Objectionable is an independent research podcast about films that were banned, cut, refused, withdrawn, suppressed, or otherwise restricted around the world. Each episode follows one film, one ruling, and the paper trail around it: what happened, who made the decision, why they made it, and what the controversy reveals about politics, culture, and the limits of expression.

Rather than treating every controversy as a “ban,” Objectionable distinguishes formal prohibitions from cuts, classification refusals, cancelled screenings, suppression, and voluntary withdrawal. Full show notes, sources, transcripts, and the growing film index are available at objectionable.media.

It started as a school project. It is built to keep going past that — a slowly growing archive rather than a fixed assignment, organised so the cases can be compared across countries and decades.

Censorship is usually told as a string of shocking anecdotes. The more interesting story is structural: every state draws a line somewhere, and where it draws that line — and how it enforces it — says something precise about what it fears.

Treating each ban as a documented case, with primary sources rather than rumour, is the whole point. The goal is an argument you can check, not a list you take on faith.