Damned In The USA, directed by Paul Yule and produced by Berwick Universal Pictures, was conceived in 1990 as the centre-piece of Channel 4’s Banned season – an initiative of the new Director of Programmes, John Willis.

The documentary was an attempt to look at the simmering controversy in the US over federal funding of the arts by the National Endowment for the Arts, and in particular examined the recent cases of ‘censorship’ by the religious right, aimed at artists like Robert Mapplethorpe, Madonna, Andres Serrano and The 2 Live Crew.

In 1990, Paul Yule approached the reclusive Rev Donald Wildmon, President of The American Family Association and instigator of many instances of so-called censorship, asking for a wide-ranging interview at his Tupelo, Mississippi headquarters. Wildmon agreed to be interviewed by Yule and became a central character in the documentary, excoriating the artworks he had done his best to ban.

Damned In The USA was shown with great critical success in Channel 4’s Banned season, and subsequently went on to win the International Emmy for best Arts Documentary of 1991.

Wildmon, through his attorney Benjamin Bull, sought a permanent injunction against the film’s release in the US, and $8 million in damages

The film was screened for the first time in the United States on 11 September 1991 at The Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York, after which Wildmon brought a lawsuit against Paul Yule, Yule’s production company, Berwick Universal Pictures, his co-producer Jonathan Stack, and Channel 4, claiming that he had the right to control distribution of the film.