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3/3/2009: Greater Union Lifts Ban on The Combination
The Greater Union Cinema Chain reversed its decision to cancel screenings of David Field’s self-financed film The Combination in all of its Sydney cinemas following negotiations with the Australian Film Syndicate (AFS), the film’s distributor. The ban, which came into place on Sunday 1st March, came to an end on Tuesday 3rd March, with screenings recommencing the following day.
The AFS had condemned the original decision, describing it as ‘devastating for everyone involved, especially the audiences… Although we do not support the decision by Greater Union to pull the film from its NSW sites we respect and understand their position.’
Greater Union said they made the decision following two incidents, the first involving smoking in a cinema on Thursday 26th February, the second involving a fight which Greater Union said resulted in one of their staff requiring hospital treatment. Greater Union spokeswoman Melissa Kesby said, ‘A fight broke out. It went into the foyer, over the aero-bridge, and our security (footage) shows police arriving. We have people being put in police cars on the security footage.
‘A staff member was hit in the head. We can't understand why police are saying that nothing happened, because that's not what our staff said.’
An NSW police spokesperson said, ‘Police were advised (on Saturday night) there were four people involved in an altercation, and perhaps 50 onlookers. Police got the call at 17.38, and were there at 17.39, and there were no signs of that incident.’
The film’s writer George Basha, who also appears in the film as a Lebanese-Australian accused the chain of being discriminatory: ‘You've got 300 or 400 people in the cinema, and then you've got three or four kids, 15 and 16 years old, making a nuisance. The cinema is saying they were smoking in the cinema, and there were fights breaking out ... I've seen fights happen. I'm pretty sure those films didn't get closed down.’
In a statement announcing the reversal of their decision, Robert Flynn, the general manager of operations at Greater Union said, ‘Our staff and patrons were placed in an environment they were not comfortable with from a personal safety perspective, and this is not acceptable. Until we were able to address these concerns properly and implement additional security measures, the decision was made to suspend sessions of this film. I can assure you this decision was not made lightly.’ [ADD]
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