obscene: Australian premiere

Co-presented with the Melbourne Writers Festival (22nd – 31st August)

Obscene

Denounced by presidents and bankrupted by his passions, the irrepressible Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset was an infamous crusader for free expression who challenged America.

From Burroughs to Beckett and Mailer to Malcolm X, Rosset (now in his 80s) fought obscenity bans to print the confronting works of the time (or otherwise, as when dabbling in distribution with risqué 1967 Swedish film I am Curious Yellow!).

This entertaining documentary is both a cultural and personal history awash with the music of Dylan, Patti Smith and The Doors and is a fascinating thrill ride through America’s post-war literary landscape.

Screenings at ACMI Thu 21 Aug 2008, 7pm Fri 22 Aug 2008, 7pm Sat 23 Aug 2008, 7.30pm Sun 24 Aug 2008, 6pm location ACMI Cinemas audience 18+ admission Full $13 Concession $10 or phone (03) 8663 2583

Background: Barney Rosset’s name may not be bandied around as much as Stephanie Rice’s, but without him the world would be a radically different place. In the 1950s and 60s, Rosset embarked on a “literary trench war” in which he fought censorship laws for the right to publish and distribute confronting works such as D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. His publishing company Grove Press was, according to Rosset, a “breach in the dam of American Puritanism” and introduced America to names like Samuel Beckett, Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs. Daniel O’Connor and Neil Ortenberg’s Obscene.

Read an essay by Barney Rosset here