Definition of ‘commercial’, a kind of censorhip: Granik

American director Debra Granik is in Australia to present her acclaimed feature Winter’s Bone, which was called “heavy and dark” by film executives and had to fight the image of ‘self-righteousness’ that independent films sometimes get.

“Having things that cannot be solved with a bullet, that’s ‘dark’ for American executives. It is easier to solve things with a bullet; emotion cannot be solved, it sits there… It’s a kind of censorship; the idea that ‘commercial’ means a very specific kind of entertainment,” Granik told Encore.

The situation is not very different from what many Australian films have to face in terms of perception of their content.

“People call this [type of film] ‘heavy’ and ‘dark’, but when other [Hollywood] films have all this violence they are not considered ‘dark’, they are considered a thriller, which is confusing.”