So what if LA Zombies won’t screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival because the Australian Film Classification Board refused to classify it. Banning it will generate more publicity than actually showing it ever could.
And director Bruce LaBruce is thrilled: “Eureka! They have unconsciously handed the film loads of publicity,” he says. “Once you do this, you’ve guaranteed that people will want to see it. I suspect I’ll get invited to a dozen more film festivals because of this, and thousands more people will see it. My Facebook page has loads of messages on it about the ban.”
Dubbed “gay zombie porn” by Australia’s film authority, LA Zombies isn’t actually going to disappear: It will likely be available on DVD in the future, and it’s already booked for other film festivals around the world.
The whole situation is similar to the furor over Israel Luna’s Ticked Off Trannies With Knives — the more people talked crap about it, the higher profile the film went. (It’s very likely Zombies, like Trannies, will be bad for reasons other than the controversy.)
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Originally titled Otto; Or, Up With Dead People, the film was first shared with you on Queerty back in 2008, where LaBruce told us in the film “there are people in this trance. You get into these sexual situations that are orgies of anonymous sex and it’s not too big of a stretch to apply to zombie metaphor. I think what would probably be harder for a more straight audience to understand is that it’s not a total critique of it. The zombie-ness of of those situations make it hot on a certain level, so it’s not just a condemnation of that.”
Now if LaBruce was even more keen, he would’ve brought this thing to Comic-Con. Get the gay geeks on board and this thing will kill.
Gavin
OTTO, OR UP WITH DEAD PEOPLE and LA ZOMBIE are two different films. OTTO is available here in Australia…
daniel
Wow! I would just like to point out that you innacurate statement of facts makes your snarky tone even less becoming. Keep up the great journalism.
Ogre Magi
The one in the pic looks more like an orc than a zombie!