From us here at Anticipate Pictures, we are excited about our upcoming documentary MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. which will be released via our partners at The Projector. We have received great buzz regarding this title and we hope you will enjoy yet another quality release from our humble independent distribution company.
As most of you would know, we pride ourselves on releasing uncut, uncensored works of art by filmmakers whose vision should not be compromised. On this point, we would like to acknowledge that with this title, we had to bend on this rule in order for the film to be released in Singapore.
The only cut is in the dialogue track at the 72nd minute. Our titular character Maya is on the phone with her manager, and the latter utters a single exclamation line of "Jesus f**king Christ." This line was found to have exceeded the classification guidelines of Singapore, as "language that denigrates religion or is religiously profane is not allowed for all ratings."
Upon receiving this feedback from the Board of Film Censors, we corresponded with the film's producers and after a period of consultation, we received the filmmakers' approval to edit out only the dialogue track which contains this single line. No other cuts were made to the film. When you watch the film in cinemas here, the effect is about 2 seconds of silence while the image is still playing. Also in this particular edit, only the manager is speaking, and no other information is conveyed aurally.
Together with the film's producers, we hope that you would still consider watching MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. in theaters. We believe that Maya's journey and message as depicted in the film would not lose its power and authenticity even in this edited version.
As distributors, we pride ourselves on being upfront with decisions that could potentially affect the films we distribute, especially if it pertains to issues such as censorship. We believe that you, our valued audiences, would appreciate it in the long run. We will continue to publish such statements if the need arises, as we value your trust in our company's mission to continue to bring quality, uncut works of cinema to our shores.
Thank you.
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Vincent Quek
Founder, Anticipate Pictures.