Forbidden Films

Since the earliest days of the film industry, mainstream films have been banned for their sexual, religious, social and political content. This volume traces the efforts to censor 125 films, ranging from the silent ""The Birth of a Nation"", to ""Schindler's List"". It examines the continued efforts to regulate the industry, providing a summary of each banned film - including production details, censorship history, and suggestions for further reading. The volume looks at the early efforts to regulate the movie industry, such as the Hays Code in 1922 and the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930. There is also coverage on the emergence of the Catholic League of Decency, which wielded extensive power for nearly 40 years and the reasoning behind the different types of censorship, including racism and anti-Semitism, sexual ""indecency"" and the fear of Communism. The appendices profile the directors of the banned films, classify them according to the reason for their censorship or ban, and listing of 125 additional challenged, censored, and banned films.