In October 2014, the Catholic University of America halted a screening of the 2008 film “Milk,” a biographical endeavor about the gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn. It was organized by the university’s chapter of the College Democrats, and the university had taken issue with the manner in which it advertised itself as a way to “kick off LGBT awareness month.” Victor Nakas, a university official, spoke out saying that the event had been postponed as they were unsure if it was now one of advocacy, rather than an educational event, which was the original plan.
Two weeks ago, senior Media and Communications student Patrick Healy hosted a screening of the 1996 film “Trainspotting,” a British movie that follows a group of heroin addicts in a poor part of Edinburgh as they pass through life in a cycle of endless mistakes and misadventures. The film was a watershed moment for British cinema, tapping into the youth subculture at that time and immediately thrusting its director, Danny Boyle, and star actor, Ewan McGregor, into the international spotlight.
Their careers have flourished since, and a long-awaited sequel, “T2 Trainspotting,” was released this past Friday, uniting both the original cast and the director to finish these character’s stories. Healy had organized the screening of the original film as an educational event to remark on the film’s cinematic relevance to today’s culture and media environment, citing the popular soundtrack and certain filming techniques in the process; he went as far to invite a professor in the Media and Communications Studies department to preface the viewing with a talk on counterculture in media. So, how was it that “Trainspotting” was allowed to be screened on our campus, but not “Milk?” Is there a difference between education and advocacy, or is heroin seemingly more acceptable than LGBT people in the eyes of our university’s officials?
Yes, both parties went about their screenings differently, the way they were handled and advertised. Yet, do we not, as a campus, deserve an educational “Milk” screening, or the assurance that any film has a place in an educational environment? Back at the time of the premiere of “Trainspotting,” in 1996, it was US Senator Bob Dole who accused that film of promoting moral depravity and glorifying drug use, yet when pressed, he admitted he had never seen it. It is an attitude like this, one of proclamations and indifference, one of intolerance, that we must not let overcome our college campus.
We must be able to learn, to be educated, to screen and to not be censored. The difference between education and advocacy? It’s delicate, but it requires actually seeing the film to come to a conclusion in the first place. Awareness of a subject does not lead to advocacy; in fact, it is simply the process of education.
So, let us be educated. Let us watch “Trainspotting,” and “Milk,” and any other film that challenges us on an academic or cultural level. Let us learn and be aware of the world around us. All films, all works in the cinematic arts, deserve to be critiqued, analyzed, and screened, free of censorship.