Resident Tutor Ends Porn Film Screening

A Pforzheimer House senior may end up paying more than he expected for the privilege to turn his House dining hall into an XXX-rated movie theater last Thursday night.

Joseph R. Ciollo '99, who paid $30 to select and show a film for Pforzheimer's Movie Night at the House's Dutch Auction, did not get a chance to watch the end of his movie after a resident tutor decided to shut down the showing of "Cockpit," an X-rated film detailing the sexual escapades of World War II pilots.

Pforzheimer Senior Tutor Dirk Killen said the House is investigating the matter.

"Harvard doesn't censor free speech, but it was a matter of community standards, and we are looking into it within the House," Killen said.

Killen refused to comment on individual students' situations, citing their right to privacy.

Jeremy N. Smith '00 and Paul A. Stephano '99-'00 run the House's Movie Night, which normally shows less risqu fare like "Out of Sight" or the "Neverending Story," and offered one screening at the auction, a House event in which students bid on donated gifts and services. Auction proceeds are given to charity.

The film rolled at midnight--not the regular Movie Night time--to an audience of about 60, until Pforzheimer pre-law tutor Kanwaljit K. Bakshi broke up the screening at around 1:15 a.m.

Bakshi declined to comment on the incident.

Ciollo defended the screening, saying that racy movies have been shown at Movie Night in the past (including Jerry Springer's unrated "Too Hot for TV"), and that he took precautions to make sure no one stumbled upon the screening by accident.

He posted signs at the doors warning of the explicit nature of the material being shown inside, and showed it at midnight when fewer people would wander by.

If the College were to take administrative action against the students, it would risk violating their civil rights, according to Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz. Dershowitz.

"I think there should be administrative action, but against the tutor who broke up the screening," quipped Dershowitz, who defended Quincy House residents some twenty years ago in a similar incident.

"Whoever gave a tutor the right to walk into the library and check to see that the books you're reading are acceptable?" Dershowitz said.

If asked by the students involved, Dershowitz said he "would leap to their defense."

Ciollo said Smith and Stephano approved of his choice of film before he bid at the auction. Both Smith and Stephano denied repeated requests for comment.

Although there was no formal announcement of the screening, word got around. A Pforzheimer sophomore who spoke on the condition of anonymity said she was riding home on the shuttle when a friend told her "Cockpit" was playing in the dining room.

Thinking the movie was a comedy about airplanes, she stopped by to watch, but left once she realized it was hard-core pornography.

"It was all guys, and everyone was yelling and screaming," she said. "I thought, what is this, a cult classic?"

She added, though, that she wasn't offended by the screening.

"Most people kind of laughed it off," she said.

Ciollo said the movie was publicized only by word-of-mouth, but Bennett said it was mentioned at a gathering of the Late-Late Club, a study break for students pulling all-nighters.

"They told people to come early because they didn't know how long it would last before it was broken up," Bennett said. Late-Late Club President John M. Destefano could not be reached for comment.