"We like when people get interested and excited about what we’re showing and start having conversations about those films. The festival is not interested in "whipping up controversy," but in dialogue, Bailey said. We like it better, though, when people see the films and have the debate after.'-TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey "We thought this would really give our audience in Toronto a much closer look, a more detailed look at the culture of the city and some of the cracks in the society there." 'Debate, dialogue, that’s completely fine to us. "We wanted to go to cities where the filmmakers there were doing really strong work that would reflect some of the complexity of the situation on the ground, where they live," Bailey explained on CBC Radio Thursday morning, noting also that the program includes directors who are quite critical of their own government. In an open response letter, Bailey acknowledged that Tel Aviv was "not a simple choice and that the city remains contested ground." The protesters are also planning to hold a news conference on Monday to answer questions about their campaign and unveil messages from several of their prominent members.Īlthough those who have signed the letter - including Israeli filmmakers, Yael pointed out - are not calling for a boycott of the festival nor of the 10 films featured in the program, others are.Ī group of Palestinian journalists and filmmakers gathered outside of the Canadian consular office in Ramallah Thursday to call for a boycott of TIFF.īailey, a former film critic and longtime programmer, denies any outside involvement in how City to City was conceived and curated. …We’re focusing on the fact that TIFF has become part of this propaganda attempt, this whitewash."
"I don’t think we doubt that there was some kind of independence of selection. Any attempt to silence that conversation - to hijack the festival for any political agenda in the end, only serves to silence artistic voices," said movie mogul Ivan Reitman. "Film is essentially about telling global stories - of exploring the complexities and contradictions of the human condition. Bigotry like theirs has no place at the Toronto International Film Festival," said veteran Canadian producer Robert Lantos. "Their brand of political censorship is at odds with the most cherished values of Canadian society: Freedom of expression and freedom of choice. On Thursday, they released a statement blasting the original protesters.
#SPOTLIFE OF CANADA DRIVER#
"We are saying it’s really inappropriate to have a spotlight on Tel Aviv," she said, adding that the letter has exceeded 1,000 signatories.ĭavid Cronenberg, Saul Rubinek, Norman Jewison and Minnie Driver are among a new group of prominent filmmakers and performers who have stepped forward in support of the TIFF City to City program. Yael, one of the protest organizers, told CBC News on Thursday as TIFF got underway. In fact, it is really an attempt to deny what Israel is doing around occupation and, since then, the massacres in Gaza," Israeli-born, Toronto-based filmmaker b.h. "A year ago, the consul general of Israel announced that there would be a Brand Israel project - that Israel needed to have a new face … to have us look at Israel differently.
"There has to be something exciting going on in the film scene and these have to be films that are somehow plugged into what the culture, the politics and the social life of the city are."ĭays later, Canadian filmmaker John Greyson withdrew his documentary short film Covered (about violent reaction to the first queer cultural festival in Sarajevo) from TIFF and published an open letter outlining his protest of the Tel Aviv showcase.Ī growing group of artists, activists and intellectuals - including Greyson, Naomi Klein, David Byrne, Ken Loach and Jane Fonda - escalated the dispute by circulating a letter denouncing the TIFF program as being subverted by "the Israeli propaganda machine." Phobidilia, directed by Yoav Paz and Doron Paz. Life According to Agfa, directed by Assi Dayan. A History of Israeli Cinema Part 1, directed by Raphael Nadjari.Ī History of Israeli Cinema Part 2, directed by Raphael Nadjari.
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