Gay zombie porn film to be shown in NZ Creates Bloody Controversy

Posted in: New Zealand Daily News 



A controversial gay zombie porn flick which was at the centre of a censorship debate across the Tasman has been included in the line-up for Out Takes 2011.

LA Zombie follows an alien zombie who roams the streets of Los Angeles in search of dead bodies and gay sex, an activity that reveals a gift of ''shagging'' the deceased back to life. The work by Canadian provocateur Bruce LaBruce has full-frontal nude scenes and zombies with prosthetic cucumber-shaped penises. Starring French porn star Francois Sagat, it features wound penetration and implied sex with corpses.

The film was supposed to screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival in Australia last August, but was censored by the Australian Film Classification Board. They advised festival organisers LA Zombie could not be shown as it was likely to be refused classification.

It was the first film to be banned from the Melbourne festival in seven years, the last being Larry Clark's Ken Park in 2003.

At the time the festival's director Richard Moore told The Age that LaBruce's blend of sex and violence can be confronting, "but I would argue that within the context of the festival, it is nonsensical and patronising to not allow people to decide what they want to see.''

Melbourne Underground Film Festival director and filmmaker Richard Wolstencroft was so annoyed he arranged an illegal screening. He said the banning of LA Zombie was a prime example of Australia's censors going too far. "There is no way this film should be banned. It's a major work of art," he said. Wolstencroft was later ordered by a court to pay AU$750 to a children's hospital as punishment for the underground screening.

LA Zombie had its UK premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in London in October and it was reported by The Yorker that "at least one-third of the audience walked out stupefied".

The film is to screen at Auckland's Rialto Cinemas on Monday 6 June and Wellington's Paramount Theatre on Friday 10 June. The Out Takes programme warns that almost all of the movie's content may offend those of delicate disposition.