MICF 2025 REVIEW - Refused Classification (Kyle's Review)

Kyle McGrath reviews Refused Classification for Subculture.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Kyle, and
well I'm going to be looking at one of the
latest comedy festival show that I saw. Now the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival has wrapped up, but the final show
that I saw was zach Ran and Alexei Toleopolis in
Refused Classification. And this is a show which really does

(00:26):
tap into my fondness for filmmaking. I once saw a
video of a speech by the late journalist Christopher Hitchins,
and it was about the virtue of having the right
to yell fire in a crowded theater. Now it's beyond
me to attempt to condense his entire presentation here, but

(00:48):
the focus was on censorship and its effects. He put
forward the question of who is out there who you
would deem worthy enough to dictate to you what you
can and can't say, and what you can and can't
experience for fear of being offended or giving offense. Now,
the highly controversial movie Ken Park. It was released in

(01:12):
two thousand and two and it was directed by the
provocative filmmaker Larry Clarke, and, like his earlier work the
eye opening nineteen ninety five film Kids, Ken Park explored
the lives and relationships of a group of teenagers, both
violent and heavily sexual. In its subject matter, Ken Park
portrayed extremely graphic depictions of teenagers engaging in various sex

(01:37):
acts alone and with each other. The amateur performers or
while they were all over the age of eighteen, they
still looked young enough for the film to feel authentic
and a little bit uncomfortable for many viewers. So Australia, well,
they did what they did best when folk are challenged

(01:58):
by work of fiction, and following points by religious and
political figures, the film was banned, limiting its release nationwide.
This applied also to film festivals, where usually such concerns
are overlooked, but in protest, various screenings popped up, such

(02:19):
as the one which was attended by film critic Margaret Pomeranz.
She was an abject supporter of the film and what
followed was an embarrassing historical showdown with local police whose
job it was to protect us from seeing boobies and
Willie's Now a bizarre moment in Australian film history, to

(02:41):
be sure, in one which anybody over the age of
thirty five who calls themselves a film fan likely remembers.
For their new show, Refused Classification. Comedians and film lover
Zachary Ran and Alexey Toleopoulos, they take the audience down
memory lane in this informative, energetic, and hilarious comedic look

(03:05):
at the history of censorship in Australia. Now opening with
Zachary and Alexei lampooning David Stratton and Margaret palmerans with
Dodgy Wiggs and even Dodger impersonations. The laughs came at
the audience fast, while they looked nothing at all like

(03:26):
the hosts of ABC's The Movie Show, Refused classifications, adherence
to Verbaden re enactments and the two comics their mannerisms
made the illusion oddly complete. But this is only one
element of refused classification, As like film loving Michael Moore's,

(03:49):
they explained to us with much vigor and comedic excellence,
just how a mess like that Ken Park screening came
to be. The parties involved, the laws, which were challenged,
the sordid history of Australia's love with censuring and massing
up an artist division because some Karen got offended. Now

(04:11):
I already knew much of the story behind refused classification,
mostly that the story of what happened with the film
Can Park and it's the controversy in Australia, and yet
still the information was related to me in such an
enthusiastic way that it was still exciting. Zachary and Alexey

(04:34):
figuratively were bouncing off of each other and literally bouncing
off of the walls to make an otherwise bland history
lesson really fascinating. But also they taught me a heap
of things about the past of Australian cinema which had
completely eluded me for all these years. Now, many Aussie
film fans have had their own stories of how they

(04:55):
experienced Can Park, whether they attended an underground screening, or
they bought it from a boutique DVD store, or they
downloaded it themselves, or they simply found a DVD in
cash converters. Because realistically, nobody actually cares about the graphic
content of this movie. This story is one of overreach

(05:16):
and control by those who wish to tell adults you
can't watch this because I say so. So you can
tell why Zachary and Alexei and so many other Australians
would still feel so strongly about this story years later. Now,
I don't know one hundred percent agree with some of
the conclusions that they form, and I'm not even sure

(05:38):
if Margaret Pomerans would. Yet this is where the passion
fueling this show comes from. Why over twenty years later,
these two guys can make this doco comedic reenactment about
such a niche subject and still have the audience eating
out of the palm of their hands. Now, So I
thought Refused Classification was an incredible performance from two blokes

(06:02):
who clearly admire Margaret Pomerance for her goal and Ken
Park may not be a brilliant movie or even Larry
Clark's best work, but it continues something which started twenty
years ago, which is the fuel discussion about what is
and isn't appropriate for audiences to experience and does anyone

(06:24):
have the right to make that decision for the rest
of us. So, like I said, I saw this movie
at ACME, not this movie, sorry, this show about a movie.
I saw it at the Australian Center for the Movie
Moving Image at the Gandal Lab. Now it actually wrapped

(06:47):
up there the twentieth of April. Like I say, the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival is finished now, but I would
highly recommend that if, maybe for the fringe firt of all,
this show gets put on again. I believe that they
had pretty good numbers. I believe that they were sailing out.

(07:08):
I saw it on a Sunday in the middle of
the afternoon and the place was packed. Really didn't expect
that kind of turnout, but it was. It was packed,
and I think that, like I said, it's just there's
something about the story that still resonates with Australian filmmaker
film enjoys twenty years later. So yeah, they if this

(07:32):
show gets put on again later on in the year,
maybe next year or whatever, I highly recommend checking it out.