Damon and Hunter: Banned in Australia!

After a sold-out screening at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary, the Comstock Films flick "Damon and Hunter" was to be shown at QueerDOC, the world's largest gay and lesbian film festival held this September in Sydney. That is, until QueerDOC organizers were slapped with a cease and desist order from the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification). Showing a film with explicit sex comes with a stiff penalty, a year in jail and a $20,000 fine. Here's where details get even more sticky. In 2004, Michael Winterbottom's "9 Songs", which depicted hetero actors engaging in actual sex, had its X rating reduced to an R because it was "art". Unfortunately the same consideration isn't being given to Damon and Hunter, which joins a long list of titles banned in Australia, like "Ken Park", "Baise-Moi", and even video games like "Grand Theft Auto" and (are you effing kidding us with this?) "Leisure Suit Larry". We tried to contact Damon DeMarco and Hunter James for a statement, but we just kept getting my their voicemail. We're pretty confident that we can speak on their behalf though. -DD

·GayVN: "Damon and Hunter Banned" (gayvn.com)
·Hunter James Blog (notthatboy.blogspot.com)
·Damon DeMarco Blog (nakedcityboys.blogspot.com)
·Comstock Films (comstockfilms.com)

Previously: Those Boys, Hunter James in Vogue, Gay Porn Star Bloggers