The Australian classification board has
banned Bruce LaBruce's gay zombie flick L.A. Zombie from
screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival, which opens
Saturday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
From his home in Toronto, LaBruce said
he was “delighted” by the decision.
“I'll never understand how censors
don't see that the more they try to suppress a film, the more people
will want to see it,” he said. “It gives me a profile I didn't
have yesterday.”
L.A. Zombie stars French gay
porn star Francois Sagat as a schizophrenic gay zombie who believes
he can bring the dead back to life by having sex with them.
“People come back to life [in my
film], it's a metaphor for healing,” he said.
The board's director said the film
refused classification. Festival officials have not announced if
they would appeal the decision.
LaBruce said the version of the film
submitted for the festival had been stripped of its hard-core sex,
leaving the veteran director surprised by the board's decision.
“My film is debuting at Locarno in
competition, it's a prestigious festival,” he said. “So it's
self evident it has artistic merit and most censorship boards take
that into account. I'm surprised [the Australian classification
board] didn't take it into consideration, if they knew.”
LaBruce's work has faced censorship in
the past, including his 1996 film Hustler White, which
features Madonna's then-boyfriend Tony Ward as a male prostitute and
a controversial amputee sex scene.