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Turn Me On, Dammit! gets Tuscaloosa go-ahead

Published: 11 Jun 2012 12:29 GMT+02:00 | Print version
Updated: 11 Jun 2012 12:29 GMT+02:00

The Tuscaloosa Arts Council has backtracked on its decision not to show a Norwegian film about teenagers’ sexuality after members of the public expressed an interest in seeing the movie despite the misgivings of a local pastor.

The Arts Council last week said it had decided not to show the acclaimed film, Turn Me On, Dammit!, as part of the Bama Art House summer series following complaints from a Methodist pastor and queries from the mayor.

The pastor, John Kearns, registered his opposition amid concerns that a film detailing the sexual awakening of a 15-year-old girl in a small Norwegian town was "not in step with community standards".

But the Arts Council on Friday reversed its decision after city officials reassured the group that its public funding would not be jeopardized, AL.com reported.

”The Arts Council came to this decision after receiving feedback from community members in support of the film as well as consulting with the City of Tuscaloosa," the Arts Council said in a statement.

"The city emphasized that future funding for the organization is not linked with programming decisions. Public funds will not be directed toward the screening of the film, but will be presented entirely with sponsor dollars."

The film’s director, Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, last week said she had never intended to offend anyone with her film, which she said anyone who watched it would see contained a Christian conservative message about waiting before having sex.

The Local (news@thelocal.no)

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2012-06-12 15:16:04 by Artorange
Ok now we hope all the Americas are become loving and educated and pretty (blonde and blue eyed and tall). We hope this is spread to the rest of the world particularly the dark continent. We hope that the Americas are united and the European and Greco Roman ways of love and kindness prevail. We hope everyone can remain youthful as teenagers with the same (or greater) innocence, the same sort of love , the same sort of desire for love, the same or greater beauty and body etc.
2012-06-12 18:34:29 by JohnHedtke
I'm very pleased that the Arts Council has reversed their decision. It sounds like a good movie and the idea of 15yos having sex sounds like a reality that people need to address as the reality of being human. It's what we're designed to do, even if it's not necessarily a good idea. Americans are woefully backward when it comes to social progress. There's never been a progressive social movement that America hasn't brought up the rear on, and social maturity is certainly right up there. I am pleased that there are many Americans who actually have a clue, but we do seem to breed a particular class of ignorant loudmouths in excess. The problem with freedom of speech is you have to put up with a lot of garbage. :) H.L. Mencken once said something to the effect of "While the Creator may have erred in making two sexes, a conspiracy of silence about the facts will not improve the situation."
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