Anger Over Israeli Presence Is Heating Up Toronto Film Festival - NY TIMES

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A simmering controversy over the new City-to-City program at the Toronto International Film Festival heated up a few degrees, as Jane Fonda, Wallace Shawn, and David Byrne signed onto a letter protesting the selection of Tel Aviv as the year’s spotlight city. Indiewire has been on top of the protest, which was triggered when the Canadian filmmaker John Greyson pulled his short film “Covered” from the festival, which begins next Thursday.

Mr. Greyson and others have objected that the Tel Aviv selection amounts to complicity with an Israeli “propaganda” machine, and ignores the sufferings and achievements of Palestinians. Cameron Bailey, who programmed City-to-City, said in an open letter last week that the selection was an independent curatorial decision and had nothing to do with Israeli propaganda.

One thing is certain: What might have been one of the festival’s less-noticed film series is going to get some attention when it opens on Sept. 11 with an 8:45 a.m. screening of “A History of Israeli Cinema, Part 1,” from Raphael Nadjari.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/anger-over-israeli-presence-is-heating-of-toronto-film-festival