The Watchdog Barks


IT’S A REAL source of pride to me that VIDEO WATCHDOG is published in the city of Cincin­nati, Ohio. Cincinnati is the site


of America’s first public television station; it’s the city where Winsor McCay launched his career as an illustrator, where Rod Serling sold and produced his earliest teleplays, and where James Brown recorded his greatest hits for King Records. It’s the hometown of Steven Spielberg, Doris Day, the Isley Brothers, Bootsy Collins and Skyline Chili. I revel in the history of this place, so it pains me where I live—literally—when Cincinnati be­ comes associated with ideas and policies which make it appear ignorant and unprogressive to the world at large. For some people in the Arts community, Cin­


cinnati has never lived down its reputation as the city where Russ Meyer’s VIXEN was successfully prosecuted for obscenity in 1969, or where an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs faced similar charges two decades later. Last June, Cincinnati made national headlines


once again, when the city prosecutor’s office charged a local gay bookstore—The Pink Pyra­ mid—with pandering obscenity. The item in ques­ tion was a tape of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s SALO [VW 22:69], which the city’s safety director described on a local newscast as being “about one thing and one thing only: the sexual torture of teenagers.” He went on to say that “pointing a camera at this sort of sick behavior doesn’t make it Art.” Of course, he made no mention that SALO was also a prize- winning film, an antifascist statement no less ardent (though far less glamorized) than SCHINDLER’S LIST, and one of a select group of motion pictures—along with CITIZEN KANE and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE—to be chosen by the Voyager Company as part of their “Criterion Col­ lection” of classic films on laserdisc. The charges against SALO focused mainly on


its seemingly underage participants, as well as its scenes of (faked) anal intercourse and coprophagia. Yet PRETTY BABY and LAST TANGO IN PARIS managed to play here, uncut and without incident. As for SALO’s banquet of feces, Enzo Siciliano’s


1982 biography PASOLINI confirms that it made use of chocolate props—unlike John Waters’PINK FLAMINGOS, which has played within the city limits on more than one occasion. Furthermore, The Pink Pyramid is located in downtown Cincin­ nati betweenThe Real Movies—a theater that has shown such films as EROTIQÜE, TOKYO DECA­ DENCE and SEX AND ZEN— and the Cincinnati Public Library, where the Marquis de Sade’s LES 120 JOURNÉES DE SODOME (the inspirational


text for SALO) remains freely available to readers of all ages. Fortunately, on November 12, Judge William


Mallory Jr. of Hamilton County Municipal Court threw this embarrassing case out of court. It seems that, on two separate occasions, Cincinnati vice officers failed to return SALO to The Pink Pyramid within its two-day rental period, withholding it for weeks at a time. Judge Mallory ruled that this procedure violated the First Amendment’s ban on prior restraint; he also said that police violated the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable seizure when they used the tape to obtain a search warrant and confiscate evidence. As with the Mapplethorpe case, the city’s pros­


ecution was unsuccessful, but the charge has nonetheless stuck—in the national consciousness, against Cincinnati. Since our last issue appeared, we’ve received letters from some well-meaning readers asking how, under these circumstances, Donna and I are able to continue living and working here. The answer is simple: We’re able because we like it here, because it’s comparatively safe and affordable, and because we’ve been lucky enough to realize our dreams without moving away from our friends and families. Also, there isn’t a lot of urban tension or social temptations to distract us from fulfilling our contract with you, our readers and subscribers. So when you think about Cincinnati, remember


the good things—like Winsor McCay, James Brown, Judge William Mallory and VIDEO WATCHDOG! Gotta run. We’re doing two issues back to


back—so expect VW # 2 7 (a special “all-review” issue) on the stands, or in your hands, in just a few weeks!


Tim Lucas 3

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