ANN ARBOR—Filmmaker Carol Jacobsen is on the front lines in the battle for free speech and human rights.

Her latest work, ” Censorious,” confronts the stark prejudices and unfair treatment of female artists, many of whom raise issues about sexuality, identity, race, motherhood and violence against women—and all of whom have struggled to be heard in what has been a male-dominated artworld.

The Michigan premiere of ” Censorious” will be 5-6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 20) at the Michigan Theatre Screening Room, 603 East Liberty Street, Ann Arbor. Jacobsen, a professor of art and women’s studies at the University of Michigan, will be on hand to introduce her work, and discuss the film with the audience. Joining Jacobsen will be Shaun Bangert, professor of art at Saginaw Valley State University, and Marilyn Zimmerman, professor of photography at Wayne State University.

Among the banned works in ” Censorious” are excerpts from performances by Carolee Schneemann, Annie Sprinkle, Howardena Pindell and Karen Finley, whose theatrical pieces graphically depict sexuality, disenfranchisement and abuse. In 1990, Finley’s individual artist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts was taken away after her work was deemed ” indecent. “

Holly Hughes, U-M professor of art and drama, whose work is also featured in the film, was one of the censored ” NEA Four” along with Finley. The four artists sued the NEA after their grants were revoked. As a result, the grants were reinstated, but a ” decency” clause was drafted into the NEA’s charter.

Examining the art and travails of these artists, ” Censorious” presents a raw, witty and utterly engaging portrait of audaciousness—a compelling documentary that presents a mosaic of artwork deemed harmful to the public mind, but liberating to the souls of these artists.

The film will provoke audiences to ask: How far can an artist push the boundaries of convention before it becomes offensive and a danger to the common good? Who decides what is banned in a democratic society? Whose views are marginalized when information or art is censored? And, what attitudes and public conversation is controlled when a work of art is banned?

“When a work of art is censored, it is diminished and for many, it becomes inaccessible,” Jacobsen said ” These ‘constraints’ must be challenged, for if they are not, then we could lose open access to information, knowledge and an open dialogue about issues central to people’s lives. “

As an artist and filmmaker, Jacobsen aims to pry open the public conscience by examining issues that often fall off the radar screen of conventional mainstream media.

Jacobsen, the 2005-06 Human Rights fellow at U-M, works actively on behalf of battered women, and women prisoners seeking clemency or new trials to have their convictions reexamined. She is a member of the Michigan Battered Women’s Clemency Project, working to uphold the human rights of incarcerated women.