GREYZONE

95 SHAW ST
TORONTO CANADA M6J 2W3
647-272-0386
[email protected]
August 27, 2009

Piers Handling, Cameron Bailey, Noah Cowan

Dear Piers, Cameron, Noah:

I've come to a very difficult decision -- I'm withdrawing my film Covered from TIFF, in protest against
your inaugural City-to-City Spotlight on Tel Aviv.

In the Canadian Jewish News, Israeli Consul General Amir Gissin described how this Spotlight is the
culmination of his year-long Brand Israel campaign, which includes bus/radio/TV ads, the ROM's notorious
Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, and "a major Israeli presence at next year¹s Toronto International Film Festival,
with numerous Israeli, Hollywood and Canadian entertainment luminaries on hand." Gissen said Toronto
was chosen as a test-city for Brand Israel by Israel's Foreign Ministry, and thanked Astral, MIJO and Canwest
for donating the million-dollar budget. (Astral is of course a long-time TIFF sponsor, and Canwest owners'
Asper Foundation donated $500,000 to TIFF). "We've got a real product to sell to Canadians... The lessons
learned from Toronto will inform the worldwide launch of Brand Israel in the coming years, Gissin said."

This past year has also seen: the devastating Gaza massacre of eight months ago, resulting in over
1000 civilian deaths; the election of a Prime Minister accused of war crimes; the aggressive extension of
illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands; the accelerated destruction of Palestinian homes and
orchards; the viral growth of the totalitarian security wall, and the further enshrining of the check-point
system. Such state policies have led diverse figures such as John Berger, Jimmy Carter, and Bishop
Desmond Tutu to characterize this 'brand' as apartheid. Your TIFF program book may describe Tel Aviv as
a "vibrant young city... of beaches, cafes and cultural ferment... that celebrates its diversity," but it's also
been called "a kind of alter-Gaza, the smiling face of Israeli apartheid" (Naomi Klein) and "the only city in
the west without Arab residents" (Tel Aviv filmmaker Udi Aloni).

To my mind, this isn't the right year to celebrate Brand Israel, or to demonstrate an ostrich-like
indifference to the realities (cinematic and otherwise) of the region, or to pointedly ignore the international
economic boycott campaign against Israel. Launched by Palestinian NGO's in 2005, and since joined by
thousands inside and outside Israel, the campaign is seen as the last hope for forcing Israel to comply with
international law. By ignoring this boycott, TIFF has emphatically taken sides -- and in the process, forced
every filmmaker and audience member who opposes the occupation to cross a type of picket line.

Let's be clear: my protest isn't against the films or filmmakers you've chosen. I've seen brilliant
works of Israeli and Palestinian cinema at past TIFFs, and will again in coming years. My protest is against
the Spotlight itself, and the smug business-as-usual aura it promotes of a "vibrant metropolis [and] dynamic
young city... commemorating its centennial", seemingly untroubled by other anniversaries, such as the 42nd
anniversary of the occupation. Isn't such an uncritical celebration of Tel Aviv right now akin to celebrating
Montgomery buses in 1963, California grapes in 1969, Chilean wines in 1973, Nestles infant formula in
1984, or South African fruit in 1991?
 You're probably groaning right now -- "inflammatory rhetoric!" -- but I mention these boycott
campaigns because they were specific and strategic to their historic moments, and certainly complex. Like
these others, the Israel boycott has been the subject of much debate, with many of us struggling with
difficult questions of censorship, constructive engagement and free speech. In our meeting, for instance, you
said you supported economic boycotts like South Africa's, but not cultural boycotts. Three points: South
Africa was also a cultural boycott (asking singers not to play Sun City); culture is one of Canada's (and
Israel's) largest economic sectors (this spotlight is funded by a Canadian Ministry of Industry tourism grant,
after all); and the Israel rebrand campaign explicitly targets culture as a priority sector.

Many will still say a boycott prevents much needed dialogue between possible allies. That's why, like
Chile, like Nestles, the strategic and specific nature of each case needs to be considered. For instance, I'm
helping organize a screening in September for the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival, co-sponsored by
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and the Inside Out Festival. It's a doc that profiles Ezra Nawi, the queer
Israeli activist jailed for blocking army bulldozers from destroying Palestinian homes. Technically, the film
probably qualifies as meeting the technical criteria of boycott -- not because it was directed by an Israeli
filmmaker, but because it received Israeli state funding. Yet all concerned have decided that this film should
be seen by Toronto audiences, especially Jews and Palestinians -- a strategic, specific choice, and one that
has triggered many productive discussions.

I'm sorry I can't feel the same way about your Tel Aviv spotlight. Despite this past month of emails
and meetings, many questions remain for me about its origins, its funding, its programming, its sponsors.
You say it was initiated in November 2008... but then why would Gissen seem to be claiming it as part of
his campaign four months earlier? You've told me that TIFF isn't officially a part of Brand Israel -- okay -- but
why haven't you clarified this publicly? Why are only Jewish Israeli filmmakers included? Why are there no
voices from the refugee camps and Gaza (or Toronto for that matter), where Tel Aviv's displaced
Palestinians now live? Why only big budget Israeli state-funded features -- why not a program of
shorts/docs/indie works by underground Israeli and Palestinian artists? Why is TIFF accepting and/or
encouraging the support of the Israeli government and consulate, a direct flaunting of the boycott, with
filmmaker plane tickets, receptions, parties and evidently the Mayor of Tel Aviv opening the spotlight? Why
does this feel like a propaganda campaign?

This decision was very tough. For thirty years, TIFF has been my film school and my community, an
annual immersion in the best of world cinema. You've helped rewrite the canon through your pioneering
support of new voices and difficult ideas, of avant-garde visions and global stories. You've opened many
doors and many minds, and made me think critically and politically about cinema, about how film can speak
out and make a difference. In particular, you've been extraordinarily supportive of my own work, often
presenting the hometown premieres of my films to your legendary audiences. You are three of the
smartest, sharpest, skillful and most thoughtful festival heads anywhere -- this isn't hyperbole, with all of
you I speak from two decades worth of friendship and deep respect -- which makes this all the more
inexplicable and troubling.

What eventually determined my decision to pull out was the subject of Covered itself. It's a doc
about the 2008 Sarajevo Queer Festival, which was cancelled due to brutal anti-gay violence. The film
focuses on the bravery of the organizers and their supporters, and equally, on the ostriches, on those who
remained silent, who refused to speak out: most notoriously, the Sarajevo International Film Festival and
the Canadian Ambassador in Sarajevo. To stand in judgment of these ostriches before a TIFF audience, but
then say nothing about this Tel Aviv spotlight -- finally, I realized that that was a brand I couldn't stomach.

Peace,

John Greyson

For the duration of TIFF, I've posted Covered at: www.vimeo.com/greyzone