British film censors have been made to watch 10 hours of paint drying
British film censors have been made to watch paint dry for ten hours, in protest against the censorship of some films.
A Kickstarter campaign was started by Charlie Lyne, who wanted to protest against censorship of some films.
He worked out that anyone can submit a film to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), and came up with the idea of raising funds to cover the cost.
Any submission can be made to the BBFC, with a £101.50 fee, plus a £7.09 per-minute fee for the film.
He had originally aimed for a 14-hour film, and has submitted a 607 minute long film of paint drying, to be reviewed by the board.
That was funded by 686 backers who pledged £5,936 to bring the project to life.
During an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit, Lyne explained why he wanted to start the campaign.
He said: “About a year ago, I went to a filmmaker open day held by the BBFC at their offices in Soho. I’d expected to see quite a lot of conflict between the BBFC examiners and the visiting filmmakers whose work was at the mercy of the board, but there was nothing like that. Most of the filmmakers — even those who’d had trouble with the BBFC in the past — seemed totally resigned to the censorship imposed by the board, even supportive of it. I think that shocked me into action.”
The film missed out on become the longest-ever to be rated by the BBFC. Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 remains the longest at 775 minutes.
The BBFC has confirmed since this campaign was started that it commits to watch every minute of every film submitted.
