Karl Quinn
August 4, 2010 - 3:00AM
THE Melbourne International Film Festival has been threatened with legal action for refusing to withdraw a film at the request of its makers, who objected to the festival receiving funding from Israel. Feature film Son of Babylon, which is set in Iraq, screened on July 26 and July 28 as scheduled, despite demands it be withdrawn in protest at funding from the Israeli government. The funding amounted to a return economy-class airfare for an Israeli director.
''The festival was informed in enough time to stop the screening … therefore if you have knowingly disregarded our wishes and screened the film, we will of course be left with little alternative than to take appropriate action against the festival,'' producer Isabelle Stead wrote to festival executive director Richard Moore last week in an email exchange leaked to crikey.com.au.
''You should not underestimate our resolve to ensure that our film is not associated with the state of Israel as long as it continues its illegal crimes against humanity,'' she wrote.
There is, in the filmmakers' stance, a distinct echo of Ken Loach's decision to withdraw his film Looking For Eric from last year's festival on the same grounds. On July 18 last year, The Age broke the story that the veteran English filmmaker had said ''if it did not reconsider the sponsorship, he would not allow the festival to screen his film''. Mr Loach cited ''illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods'' and ''the massacres in Gaza'' as reasons for the boycott.
Mr Moore said acceding to Mr Loach's demand would be ''like submitting to blackmail''. That put him and the festival at odds with the Edinburgh Film Festival, which had done precisely that. In acknowledgment of its stand and its response to pressure by the Chinese government over the documentary, The 10 Conditions of Love, about Uighur independence leader Rebiya Kadeer, Victorian civil liberties group Liberty last month gave this year's Voltaire award to the Melbourne festival.
This year's flare-up is a little more complicated, however.
Mohamed Al-Daradji, director and co-producer of Son of Babylon, wrote to the festival about 14 hours before his film's first festival screening, requesting that the festival cancel it and the second scheduled screening.
Within two hours, Mr Moore replied. ''To request a withdrawal of the film on the day of the screening is simply not acceptable and shows a lack of respect for our organisation,'' he wrote. ''We are not able to replace the film at short notice and we will screen it today. I am prepared to consider other options for the second screening but I will also need to consider the financial ramifications.''
However, the July 28 screening went ahead, prompting an angry email from Ms Stead, who did not return calls or emails from The Age.
''When we grant a festival permission to screen a film that took us years to make along with danger, blood, sweat and tears we do so with trust. I would have thought a festival would morally recognise the need to tell a Palestinian co-production that it was funded by the state of Israel,'' Ms Stead wrote.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/festival-threatened-over-israel-link-20100803-115ed.html
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