EGOYAN DENOUNCES TIFF TEL AVIV PROTEST

Screendaily.com
nto-news/egoyan-denounces-tiff-tel-aviv-protest/50 05880.article
Sept 18 2009

Film-maker Atom Egoyan has weighed in on the Toronto International Film
Festival’s (TIFF) Tel Aviv sidebar dispute claiming the protestors
have failed to substantiate their charge that the Israeli government
interfered with TIFF’s programming.

Led by Toronto-based film-maker John Greysonl, the so-called Toronto
Declaration accuses TIFF of allowing itself to be co-opted by the
state of Israel by programming its City To City sidebar on Tel Aviv
and to take the spotlight off the Israel/Palestine situation. TIFF
has strongly rejected the charge.

Egoyan said any controversy and discussion "should come from the films
and the film-makers. Questions of national history and identity must
be presented and discussed."

He has direct experience of similar controversy: he and his film
Ararat were impugned by Turkish nationalists for its representation
of the Armenian genocide.

"I have watched in dismay as many of my colleagues have signed this
open letter," Egoyan wrote.

Egoyan questioned if the Declaration’s signatories, who include
British film-maker Ken Loach and writer Naomi Klein, are aware of
the numerous Arab and Palestinian films programmed at TIFF 2009. It
should be noted one of the more prominent signatories, Jane Fonda,
has since reversed her decision.

In a statement posted on TIFF’s website yesterday, TIFF co-directors
Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey noted that the original Declaration
had not called for a boycott of TIFF. Regardless, one feature film,
Heliopolis by Kuwaiti director Ahmad Abdalla, was withdrawn as a
direct result. They wrote: "It is unfortunate that the producers have
decided to take this action, independent of the original disagreement
that sparked the Declaration."