Controversial Documentaries That Were Banned

we have talked about interesting and controversial documentaries multiple times on this channel they can show us a great insight into intriguing and previously unknown topics and can be a great source of information but sometimes certain companies organizations or even the government can find these documentaries to be a bit too revealing and they can go as far as to ban them from public viewing so that's what we're going to be having a look at today so here are five controversial documentaries that were banned number one in 1969 english director ken loach was commissioned to make a documentary about the charity organization known as save the children the movie's purpose was to shine a light on the work that the charity did in england and africa it was funded on behalf of the charity itself so it was expected that this was going to be a pretty good look for save the children but this wasn't necessarily the case when loch arrived to one of their institutions in kenya he noticed a few things that didn't sit right with him for one the children were forbidden from speaking in their native language and their treatment was questionable over in england the staff were seen as disrespectful and condescending and seem to have cared very little about the children they were supposed to be saving the documentary basically presented a narrative that wasn't in the best interest of save the children loach questioned their methods mission and even their core purpose which is quite the spectacular feat when you consider that save the children were literally funding him to do this the organization were not pleased and refused to pay for the movie and demanded that it be banned from public viewing a legal battle ensued and eventually an agreement was made where the movie would be archived by the british film institution but not released to the public until the charity were okay with it that time would eventually come over 40 years later when the company decided to release it in a very limited setting a number of universities were granted a screening but apart from that the film remains banned from the public those who have seen it say it's quite the watch a very literal example of biting the hand that feeds you but arguably for the right reasons in the next few decades after this movie ken loach would go on to achieve a large amount of success in the filmmaking world and this movie remains as a very interesting footnote in his career number two in 1967 frederick wiseman and john marshall created a documentary titled titicate follies which showed the lives of both patients and inmates at the bridgewater state hospital for the criminally insane it showed the very cruel way they were treated which included being held up in empty cells having their hygiene neglected and being bullied by the staff of the hospital in the 19 days the pair spent there they saw the reality behind this so-called hospital and were ready to expose the truth to the public however the government of massachusetts had different plans they claimed that the pair had failed to get the proper permissions necessary to release the footage even though they had asked the patients beforehand and even gotten permission from the hospital superintendent who at the time was technically their legal guardian this should have been enough but it wasn't harry kallus a superior court judge from the state ordered the film to be recalled and stated that all copies must be destroyed wiseman managed to appeal this so that the film could be shown in an educational setting students doctors lawyers and public service members would have access to the film but the general public would not be able to watch it the movie was being very clearly censored it would most likely destroy the image of the hospital and stain the reputation of the state's healthcare services in the process which made for a dangerous movie in the eyes of the government this ban would continue for over two decades until eventually in 1991 judge andrew meyer lifted the ban and allowed the movie to be released to the general public while the documentary did make a very significant impact that impact could have been a lot bigger if the movie was allowed to be released when it was first made it is a very clear example of the dangers of censorship and how it can affect the real world on a large scale [Music] have you ever loved someone just as i love you [Music] you see that i'm sorry for each mistake i've made [Music] which because of the circumstances because of the situation now you tell me uh until you see an improvement each time i get worse [Applause] [Music] number three karen carpenter was an american singer and drummer who was a member of the musical duo the carpenters along with her brother richard the duo enjoyed an immense amount of success but karen suffered from a number of eating disorders that would eventually lead to a number of serious health complications she passed away in 1983 at the age of 32 and this would raise awareness to disorders like anorexia and body dysmorphia four years later in 1987 the experimental biographical movie titled superstar the karen carpenter story was released directed by todd haynes the movie uses real life footage as well as acted out scenes that are portrayed with barbie dolls it is a creepy but effective technique and the movie gained some minor success in the late 80s however in 1990 the movie was taken out of circulation after haines lost a copyright infringement lawsuit to richard carpenter who disliked the film for the way it portrayed his family but this wasn't very effective the movie was bootlegged thousands of times and even exist on youtube today it also gained a cult audience for its experimental nature however the movie has not seen any commercial circulation since 1990 meaning it hasn't been screened or shown on tv and technically it is supposed to be inaccessible to the public but this has never been heavily enforced karen people are talking about you your fans are worried i can hear them gasping when we walk on stage now what the hell are we supposed to do about that i know i i know i'm sick i i know something's wrong and i need help what do you mean sick mentally richard have you ever heard the word anorexia of course i've heard people call you that richard i am that and i guess i i guess i'm just beginning to realize that it isn't something good number four in 1997 director roger allers asked the british artist sting to write some music for kingdom of the sun an upcoming disney movie that later became the emperor's new groove he agreed to this and part of the deal he made was that his wife and documentarian trudy styler would be allowed to film a documentary about the production process of the movie as far as disney were concerned this was just another way to promote the movie and probably expected a light fun documentary showing behind the scenes footage however this was not the case styler showed the realities behind the production the frustrations that the crew went through to make it and the harsh ways they were treated in one scene the crew shows two executive producers a half-finished version of the movie but they weren't satisfied with the product hundreds of hours of work was ultimately scrapped and the crew's effort were shut down in a demeaning fashion in another scene sting himself was called and was told that the songs he had spent weeks working on were being deleted from the movie the title of the documentary was sweat box a name that came from the studio that the animation crew worked in which was a tight space with no air conditioning unsurprisingly the documentary was also scrapped adding trudy styler to the long list of creators who had fallen victim to the ruthless production process of this movie disney released a heavily edited version that was nothing like the original documentary but for around a decade the original was completely lost until 2012 when it was leaked online number five in 1997 director david monaghan created a documentary entitled bear fist the sport that wouldn't die which was about the life of lenny mclean and his infamous unlicensed boxing career through this we also got a deep dive into bare knuckle boxing a form of unarmed combat that has caused a lot of controversy throughout the years in most areas of the western world the sport is illegal but it has found life in underground markets this documentary attempted to shine a light on it but failed as the british board of film classification refused to give it a certificate on two separate occasions stating that the movie glamorized the sport it is now completely banned in the uk but much like the sport itself it found an audience by some less conventional means i think i like this i like the idea of this and then uh and then some business people put some money together and i was fighting ben knuckles and bashing everyone up and getting a few quid i'm getting a few belts yourself though come on sorry if you belch yourself no i'm not straightforward sometimes never just say i'm too quick too mad and too aggressive listen never i never never i've never lost a fight on a car no no you haven't lost but you've got to take something no no you get one or two but when you're when you're cranky and you're aiming to tear up that and that you because you're yeah yeah you're too busy going to work yourself to worry about little bits of pain and that is it for this video thank you very much for watching if you enjoyed don't forget to hit that like button i try and make a video like this every single week so if you want to subscribe for that you can i'll leave a link down below to some of my social medias instagram facebook twitter all of which are to berk321 if you want to check me out over there but like i said that's all for now as always until next time

Channel: Deburke321

Views: 1,969,902

Keywords: Documentaries, Documentary

Id: 602dt24b6lk

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019