Damned In The USA

The compelling, multi award-winning investigation of the censorship battles, anti-pornography debates and culture wars in the USA. Comedian JIMMY TINGLE acts as a “Greek Chorus”. Focussed on the late 1980s and early 1990s – the root of our present malaise. In the late 1980s, American conservative groups began to wage a crusade against the government funding of artists. They deemed them threats to public decency and family values. PAUL YULE points his lens at those closest to the controversy. Includes prominent conservative politician JESSE HELMS and Rev. DONALD WILDMON of the American Family Association. Also the controversial musicians and artists like ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, ANDRES SERRANO and 2 LIVE CREW at the center of the firestorm. A film by PAUL YULE Yule’s documentary about censorship and the arts in the US, Damned in the USA became embroiled in a landmark legal dispute in 1991/2 . The film won the International Emmy for Best Arts Documentary. Then, in an attempt to stop US distribution, Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association sued Yule, his co-producer Jonathan Stack, and Channel 4 for $8 million. Wildmon described the film as “blasphemous and obscene”. Channel 4 fought the lawsuit in court in Mississippi – and won – but not before Lou Reed had re-written the lyrics to his classic Walk on the Wild Side in support of the case.