New Canadian Film Held at Border, Suspected of Pornography

With every passing story I read about border control or security insanity, I'm beginning to think that once you have any responsibility for your country's safety, you go insane. Everyday objects become suspect (like a friend harassed in the US for having a couple pictures of an ex amongst the pics he was traveling with), and sometimes, objects are given extraordinary value. I was once charged a couple hundred dollars in Canadian tariffs for a Buffy DVD that was sent to me as a gift, and had to prove that the box set wasn't worth their astronomical estimated cost. But I guess I can consider myself lucky that "Buffy" didn't make the border powers that be think the discs were porn.

Canoe reports that a new Canadian film from John N. Smith (Dangerous Minds) was held at the border because of its name: Love and Savagery. The romantic drama headed to Ireland last month to shoot some scenes, and then the footage was shipped to Montreal for processing, where it was stopped by the border patrol. Smith says: "There was a big kerfuffle and they suspected us of being involved in the pornography trade. They were insisting they were going to send it off to the RCMP lab to develop it to see if we were engaged in pornography." This created a bit of a panic as they worried about the potential damage RCMP processing would have on the footage.
And it's all because of the name. Really? I'm sorry. Maybe if it wasn't Love and Savagery, but Love and Savage F**kery, then they'd have a case. Not to mention how stupid the filmmakers would have to be to not attempt to disguise the footage if it was, indeed, porn, as producer Kevin Tierney points out: "As if we're going to make pornography in Ireland, and then label it Love and Savagery -- very subtle -- and then send it to the porn capital of Canada. It's like bringing communion to the Pope. Are they out of their minds?"

They go on to say that this is Bill C-10 rearing its head, but I'm not so sure about that. The Bill is definitely making filmmaking difficult right now, and the timing is definitely poor, but it's not like border and security agents haven't done wacky sh*t before.

At least we now know: If you're sending some sort of footage to Canada, make sure there is nothing at all sexy about the title. Otherwise, border patrol might think you're a pornographer.