Schuster’s films ‘banned’

The Black Live Matter movement in the United States has prompted streaming services, including South Africa’s Showmax to begin removing content it deemed racially insensitive or racist from their platforms.

Showmax’s decision to remove movies by award-winning movie-maker Leon Schuster, which were deemed racist, was met with outrage on social media, while others welcomed the move.

Schuster’s list of movies “banned” from the platform included Schuster’s 1986 film, You Must Be Joking, his first hidden camera film in which he showed himself pranking strangers while in blackface.

The film birthed a series of similarly themed films, which also made the ban list, including You Must Be Joking Too, Oh Schucks…It’s Schuster, Sweet ‘n Short, Schuks! Pay Back the Money, and Frank and Fearless.

According to Showmax spokesman Richard Boornman, the move was in tandem with the global movement by the industry towards racial sensitivity in light of the death of George Floyd at the hands of American police officers.

“This is part of a wider review of content on Showmax – it’s something happening in parallel with reviews by streaming services worldwide,” he said.

Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird welcomed the move, pointing out that it was not an attack on Schuster.

“Showmax is entitled to remove content they believe perpetuates racist stereotypes. As they did with with Steve Hofmeyr,” he said. “They are not banning Schuster but choosing not to carry some of his content.”

While concerns were raised that the move by Showmax could set a precedent for people to claim much more content was racist, Bird said this still did not negate the sensibility of the decision.

“Well, people can assert that and there is no doubt much content perpetuates both racist and sexist stereotypes. But there is a difference between those and content that is then overtly sexist or racist.”