Reflections

What You Can't Do on TV

The First Amendment doesn't necessarily cover freedom of speech rights for television, but that didn't keep indie film guru John Pierson quiet. At his "What You Can't Do on TV" panel Monday, Pierson shared controversial clips from Split Screen, a show he hosts for the Independent Film Channel. Pierson was most enthusiastic about showing an eye-opening segment on Hailey, Idaho, a town in which Bruce Willis invested millions of dollars creating the perfect getaway and later abandoned. Before it ever aired, Willis' lawyer forbade IFC from showing the clip, which screened publicly for the first time here at SXSW. Ironically, National Enquirer Television picked up the story and reported it according to its own journalistic standards.

Pierson augmented his personal insights with additional clips, including a segment on Oklahoma City's confiscation of Oscar winner The Tin Drum on the basis that it was child pornography. He also welcomed to the speakers' dais surprise guest panelists Janet Pierson, co-producer of Split Screen, and Matt Stone, co-creator of Comedy Central's South Park. While networks found gentle ways to push the proverbial envelope, Stone and partner Trey Parker were doing things to the envelope so obscene I dare not mention them here. A further taste of their shenanigans can be evidenced on the upcoming Academy Awards broadcast when their nominated song, "Blame Canada," again challenges the limits of what can be done on television.

After the panel, Pierson and Stone screened a test cut of former Austinite Arthur Bradford's How's Your News? at the Alamo Drafthouse.