The Melbourne International Film Festival has been bombarded by emails and had its website hacked over its decision to show the film The 10 Conditions of Love, about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer. After festival organizers rejected the Chinese government’s demand to pull the film from its schedule, abusive emails came pouring into the festival’s office, and its website was infiltrated by someone who posted the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans on it. Extra security has been brought in for the festival, along with Australian police from the state and federal level. Also, four Chinese-language films have been pulled from the festival, and a sponsor from Hong Kong withdrew from the event.

 

At the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the outcry has been over the film Rachel, about 23-year old Rachel Corrie from Washington state who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent an Israeli military bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian’s home. Festival organizers invited Corrie’s mother, Cindy, to speak after the documentary’s screening—a move Israeli Consul General Akiva Tor called a “big mistake.” Complaints from groups supportive of the Israeli government, which labeled the screening of Rachel a “new anti-Semitism,” resulted in the resignation of the festival board’s president. Included in the festival’s schedule are two films profiling kidnapped Israeli soldiers.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

“Rachel” Draws Passioante Crowd to S.F. Jewish Film Fest (by Stacey Palevsky, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Documentary Sparks Uproar at Jewish Film Fest (by Matthai Kuruvila, San Francisco Chronicle)

Chinese Hack Film Festival Site (Mary-Anne Toy, The Age)

Why San Francisco Film Festival is Shwoing Rachel, a Film by Simone Bottin about Rachel Corrie, and Inviting Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s Mother, to the Festival (San Francisco Jewish Film Festival statement) (PDF)