Patrick Goldstein has a valuable roundup of the attempted boycott of the Toronto Film Festival, for the unspeakable crime of showcasing Israeli filmmakers. It's one thing to criticize things the Israeli government has done lately- but to take it out on filmmakers is nothing short of insane. It would be like banning Martin Scorsese from Cannes because you didn't like Bush as president.
The worst part:
Earlier this year, for example, Ken Loach, one of England's most venerated filmmakers, urged a boycott of the Edinburgh International Film Festival because the festival was slated to premiere a movie by an Israeli filmmaker and was paying his way to the festival.That's right, a boycott that had nothing to do with the film's politics, just that its director was an Israeli. Disgusting. Posted by Stephen Silver at September 13, 2009 10:14 PMHis complaints had nothing to do with the film's politics, or lack of them. Loach's beef was with the Israeli government, saying "the massacres and state terrorism in Gaza make this money unacceptable." He urged everyone to "show their support for the Palestinian nation and stay away."