Last week saw the opening of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, an event “renowned as one of the world’s top cinematic events, the staging ground for the top films in any given year.”1 And shortly before its opening, a campaign launched, protesting the “festival’s decision to host a showcase on Israeli films from Tel Aviv for its inaugural City-to-City program.”2
I’ve been reading a fair bit about this over the past week. Starting with the “group of artists and writers”3 who “drafted a letter of protest against the Tel Aviv spotlight,”4 ‘The Toronto Declaration: No Celebration of Occupation‘, which states;
“We do not protest the individual Israeli filmmakers included in City to City, nor do we in any way suggest that Israeli films should be unwelcome at TIFF. However, especially in the wake of this year’s brutal assault on Gaza, we object to the use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of what South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann have all characterized as an apartheid regime…”
And, yes, I’ve even read a bit of the backlash, well one article, at least. The backlash that mischaracterized the argument and largely fails to recognize the existence of the words, I just cited about. Not my point…
Continue reading No Celebration of Occupation