Bolstered by increasing support, a coalition of filmmakers and other members of the cultural community protesting the Toronto International Film Festival's spotlight on Tel Aviv are planning a press conference on the festival's opening day.
Although organizers have yet to release details of location, time or even who will speak, a spokeswoman for the group who wrote an open letter to the festival confirmed the plan for a Thursday press conference "due both to the tremendous support we have received since releasing the letter, and also to answer our critics."
More than 50 filmmakers, academics, writers and artists have signed the letter, including Jane Fonda, Danny Glover, Naomi Klein and Ken Loach. The letter objects to TIFF's decision to choose Tel Aviv for its City-to-City program, which celebrates a foreign city through film. The group has said it is not protesting the individual Israeli filmmakers, but says that TIFF "has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine," whether intentionally or not. Staff