On screen Crash

IT'S ONE of South Africa's stranger phenomenons that we have gone from being one of the most censored societies in the world to an almost free for all.

And that is why M-Net can show a controversial film like Crash without a second thought, when its release was hotly debated in both Britain and America.

The film was actually quietly released on the cinema circuit here, while the arguments for and against were still raging in other countries.

The film is about a small group of people who find themselves sexually stimulated by car crashes. The cast is led by James Spader and Holly Hunter and is directed by David Cronenberg, who tends to specialise in the potentially offensive.

Unfortunately, however, his films are not always particularly good, even if they do provoke comment.

Grant Bushby, the head of M-Net's publicity, said that they will show anything which has already been shown on the cinema circuit -- "we have an output deal with Ster-Kinekor and UIP."

"We won't purposefully show it for controversy's sake, but with a film like this we will be careful to warn people beforehand and also to make sure that the screening times are late," he said.

Sensitivities can be particularly raw in many African countries and as M-Net now beams to most of them through its satellite service, great care is taken.

It's a sad farewell to Drop the Dead Donkey tonight (SABC 3 22h50) which provided a lot of fun, even if the topical references were well out of date.

Tonight's Two Way (SABC 1 20h30) tackles depression and suicide.

Apparently these diseases are affecting more and more people and costing society a great deal of money -- Caesar Molebatsi investigates.