Brian De Palma reacts to redaction of his film Redacted (2007)

A look back at an argument that erupted at the Independent Film Channel’s (IFC) 2007 New York Film Festival Press Conference for the Brian De Palma film Redacted. De Palma bashes Magnolia Pictures owner Mark Cuban for redacting a photo montage at the close of the film that  “disturbed” Cuban.

The film itself is a montage of sorts, pulling from a variety stories about U.S. soldiers involved in the Mahmudiyah killings while fighting in Iraq.

Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles interrupts a perturbed De Palma to argue that the company feared the photos would violate the privacy, publicity and copyrights of the soldiers; to which the director quips, “how do you get releases from war photographs…” Interestingly, De Palma claims that all the images used were freely available on the internet at the time the film was made.

Magnolia, having pointed the finger at copyright holders, ineffective fair use rules and the high price of Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance for films, erred on the side of avoiding legal hassles. Mark Cuban subsequently stated that he gave De Palma the opportunity to acquire the rights and distribute the film himself, but he (De Palma) was unresponsive.