 1987 and 1994 (when new legislation combined all censorship authorities) there were parallel systems in New Zealand – one for films (the Films Act 1963) and the other for videos (The Video Recordings Act 1987).
The current law came into force in 1994
In 1993 the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act established the Office of Film and Literature Classification. When the Office opened in October 1994 it replaced the Chief Censor of Film's office, the Video Recordings Authority, and the Indecent Publications Tribunal, bringing the classification of all types of publications under one Act and one office.
How historical decisions work in the current system
Decisions made by former censorship organisations are still in force unless the Office of Film and Literature Classification makes a new decision on an identical film. Many older films which were originally restricted or cut have been re-released on DVD. However, if the DVD has extra material on it (such as trailers, deleted scenes, interviews), the DVDs are treated as a new publication. When this happens, the DVD sometimes ends up with a different classification from the original film. For example, the DVD might be classified as unrestricted under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993, but the original 35mm film would still be restricted or the cuts on the 35mm film would remain in force.
More on the history of censorship in New Zealand
Glossary:
- 35mm film = The type of film used for movie theatres
- Publication = The definition of 'publication' includes a number of things, such as film, DVDs, books, video games, sound recordings and computer files.
- Soundtrack = Music, spoken words, sounds effects in a film
- Cut = A segment of film that must be removed before the film can be made available to the public. Cuts are also referred to as 'excisions'
