John Greyson's brave act of withdrawing his film has sparked a growing protest over TIFF's spotlight on Tel Aviv. An impressive list of international film makers and actors have signed an open letter to TIFF. You can join that list by writing tiff.letter.@gmail.com
The letter reads:
As members of the Canadian and international film, culture and media arts communities, we are deeply disturbed by the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to host a celebratory spotlight on Tel Aviv. We protest that TIFF, whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine. Read more.
It is endorsed by Ahmad Abdalla, Filmmaker, Egypt Hany Abu-Assad, Filmmaker, Palestine Mark Achbar, Filmmaker, Canada Zackie Achmat, AIDS activist, South Africa Ra'anan Alexandrowicz, Filmmaker, Jerusalem Anthony Arnove, Publisher and Producer, USA Ruba Atiyeh, Documentary Director, Lebanon Joslyn Barnes, Writer and Producer, USA John Berger, Author, France David Byrne, Musician, USA Guy Davidi Director, Israel Na-iem Dollie, Journalist/Writer, South Africa Igor Drljaca, Filmmaker, Canada Eve Ensler, Playwright, Author, USA Eyal Eithcowich, Director, Israel Sophie Fiennes, Filmmaker, UK Peter Fitting, Professor, Canada Jane Fonda, Actor and Author, USA Danny Glover, Filmmaker and Actor, USA Noam Gonick, Director, Canada Malcolm Guy, Filmmaker, Canada Mike Hoolboom, Filmmaker, Canada Annemarie Jacir, Filmmaker, Palestine Fredric Jameson, Literary Critic, USA Juliano Mer Khamis, Filmmaker, Jenin/Haifa Bonnie Sherr Klein Filmmaker, Canada Paul Laverty, Producer, UK Paul Lee, Filmmaker, Canada Yael Lerer, publisher, Tel Aviv Jack Lewis, Filmmaker, South Africa Ken Loach, Filmmaker, UK Arab Lotfi, Filmmaker, Egypt/Lebanon Kyo Maclear, Author, Toronto Mahmood Mamdani, Professor, USA Fatima Mawas, Filmmaker, Australia Tessa McWatt, Author, Canada and UK Cornelius Moore, Film Distributor, USA Yousry Nasrallah, Director, Egypt Rebecca O'Brien, Producer, UK Pratibha Parmar, Producer/Director, UK Jeremy Pikser, Screenwriter, USA John Pilger, Filmmaker, UK Shai Carmeli Pollak, Filmmaker, Israel Ian Iqbal Rashid, Filmmaker, Canada Judy Rebick, Professor, Canada David Reeb, Artist, Tel Aviv B. Ruby Rich, Critic and Professor, USA Wallace Shawn, Playwright, Actor, USA Eyal Sivan, Filmmaker and Scholar, Paris/London/Sderot Elia Suleiman, Fimmlaker, Nazareth/Paris/New York Eran Torbiner, Filmmaker, Israel Alice Walker, Writer, USA Thomas Waugh, Professor, Canada Howard Zinn, Writer, USA Slavoj Zizek, Professor, Slovenia To add your name to this letter, please send your name, occupation and country to tiff.letter@gmail.com