Your path: Censored Cartoons
Censored Cartoons Offer an Unvarnished View of the Past
For Release: March 25, 2008Film archivist Dennis Nyback will present Bad Bugs Bunny: The Dark Side of Warner Brothers, a program featuring rarely seen cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s that have been censored for sexism, racism and violence. Nyback will put them into historical perspective, discuss their hidden history and explore their censorship by Warner Brothers on Thursday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in Marylhurst University's Flavia Hall Salon. This event is free and open to the public. Parking is free.
The program consists of 10 Warner Brothers cartoons that have not been seen for decades because Warner Brothers pulled them from distribution. These cartoons showcase a time when stereotypes and satire prevailed in American popular culture. Bad Bugs Bunny provides a rare view into public thought during the 1930s and 1940s through studying the stylistic portrayals of characters that were widely accepted in white American society at the time.
"In 1993 Dennis created Bad Bugs Bunny as a comment on corporate censorship and American social history," said David Denny, chair of Marylhurst's Cultural and Historical Studies Department. "Since that time he has shown the program in many cities across the United States and overseas in Europe, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and Korea."
Nyback has taught film classes at Portland State University and the Northwest Film Study Center. He has guest lectured at institutions such as Reed College, the Experience Music Project in Seattle, University of Washington and the International Film School in Ebeltoft, Denmark.
Marylhurst University, located one mile south of Lake Oswego on Highway 43, offers professional certificates, graduate and undergraduate degrees including a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural and Historical Studies.