“C” is for Censorship: PBS Cuts ‘Art Spiegelman’ Doc and Other Dubious Acts at Embattled Broadcaster

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/44968113

Twelve days before Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (2024) was set to broadcast on April 15 across PBS stations nationwide as part of its strand American Masters, the filmmakers were told that a 90-second sequence—which shows the famous artist discussing an anti-Trump cartoon he created for the 2017 Women’s March newspaper—would be cut from the documentary.

The filmmakers, directors Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin, who produced the film alongside Sam Jinishian and Alicia Sams, had a choice. According to Sams, they could choose to buy back their licensing deal, or agree to PBS’s decision and move forward with the broadcast. “We were told the film still has an anti-fascist message, and the audience can connect the dots themselves,” she says. “The irony of censoring someone who is a free speech advocate is maybe lost on PBS, but certainly not lost on us.”