These recent moves toward film censorship have been extremely controversial. Now, everyone is asking whether this means that artificial intelligence is responsible for repurposing content to comply with China’s strict regulations. The digital editing of the acclaimed movie “Oppenheimer” occurred in multiple countries. In the case of China, they specifically extracted scenes of actress Florence Pugh completely nude. This story has pointed to a deeper issue. It shines a light on the often exploitative ways films have handled queer relationships, particularly when AI erases the identity of characters altogether.
Filmmaker Michael Shanks received international attention last year when he announced that he would be pulling his film “Together” from distribution in China. Through his work, he found that AI had been used to whitewash a queer couple in the movie. To make the ad look heterosexual, one partner’s face was swapped with a woman’s, leading to his choice. Neon, the distributor, had originally sold rights to “Together” into several territories, including China. Unlike many cases, Shanks’s disclosure sent the company scrambling within hours to take action.
The Impact of AI on Film Representation
When queer history and representation are deliberately edited out of film content using AI, the implications for the future of queer representation in cinema could be disastrous. Shanks learned about the adaptations to “Together” only after Chinese reporters sent her stills from a Beijing theater. The photographs showed the doctored tableaux that so piqued his interest. He wrote an open letter to his fans, detailing his outrage at the changes made, and the way they warped the depiction of queer love.
“To completely change the gender of a character — completely change something that’s a representation of a queer relationship as well as making the plot make less sense — is just baffling,” said Shanks.
He further cautioned that this trend may threaten a larger public presence of queerness in China. “Once this becomes normalised, I do see this as an even bigger threat to the more public representations of queerness in China,” he added.
Dr. Lin Song, specialist in LGBTQIA+ cultures in China, reflected these fears. She emphasized the vital point that queer communities have been heavily censored for decades. More than ever before, they need to outsmart these hurdles by speaking in code on social media to mobilize supporters.
Cultural Censorship and Its Consequences
As Jennifer Pan notes, Chinese censorship is nothing new. Films like “Fight Club” have faced revisions to align with government requirements, including changes to endings that depict authorities triumphing over the protagonist. Additionally, political reasons led to the banning of movies like Barbie in Vietnam, demonstrating a regional trend of restricting LGBTQIA+ narratives.
April, a bisexual Chinese international student, voiced her opposition to these AI alterations, stating, “I think love is love — so I think I don’t think that this situation is ok.” This sentiment is indicative of a rising tide of anger among younger generations toward censorship and lack of representation.
Lily, another powerful voice from this rising demographic, thinks a change is coming. “I think it’s getting better from the younger generation. We feel that if you love one person, it doesn’t matter what their gender is,” she said.
Broader Implications for Film Distribution
Every day, filmmakers and distributors around the globe are faced with harrowing decisions when they choose to release films in countries with strict censorship laws. In Shanks’s instance, his distributor had already made changes to “Together” for its Chinese release pre-emptively. The response to these changes prompts a discussion of whether it’s even morally acceptable to make these kinds of changes and what they do to storytelling at large.
Shanks remains concerned that more distributors may choose to employ AI for cost-effective alterations to erase queer themes from films. As censorship practices continue to develop, filmmakers are continuously trying to navigate how to maintain their creative integrity while accessing the market.
