WATCH: Banned MCAST Short Film Deemed ‘Too Controversial’ Ignites Angered Reaction By Censored Young Videographer

MCAST’s annual ICA festival-exhibition is currently underway, with different venues all over Valletta (and beyond) exhibiting work by some of the island’s most promising young talent.

However, one student’s project reportedly deemed “too controversial” by the organisers was left out of the exhibition. This led to the videographer behind the polarising work lashing out against the Institution and its apparent stifling of creative freedom.

The graphic video, Din L-Art Ħelwa is an eerie rendition of L’Innu Malti by Dun Karm Psaila.

Some of the imagery might be considered highly offensive by some viewers, such as a statue of Jesus Christ being set on fire and a man masturbating on a pastizz tal-irkotta.

Giovanni Vella chose to make reference to the slaying of Daphne Caruana Galizia. In fact the project, was submitted only two months after the journalist’s murder.

Even though the “controversial” video was pulled out of the annual festival, the student, Giovanni Vella, was not informed beforehand that his work will not be shown during the school’s end-of-year exhibition.

This yearly event is seen as a platform for students to showcase their talents to prospective employers while exercising their creative freedom in the best way they can.

Giovanni Vella produced this short film for an assignment a couple of months ago, where the students had to create a short movie about a social or environmental issue. Vella chose to depict the aftermath of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, and the project was in fact submitted only two months after the murder.

“I explained my choices to my lecturers who were monitoring our progress, and they got it.”

Vella describes his short film as an interpretation of the state of our country, and how we as a nation are progressing. The artist is fuming for the fact that he was censored without being told. He argued that his creativity is his, and he cannot shape it into a mould to suit other people’s tastes.

The artist said that he was failed as a student by the institution and their need to prioritise political correctness and their suffocation of creative freedom to showcase a more “safe” side to their students’ work.

“The school told us to attend some talks by alumni on Sunday 1st July at Spazju Kreattiv, and for us to send any videos we would like to exhibit, to the lecturer taking care of things,” Vella told Lovin Malta.

“I attended that event, and I was under the impression my work was to be shown, but it never was,” he said. “From what I can understand, the video was removed from the list of selected works. And I wasn’t notified.”

“I was told that there was a debate about it since the person who was organising the festival for the department apparently insisted that it be removed, especially for the event on Sunday for which Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was in attendance.”

“It was just risible that we had a politician at the event speaking about the voice of the artist and originality,” Giovanni added.

“This is an arts school. Why is it ok for Fine Arts students to paint nudes, but not for us to photograph or film a naked body?”

“I was told by the team who put together the visuals that they all really liked my work,” Vella said. “Which is well and good, and I’m very thankful for that. But I worked hard on it, just like all my peers. I deserved at least to be contacted by the school prior to the festival to be told it’s too much.”

“I showed it in class, we had a peer review, and everybody seemed to like it. Some people of course were a bit uncomfortable, but it was generally a positive reception that it received.”

Lovin Malta reached out to MCAST for further clarification on the matter

While the institution did confirm that they hadn’t contacted Vella before removing it from the exhibition, they did say they’re planning to meet up with him eventually to discuss a way forward to showcase his work and other similar works in a more effective and constructive way.

“We feel that Giovanni’s work is quite a breakthrough and we are very pleased that through his work, and hopefully through the work of other students in the future, our faculty discussions will be drawn to view students’ work from a more unconventional stand-point.”

“There are issues of appropriateness embedded within the context of the film that are sensitive in nature. We have discussed this matter internally profoundly, and also proudly,” an MCAST spokesperson told Lovin Malta.

“We feel that Giovanni’s work is quite a breakthrough and we are very pleased that through his work, and hopefully through the work of other students in the future, our faculty discussions will be drawn to view students’ work from a more unconventional stand-point.”

“We felt that a collective showcase of student media products for a general audience is not the ideal platform for Giovanni’s work to be published.”

It was argued that this might bring new challenges to MCAST, and one must find ways to effectively and constructively showcase such work.

“Giovanni’s work is very interesting but needs to be showcased appropriately,” MCAST told Lovin Malta. “Unfortunately we had to be selective, besides Giovanni’s work, there were other art works that did not feature in the exhibition.”

“We felt that a collective showcase of student media products for a general audience is not the ideal platform for Giovanni’s work to be published,” the spokesperson continued. “Din L-Art Ħelwa is a niche and eclectic work of art. Our challenge now is to find the best ways to promote Giovanni’s work, and any other work alike, to generate the awareness it deserves.”

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