After a memorable first screening at TIFF, Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker was shut down over “rights issues.”
Vera Drew, the writer-director-star-effects artist, is behind one of the most anticipated and talked-about films at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. The trans coming-of-age film is a riff on DC Comics’ signature villains the Joker and Harley Quinn, using the character as a metaphor for the trans experience.
Despite the film being a parody, Warner Bros. served a cease-and-desist order against the film. According to a message posted on the festival’s ticketing page for The People’s Joker, subsequent festival screenings have been canceled over “rights issues,” leaving the future of The People’s Joker unknown.
The film is not licensed by DC or Warner Bros, but the film should have been covered by fair use and parody under the First Amendment. The amendment protects the creator’s right to use existing IP for comic effect, but the key here is that a parody has to “significantly transform” that IP to make it clear that it isn’t an official release from the rights owner.
Author: Alyssa Miller
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
