February 24, 2013 | Arts / Entertainment

Aussie film board balks at 'explicit' gay flick

The same government agency that allowed a film about man-on-donkey sex into Australia has found Travis Mathews feature film, I Want Your Love, inappropriate for an Aussie audience.

Australia's Classification Board found Matthews work too graphic because it included non-simulated gay sex.

The film was to be shown as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival.

"With my films I have always sought to capture honest and intimate depictions of modern gay life with everyday men...this involved a throughline of intimacy and that meant not shying away from sex," Mathews explained in his director's statement. Sex is a "tool to show character development, interpersonal issues, intimacy, playfulness and something overall closer to the reality I'm familiar with."

Because of the decision, the movie will not be shown at Sydney's Queer Screen and the Brisbane Queer Film Festival, either.

Mathews also had one of the films from his documentary series In Their Room Berlin banned by the same Classification Board.

Six months ago the Classification Board allowed the film Donkey Love, a documentary about a Colombian folk tradition where men have sex with donkeys to prepare them for having sex with women, to be screened at the Sydney Underground Film Festival and Melbourne Underground Festival.

LA Zombie by Bruce LaBruce was also banned a few years ago. The porn, about undead creatures having sex (with a little cannibalism on the side), was deemed offensive. The Melbourne Underground Film Festival opted to show the movie anyway but was issued a $750 fine.

Sounds like Australia's Classification Board hates gays and zombies, but has a hard-on for donkey sex. Hmmmm.

Gay sex too much for Australian film censor [The Age]

I Want Your Love: banned Down Under, showing in London [Australian Times]