Sam Adams of the Philadelphia City Paper has reported that the Chestnut Hill Film Group opened their 34th season with two free screenings of Song of the South. The movie was shown twice on the evening of October 9th at 6:00 and 7:45 PM to guests at the Chestnut Hill Free Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Adams, like many before him, can’t figure out what the big deal is about this movie:
- “Once you’ve seen Song of the South, it’s hard to account for its uniquely untouchable status. It’s nowhere near as malicious as The Birth of a Nation, less bizarre than The Jazz Singer and less awful than The Emperor’s New Groove. True, Disney has a family-friendly image to uphold, but the studio has owned up to far darker chapters in its history, notably the series of overtly racist propaganda shorts they produced during WWII, reissued with admirable contextual footnotes as part of the collector-oriented ‘Disney Treasures’ series.”
Read the full article here: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/10/04/screen-picks
While free screenings of Song of the South certainly aren’t new, it doesn’t always make the news. I have even heard scattered reports over the years about libraries having (unofficial) copies of this movie available for free rental. Until Disney gives Americans the choice to view this movie on their own, let’s hope that other libraries around the country also take the initiative to show this virtually censored film to the public. Thanks to Jerry over at Cartoon Brew and everyone else for this news report!