AMERICAN FORK -- When the blockbuster, Oscar-winning movie "Titanic" sailed into this town last year, it collided with an unforeseen iceberg -- the community's brand of family values.

By editing sexually charged scenes from James Cameron's "Titanic," the top-grossing movie of all time, a pair of local mom-and-pop businesses brought the film to droves of people who otherwise would not have seen it.Paramount Pictures, which produced the movie, vehemently protested the altering of its work.

As a result, Sunrise Family Video and Towne Cinema unwittingly stood on the front lines in a battle against the motion picture industry.

Neither Sunrise nor Towne Cinema set out to be crusaders for sanitized versions of popular films. Yet when they began offering a cleaned-up "Titanic," they became symbols of that effort and garnered national attention. They put American Fork on the map.

They became irritating thorns in Hollywood's side.

A year later, the uproar has subsided. Towne Cinema no longer shows edited films, and the theater has been up for sale for months. Meanwhile, Sunrise Video has withstood threats of lawsuits and continues editing individual copies of "Titanic."

Despite the similarities between the incidences faced by the two businesses, Sunrise owner Carol Biesinger says the practice of editing "Titanic" was not part of an organized plot. The fact they are both based in American Fork is "a coincidence," she said.

"We have no tie with the theater. We just happen to be in the same city," she explained. "Then again, considering the standards in this area, maybe it isn't a coincidence."

Many of the residents in American Fork and Utah County belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose leaders have counseled members to abstain from watching movies that include violence, profanity and nudity.

Owners of Sunrise and Towne Cinema are staunch believers in upholding community ideals, and they say that's exactly what they were doing by offering an alternative of the flick about the ill-fated cruise ship.

They are still amazed by the amount of controversy they sparked.

"We couldn't believe it became such a big deal," said Carol Allred, who, along with her husband, John, own Towne Cinema. "Never in a million years did I think it would turn into that. I didn't think it would get out of Utah County."

Sellout crowds packed the theater to watch the edited version of the box office smash, with some patrons coming from as far away as Brigham City. When Paramount Pictures learned about the editing, it angrily pulled the film from Towne Cinema.

Today, the Allreds want out of the movie business (they have prospective buyers lined up), though they say it has nothing to do with the flap with Paramount. Because they have committed to refrain from showing R-rated movies, the variety they have to choose from is limited, they say.

While the theater has returned to movie studios' good graces, Towne Cinema must now sign an agreement when they accept films that stipulates they will not do any editing.

"We're back on every studios' list," Allred said. "They wanted to scare us. We were hoping to scare them. But that's hard to do to Hollywood."

Meanwhile, Biesinger appears to be winning her fight. Sunrise Video heard threats from Paramount after it announced on its marquee, "We'll Edit Your 'Titanic' for $5," last September.

Customers soon flooded the store with their copies of the video. Biesinger and store employees used scissors to snip two scenes from the movie. Sunrise Video became famous almost instantaneously.

"The first night, we received 30 or 40 movies and I thought it had probably run its course," Biesinger said. "The next day, CBS in New York was on the phone."

Paramount claimed editing movies violated copyright and trademark laws. Biesinger and her husband, Don (who died in January), countered that they were only editing customers' videos, not selling them; and that customers who purchase the videos had the right to do with them what they want.

Paramount representatives sent one letter to Sunrise and called once, threatening legal action if they continued editing the videos. "There's been nothing since then," Biesinger said. "They're probably smart to let it go."

Sunrise will keep editing movies until the studio can prove it is violating copyright laws.

Movie director John Frankenheimer urged an industry boycott of the store, saying Sunrise was "mutilating art" by editing films.

He also said he was going to put a "Biesinger Clause" in future contracts. Biesinger says her store has not felt any effects of a boycott.

Amid the furor, Sunrise became a subject of numerous law case studies to explore the copyright issue. All the attention has been a good thing, Biesinger says. "It's been a fantastic experience.

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We've been able to see how the media works. We've also seen the support we have. Overall, it's helped us."

Sunrise, which does not stock R-rated videos, has seen an increase in memberships due to the publicity it generated. Because of the editing demand, though, prices have increased to $5 per edit. The turnaround time for an edited video order has shrunk from months to one week.

Biesinger estimates her store has edited 7,000 copies of "Titanic," as well as 1,000 other videos.

"We are filling a need in the community," she said.

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