Censor consults Aramoana people about film

Bill Hastings

A decision to give Aramoana residents a say on censoring a film about a mass murder in their community is being condemned by the film director as "PC gone mad".

Chief Censor Bill Hastings and two of his senior staff visited the Otago Harbour community to seek residents' views on classifying Out of the Blue, a film about the 1990 tragedy in which reclusive gun collector David Gray killed 13 people.

Mr Hastings said he decided on the highly unusual move after watching the "intense" scenes in the film.

"I can't remember ever a New Zealand film being made about an event that shook the nation in which the people involved are still alive and the families of the victims are still alive," he said.

But film director Robert Sarkies, who gave more than 70 locals a preview screening on September 3, said the censor's decision took political correctness to a ridiculous extreme.

"It's PC gone mad. I think it's ridiculous to canvass them about the film, simply because they have already seen it," he said. The film received a standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival last week and will get its New Zealand premiere in Dunedin on October 12.

Mr Hastings wants submissions on its censorship rating by the end of this month.

Dunedin city councillor Andrew Noone, who chaired a community meeting last November before filming started, said many of the people involved in the tragedy never wanted to talk about it again and Mr Hastings was right to consult them.

"The wounds are still relatively raw," he said. "In the light of that, and the uniqueness of this particular movie, where the majority of the people involved are still alive, it was a responsible approach."

All Aramoana residents contacted yesterday declined to comment, citing a decision made at that meeting that the community would not talk to the media. "We've really had enough," said one resident, Selina Davis.

"Although it's 15 years, we've had enough of it."

Chiquita Holden, whose father and sister were killed in the tragedy, also refused to comment.

But Ms Holden's aunt, Rosemarie Clouston, told the Press in Christchurch last week that she told Sarkies at the preview screening: "The story itself is disgusting and I don't feel making a movie about it and bringing it back and putting it in people's faces is right."

Mr Hastings said he asked about 10 people from the victims' families and 25 to 30 Aramoana residents at two closed-door meetings on Wednesday to "write down what they thought the film should be classified as".

"I also said, 'What you feel will not determine the classification, it will be one piece of a many-pieced puzzle that we have to fit together. We are right now considering all the pieces of the puzzle'."

The law requires him to ban or excise anything that is "objectionable", defined as dealing with "matters such as sex, horror, crime, cruelty or violence in such a manner that the availability of the publication [or film] is likely to be injurious to the public good".

"The families of the victims obviously are part of the public of New Zealand," he said.

"But equally we have to balance that against the right of the film-maker to make the film - freedom of expression, and the fact that other people want to see something about what was a public event."

Sarkies said he agreed to make the film based on a book by Bill O'Brien so that everyone could learn what happened, and had spoken to Aramoana people.

"It made me feel that ... we had somewhat of a moral right to tell the story because we had been trusted by the people who were most closely involved."