The Comment Factory

Film-director, Ken Loach

The Toronto Film Festival’s decision to spotlight Tel Aviv in its new City to City program this year has been accused of promoting the deceptive Brand Israel campaign focused on diverting attention from the treatment of Palestinians by various Canadian and international filmmakers, artists, writers, actors, academics, activists etc including the likes of Noam Chomsky, Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein and Viggo Mortensen. This has led to the Toronto Declaration – No Celebration of Occupation. The declaration accuses the Film Festival organisers of playing into the hands of the state of Israeli and allowing the fesitival as a medium to promote propaganda.

The film festival organisers have of course vehemently denied this claim. According to co director of the festival Cameron Bailey, the decision was completely an independent one

“As the programmer of City To City, I was attracted to Tel Aviv as our inaugural city because the films being made there explore and critique the city from many different perspectives. Furthermore, the City to City series was conceived and curated entirely independently. There was no pressure from any outside source. Contrary to rumours or mistaken media reports, this focus is a product only of TIFF’s programming decisions. We value that independence and would never compromise it.”

As is the case with any issue involving Israel and Palestine, regardless of the magnitude and the field, the decision has provoked a huge storm of debate, with views ranging from “propaganda to hide Israel’s war crimes” to “an assault on artistic freedom”.

It all started when Canadian documentary filmmaker John Greyson,  withdrew his documentary Covered from the festival to protest what he believes is an endorsement of the country’s Brand Israel campaign, which is designed to improve Israel’s tattered international image. Soon more and more filmmakers, artists, writers joined in. For a full list, click here. Recently, another British filmmaker Ken Loach had withdrawn his film Looking for Eric from the Melbourne Film Festival to protest Israeli funding.  Not the least bit surprising then is the presence of Ken Loach as one of the protesters this time.

As expected, this decision was met with an equally strong voice criticising the declaration and vehemently defending the decision to spotlight Tel Aviv by various other filmmakers and artists including Hollywood film directors David Cronenberg and David Zucker. This perhaps is not the least bit surprising considering the “politically correct” and patronising attitude of Hollywood towards Jewish characters.

Similarly, not the least bit surprising are the barrage of personal attacks against those individuals who have signed the declaration, and mindless accusations of violating artistic freedom and being down right “anti Israel” whatever that means. Personally I have never understood this fixation that the media has with the words “anti” and “pro”. You criticise American policy in Afghanistan and you are labelled “pro Taliban”, you criticise Israeli propaganda and you are labelled “anti Israel”. This is downright ridiculous unless those using these labels want to suggest that Israel is one big monolithic country devoid of diverse thoughts and opinions in which case Tel Aviv should hardly be the spotlight in a program celebrating diversity. Thankfully, despite what the hawkish government of Israel would want us to believe, Israel is full of diverse and dissident voices. Many of the signatories of the declaration are Israeli artists and filmmakers. Hence, unless one is being intentionally preposterous to avoid addressing the real issue, it is hard to fathom how such silly criticisms come up.

The other major criticism labbelled against the signatories is that of the protest being an assault on artistic freedom and expression. This is very similar to what Ken Loach was accused of by the Melbourne Film Festival director Richard Moore earlier.  This is despite the list of signatories including many filmmakers who have their films being screened at the very festival. This is despite repeated clarifications suggesting the contrary. If anything, this protest is an affirmation of artistic freedom, the right of art/film festivals to be free from propaganda and not be used as a tool to deceive and manipulate public opinion.

However, what these debates has successfully done is divert attention away from the real issue, which was Tel Aviv. The debate should have been about Tel Aviv and the Palestinian homes that were destroyed to build this city. The debate should have been about the fact that the 10 films selected to spotlight Tel Aviv were all directed by Israeli filmmakers, completely ignoring Palestnian filmmakers, a shameless tacit approval of illegal Israeli settlements, occupation of Palestinian land, and various human rights abuses and war crimes conducted by this apartheid regime. Instead, by letting itself be a part of the “Brand Israel” campaign, the organisers of the TIFF have allowed a highly prestigious film festival to be hijacked of the very soul of art – sincerity and honesty.