No. 013 - 'Refused Classification' by Ruane & Toliopoulos (2025)

Attended by Matthew Donlan at the Factory Floor

Let me take you back to a nerve-wracking time in Australia’s past. Less than three months ago, Australia faced a choice between Trumpian rhetoric or tepid consistency. The national conversation was dominated by promises of public service crackdowns and a return to ‘traditional’ values. Questions about how Australia would react to events around the world were met with obfuscations or veiled threats.

Less than three months ago I too faced a choice. While many Australians were around their screens bidding Antony Green farewell on election night, I, and a hundred others, had gathered in the Factory Floor to watch a comedy show about film censorship in Australia; Refused Classification by Alexei Toliopoulos and Zachary Ruane.

In 2003, the Australian Government’s Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) banned the Larry Clark film Ken Park right before its screening at the Sydney Film Festival. This was an unusual move by the board as festivals in Australia had previously been allowed to screen films for their artistic merit without OFLC approval.

In 2003, cultural taste-makers Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton were at their peak. Every Australian hung onto their word on their SBS programme, The Movie Show, and it was here where Pomeranz launched a freedom of expression crusade against the OFLC. What resulted was a farcical endeavour with the NSW police, the Reverend Fred Nile and the OFLC board on one side against Pomeranz, David Marr and a town hall of film lovers on the other.

In one hour Toliopoulos (playing Pomeranz) and Ruane (playing Stratton) tell this tale with humour, pantomime, multimedia presentations, props and a passionate energy rarely seen in Australian comedy (with sweat to prove it). Refused Classification is incisive and informative, bouncing between monologues, dramatic recitations, re-enactments and audience participation. It is fast-paced and incredibly niche. I must confess, even knowing much of this saga (as a cinephile and political junkie) there were still a few references that went past me. This thorough research makes clear that Alexei and Zach care deeply about this topic.

Refused Classification is an energising, inspiring and timely work. To have watched it on election night only heightened its message but it remains pertinent outside of that unique political atmosphere. Alexei and Zach are adept at controlling the tone and shifting to the serious ramifications for Australia today. This is not something that is isolated to the past. The censorship and vilification of art still occurs but now in more insidious forms.

Take a look at Creative Australia’s 180 (and subsequent 180) regarding Khaled Sabsabi or Segal’s proposal to strip funding from art organisations based on a contested definition or the covering of Palestinian flags on a Pacific Indigenous exhibition in the nation’s top gallery. Censorship still happens. Sometimes it feels like its happening all the time. But reading Simon Miraudo’s Book of the Banned (which Refused Classification draws its research from) you find that it has always been happening. It’s just that in 2003 Pomeranz and Stratton were there to call it out on a national platform. And in 2025, Toliopoulos and Ruane are there to remind us (albeit from the Factory Floor).

Refused Classification has two encore shows in Sydney, a sold out show on 26 July and a selling fast show on 27 July.

Editor’s Recommendation

There are two Australian films having preview events around Sydney this week; Together and Future Council. The former is the horror debut feature from Michael Shanks starring Dave Franco & Alison Brie, and the latter is a climate-change documentary centred on a group of school children. Go to both! (or at least one) this week!

Screenings: Thursday 24 July - Wednesday 30 July

Cinema Astragale
The Parallel Street (1962, Ferdinand Khittl)
Thursday

Inner West Libraries Film Club
The Survival of Kindness (2022, Rolf de Heer)
Friday

VHS Fleapit
Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (1988, Lucio Fuici)
Tuesday

AFTRS Library
Tampopo (1985, Juzo Itami)
Tuesday

Scandinavian Film Festival | 17 July - 10 August
Sentimental Value (2025, Joachim Trier)
Centrepiece Event
Thursday

Taiwan Film Festival | 24 July - 6 September (selected highlights)
Daughter’s Daughter (2024, Xi Huang)
Thursday

Short Film Competition
Saturday

Hayden Orpheum | selected highlights
Together (2025, Michael Shanks)
Preview
Thursday

Hard Boiled (1992, John Woo)
Friday

Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
4K Restoration
Sunday

Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee)
20th Anniversary
Sunday

Future Council (2024, Damon Gameau)
Q+A w/ Director
Monday

Golden Age Cinema | selected highlights
Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird (2024, Nicolas Jack Davies)
Saturday & Tuesday

Holy Cow (2024, Louise Courvoisier)
Sunday & Wednesday

Ritz Cinemas, Randwick | selected highlights

Together (2025, Michael Shanks)
FFFA Preview
Thursday

Future Council (2024, Damon Gameau)
Q+A w/ Director
Sunday

Wilding (2023, David Allen)
Q+A
Wednesday

The Wolves Always Come At Night (2024, Gabrielle Brady)
Thursday, Friday, Monday & Tuesday

Robert Altman Retrospective (link)
Popeye (1980, Robert Altman)
Thursday

Cult Classics (link)
The Piano Teacher (2001, Michael Haneke)
Saturday & Monday

Celluloid Film (link)
Reservoir Dogs (1992, Quentin Tarantino)
Friday

Classic Matinees (link)
Breathless (1960, Jean-Luc Godard)
Saturday & Monday

Make It Musical (link)
Tokyo Pop (1988, Fran Rubel Kuzui)
Sunday & Wednesday

Meet Cute (link)
Juno (2007, Jason Reitman)
Tuesday

Dendy Newtown | selected highlights

Together (2025, Michael Shanks)
Fright Night Preview
Friday

Bring Her Back (2025, Danny & Michael Philippou)
Daily

Night Shift (link)
Taste of Cherry (1997, Abbas Kiarostami)
Daily

Palace Cinemas | selected highlights

Together (2025, Michael Shanks)
Movie Club Preview
Friday

Future Council (2024, Damon Gameau)
Q+A w/ Director
Sunday

Cult Vault (link)
Barry Lyndon (1975, Stanley Kubrick)
Monday

Matinee Memories (link)
The Philadelphia Story (1940, George Cukor)
Saturday

Art Gallery of NSW
Nouvelle Vague - A Short History of the French New Wave
Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Alain Resnais)
Sunday

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, Agnès Varda)
Wednesday