Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Cowards: Edinburgh film festival refuses Israeli grant due to pressure by Ken Loach
The Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday returned a 300-pound grant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director Ken Loach, the British Times reported on Wednesday.
The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate.
According to the Times, Ezer's film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference to war or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women's film festival in Israel.
Loach on Monday urged film goers to boycott the festival after pro-Palestinian activists protested the grant for the Israeli film...
Apparently this Loach fellow is something special, but I haven't heard of a single film he's been involved in. As long as he's not involved in the Transformers sequel, I should be good. Prick.
Mick Hartley notes that there is a bit of push-back, one-handed I'm sure, but push-back regardless: An Appalling Decision
Edit: Loach, BTW, finds today's rise in anti-Semitism, "perfectly understandable."
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Appalling, absolutely and unequivocally. Another tell-tale, coal miners' canary symptom of a still deeper intellectual and moral malaise.
A very interesting discussion on the affair:
http://www.pandalous.com/node/ken_loach_is_demanding
That link doesn't work. The site is weird, but I think this link will take you there:
http://www.pandalous.com/reader#p=3-20-ken_loach_is_demanding--/