Melbourne cinema The Astor has cancelled a public screening of the infamous and influential 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat after receiving complaints from the Coalition Against Trafficking Women in Australia (CATWA).Deep Throat is famously one of the first porn movies to feature a narrative plot and high production values. Palace Cinemas programming director told the Sydney Morning Herald that the screening and accompanying panel discussion, which were scheduled for March 19, were “booked for cultural purposes as a reflection on the changing political, censorship and cinema exhibition landscape in the USA in the early 1970s without knowledge of the abuse that occurred."The star of Deep Throat, Linda Boreman (then known as Linda Lovelace), claimed in an official biography that her husband Chuck Trainor forced her into acting in porn films at gunpoint."When you see the movie Deep Throat, you are watching me being raped," Boreman, who died in 2002, told the Toronto Sun back in 1981. "It is a crime that movie is still showing.”Other people present on the Deep Throat set have confirmed in interviews that Trainor’s relationship with Boreman was controlling and violent.Anti-pornography campaigners have long appropriated Boreman’s rape claims as evidence of the entire genre’s evils, and it would appear that CATWA—an organisation that takes a hard stance against all pornography and sex work—is no different.As per CATWA’s website:“The rise of pornography, and its negative effects on broader culture, are well-documented. Far from being a form of sexual expression that individuals experience in the privacy of their bedrooms, pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry that relies on the exploitation of girls and women worldwide.”It’s not the first time a Deep Throat screening has been cancelled in Australia; in 2012, a Perth Rooftop Cinema screening was also canned following similar backlash.
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