Only the merest chance remains that a September 8 decision releasing Reverend Donald Wildmon's hold on the American distribution of Damned in the U.S.A., an Emmy Award-winning documentary about arts censorship, might be reversed.

The ruling by federal district court judge Glenn Davidson caps an August 11-12 trial in Abeerdeen, Mississippi, and rejects Wildmon's assertion that he has a contractual agreement granting him virtual control of the British film's distribution in the U.S. in exchange for his filmed interview. Davidson instead sided with the filmmakers, who were supported in a countersuit against the antiporn crusader by a lengthy roster of film and civil rights groups.

On September 10, Benjamin Bull, counsel for Wildmon's American Family Association, filed a motion with Davidson to stay the enforcement of the judges decision while the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reviews the case. But Russel Smith, an attorney for the documentary's producers, Paul Yule and Jonathan Stack, isn't worried: He terms the motion "pure harassment". Smith also predicts that any stay granted by Davidson will be vacated immediately by the appellate court because the lower court found "every issue of fact in our favor and the legal questions are relatively straightforward."

Perhaps more reassuring, the distributors who balked at picking up the documentary until legal matters were resolved have now booked it. Bull--described in TV Guide's September 5 issue as a crony of convicted S&L looter Charles Keating, Jr.--did not return calls for comment.

The case's symbolism is more important than its potential to set progressive legal precedent. Despite the participation of heavy-hitting, free expression co-plaintiffs such as the ACLU's Arts Censorship Project and People for American Way, the decision was reached on the basis of contract, rather than First Amendment, law. Sidestepping most philosophical concerns, Judge Davidson succinctly noted in his ruling that "both parties focus their attention on a single [disputed] paragraph of contract." But he also acknowledged that public interest was in favor of open viewership and debate.

Surely the most loathsome aspect of the trial was Wildmon's hypocrisy in bringing the suit. The latter-day Comstock said in a written statement that his motive was to avoid being seen alongside "pornographic and anti-Christian imagery" by the likes of artists Robert Mapplethrope, Andres Serrano, and David Wojnarowicz. put another way, he damned Damned in the U.S.A. for presenting dirty pictures.

Now bear in mind that Wildmon's AFA issued a press release on June 20, 1991, urging Americans to watch the PBS presentation of Tongues Untied, Marlin Rigg's film about queer African Americans, in order to see for themselves how NEA funds were spent. Or consider the fact the late David Wojnarowicz successfully sued Wildmon in 1990 for using, without his permission, a porno-photo fragment from the artist's "Sex Series" prints on an AFA fundraising newsletter. (He had to take the antiporn crusader back to court on contempt charges a year later for continuing to distribute the same publication. Smith told me that both of these items were introduced as evidence.) I remember a conversation with Wojnarowicz after he prevailed on the art-mutilation charges, but received just $1 in damages. "I'm sure the Rev's making plenty of money," he chuckled. Amen.

Follow Up, Scene & Heard, November 10, 1992