Letter to the editor
I eagerly awaited the showing of the award-winning film, “Anora” at my local library last week, but when I arrived at the community room, a librarian stood in front telling the crowd that they would not be showing the film, but would be substituting a different film. People wondered why and were told that this film was too sexy and had too many curse words. The audience consisted of very advanced senior citizens who did not seem to be fearful of watching a film that was sexy or used curse words. In fact, they became angry and said that’s not why we came out in the rain today. We came to see this movie and we want to see it.
The poor librarian stood there and apologized for the change. He blamed himself for not previewing the film himself before selecting it to be shown in the film series. He thought that it was an award-winning film that deserved to be seen, but he didn’t realize that it was too sexy with too many curse words.
The audience was not to be appeased. They urged him to continue with the same film that they advertised showing today. He said he couldn’t without consulting with his superior.
He disappeared for a while and when he returned, he said, “I’m sorry, but we cannot show the film. What if youngsters came in? What if it offended people? That would not be good.” The people in the audience laughed at his naïvete. All the youngsters were in school at 2 p.m. And the doors could be kept shut once all of us oldsters were in and ready for a good film.
He was very uncomfortable and blamed himself again. We vowed not to be angry with him and urged him to please retain the original film. We are folks who have been ardent activists for various causes. We’re not afraid to take on a puny case of censorship.
Finally, he surrendered, and the crowd was very pleased to see the film. It was, however, quite graphic and if it shocked people, they did not say anything until they left two hours and 20 minutes later.
But it was a fun afternoon being part of a crowd that was ready to battle. Our staid library leaders who changed their minds about mature programming will know better than to fool around with us seniors.
Written and submitted by Barbara Sutton Masry, Great Neck
