Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's presence in Cannes speaks volumes
Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in the Green Movement protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's 'This Is Not a Film' on an iPhone in his living room. 'Taxi' (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car.
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8 minutes ago
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TIFF pulls documentary about Oct. 7 attack from lineup over security and rights concerns
The Toronto International Film Festival has pulled from its lineup a documentary detailing one family's experiences of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas over footage rights and security issues, though the festival says it is still trying to work through those concerns with the filmmakers. In an emailed statement, the filmmaking team behind the documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, acknowledged the cancellation and told CBC News that they were "shocked and saddened" by the festival's decision. "Ultimately, film is an art form that stimulates debate from every perspective that can both entertain us and make us uncomfortable. A film festival lays out the feast and the audience decides what they will or won't see," the statement said. "We are not political filmmakers, nor are we activists; we are storytellers. We remain defiant, we will release the film, and we invite audiences, broadcasters, and streamers to make up their own mind, once they have seen it." In a statement Wednesday evening, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said he remained committed to working with the filmmakers to "meet TIFF's screening requirements" which would allow the movie to be aired at the festival this fall. The film, by Canadian director Barry Avrich, tells the story of Noam Tibon, a retired IDF general who is on a quest to save his son and his family during the attack that sparked the nearly two year long war between Israel and Hamas. Tibon's story has been told before in the media, including on CBS's 60 Minutes. His son, Amir Tibon, who is a journalist, also recounted the events from his own perspective in a book. WATCH | He moved his family to a border kibbutz — then Oct. 7 happened: According to Deadline, which was first to report the news, TIFF withdrew its invitation for the film to participate in the festival in part because some requirements for inclusion were not met, including the "legal clearance of all footage." "The purpose of the requested conditions was to protect TIFF from legal implications and to allow TIFF to manage and mitigate anticipated and known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption," the festival said in a statement to The Associated Press and Deadline. The ultimate dis-invitation, according to Deadline, came over the legal clearance and identification of footage of the attack that was filmed by Hamas. TIFF's Bailey also rejected claims of censorship, saying they were "unequivocally false," but apologized for any pain the removal of The Road Between Us caused. "Given the sensitive and significant nature of the film's subject, I believe that it tells an important story and contributes to the rich tapestry of perspectives in our lineup — stories that resonate both here at home and around the world," Bailey said in the statement. "The events of October 7, 2023 and the ongoing suffering in Gaza weigh heavily on us, underscoring the urgent need for compassion amid rising antisemitism and Islamophobia." Groups condemn decision The move has drawn condemnation from a number of organizations and officials. Creative Community for Peace, an entertainment industry organization that educates about antisemitism, called the decision to pull the film "deeply disturbing." "They are choosing to censor a Jewish story of survival and attempting to erase the experiences of survivors of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust," the statement read in part. "This decision is part of a growing trend of silencing Jewish and Israeli voices under the excuse of 'security concerns.' " The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs' CEO, Noah Shack, also decried the decision, which he saw as the festival bending to the prospect of protests. "This shameful decision sends an unmistakable message: Toronto's Jewish community, which has long played an integral role at TIFF, is no longer safe or welcome," he said in a statement. Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Sa'ar, also called the decision "vicious and sickening" in a post on X. And Stan Cho, Ontario's Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, said in a statement posted to social media that he believed freedom of expression is "integral to the arts." TIFF pulled another documentary last year The festival also drew controversy last year over its decision to run — then pull — a documentary that followed Russian soldiers fighting in the war against Ukraine. The film, called Russians At War by Russian-Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova, attracted protesters who called the film Russian propaganda. After the festival paused screenings due to "significant threats," the film was quietly screened toward the end of the festival. Russians At War follows soldiers and medics on the front lines of the war, something the filmmaker says she did without the government's permission, which puts her at risk of criminal prosecution. Sean Farnel, a producer on the documentary who managed the film's distribution at festivals, told CBC News that the dis-invitation of The Road Between Us felt like "total deja vu," given what his team went through last year. He says decisions like these are becoming "endemic" within the arts world, and that it's increasingly difficult for documentary filmmakers to secure funding to tell difficult or provocative stories. "I think we all have to come together and figure out a way to present such work constructively, safely, because that's what festivals, that's what filmmakers do" Farnel said. LISTEN | 'Russians at War' director talks critics and backlash: His team recently made Russians At War available directly to audiences through a website that he says gives the film context. He says he feels fortunate that filmmakers at least have the option of circumventing the usual distribution channels in this way to give people a chance to view their work in the event that festivals are unwilling or unable to present it. Farnel says that before forming an opinion, people should see films being "censored or self censored" like Russians At War or The Road Between Us. "Watch the film, have an open mind, challenge your own biases and perceptions, and communicate with each other."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
From Snoop Dogg to Tom Brady, stars flock to English second-tier clubs
When Snoop Dogg sang the praises of Swansea City, it signalled the unlikely arrival of the latest celebrity owner in the once unfashionable Championship, English football's second tier. The American rapper has joined the Welsh club's ownership structure, investing an undisclosed sum to rub shoulders with former Real Madrid stalwart and World Cup finalist Luka Modric, who has also sunk his money into the club. "The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working-class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me," Snoop said in an introductory video. In North Wales, Wrexham are dreaming of an extraordinary promotion to the Premier League this season on the back of the enthusiastic and lucrative support of Hollywood star Ryan "Deadpool" Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney. Meanwhile, former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady has a minority stake in Birmingham City, very much the second club in England's second city after Premier League outfit Aston Villa. His arrival in 2023 was not met with universal approval, with one fan asking "Tom Brady, who's he?" in the Amazon Prime Video series "Built in Birmingham: Brady and the Blues" which follows his early, whirlwind involvement in the club that includes the sacking of manager Wayne Rooney. Brady says his is a "visionary role" and he tries -- not always successfully -- to pass on his experience of winning seven Super Bowl winner's rings to the Birmingham players and their young manager, Chris Davies. But why do so many celebrities want to invest a slice of their fortunes into the Championship? Christopher Winn, course leader at the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB), told AFP the principal reason was because they see it as an attractive investment -- with the carrot of the Premier League's riches if the team can gain promotion proving irresistible. "There is the notion of long-term returns, in other words buying low (in a lower league) and selling high," Winn told AFP. "While on-field success and subsequent off-field returns are no guarantee, should the promised land of the Premier League be reached, a significant profit would likely be generated on any future sale of the club, in other words generating returns for investors well beyond their initial investment and operational outlay. "Granted, that does not mean the investors are all out to make a return -- football can often be a game of utility maximisation after all, and for some a personally funded passion project." - 'We could make money' - Brady's friend and co-owner at Birmingham, the New York-based investor Tom Wagner, reveals in the documentary they originally tried to buy a Premier League team but the deal fell through. Then the chance to snap up Birmingham presented itself. "We thought we could make some money, have a good return, which is our ultimate objective, so we just couldn't pass it up," Wagner says. Birmingham manager Davies has quickly felt the effect of having a sporting icon breathing down his neck -- he good-naturedly recounted to The Times that his attempts to relax on a family holiday in the Maldives were disrupted by Brady insisting on scheduling daily conference calls at the children's dinner time. In Wagner and Brady's first season, Birmingham crashed down into League One, or England's third division, but with Davies in charge they emphatically secured promotion to the Championship this year, romping away with the League One title with a record points total. That was largely due to the Americans' injection of funds for new players such as forward Jay Stansfield, acquired from Premier League club Fulham for £15 million ($20.3 million), a huge fee for League One. Celebrities are active behind the scenes at other Championship clubs. Birmingham kicked off the season last week with a 1-1 home draw against Ipswich Town, who count multi-million-selling music star Ed Sheeran among their financial backers. Ipswich confirmed last year that Sheeran had bought a 1.4% stake in his local club and he has been the shirt sponsor for the last four years – although in a cautionary tale for other star owners, his involvement did not stop Ipswich being relegated from the Premier League last season. gj/mw
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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‘Russians At War' Director & Producer Talk Backlash & Direct-To-Audience Release: 'The Best Counter To The Protests & Hate Is For People To See The Film'
Director Anastasia Trofimova and producer Cornelia Principe are launching a direct-to-audience release this week of the former's controversial documentary Russians at War, in a bid to get it seen after a year of protests and cancellations. The two-hour work gives sobering insight into the futility and carnage of armed conflict through the lives of Russia-aligned soldiers on the front of the country's unprovoked war against Ukraine, with whom Trofimova embedded over a period of seven months. More from Deadline Idris Elba's 'Dust To Dreams' Starring Seal Set To Premiere In TIFF Shorts + Full Lineup TIFF Primetime Lineup: 'The Lowdown', 'Wayward' & 'Black Rabbit' Set To Premiere in Toronto's Series Showcase 'Damned If You Do' Trailer: Gianni Di Gregorio's Comedic Reflection On Love & Family Closes Venice's Giornate Degli Autori After an incident-free world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year, the doc met with protests in Canada from pro-Ukraine groups ahead of its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with the former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent, leading the charge. The protestors accused the film of being Russian propaganda – in a war of Russia's instigation in which more than 13,500 Ukrainian civilians and between 60,000 to 100,000 military personal have been killed and another 10 million people have been displaced – although none of them had seen the film at that point. At least 250,000 Russian troops have died in the conflict. TIFF canceled the festival screening, instead playing the film in the TIFF Lightbox Theatre on the first Tuesday after its 2024 edition ended, using security staff who were still on site to ensure the safety of Trofimova, her producers and the spectators in the room. 'Anastasia had her very own security detail. I had someone following me around even when I went to the bathroom. When we were on stage for the Q&A, there was a line of security in front of us. People who came had to be security scanned. It was a quite a production, but the festival had to make sure everybody was safe,' recounts Principe. The Oscar-nominated Canadian producer (To Kill A Tiger) produced the documentary under her Raja Pictures banner with Sally Blake and Philippe Levasseur at Paris-based Capa Presse. The fallout would continue throughout the year with Athens and Zurich among festivals which pulled the film due to protests and security concerns. Principe also reveals that the International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) rescinded an invitation issued in August 2024 for its Best of Fests sidebar saying they could not create a constructive dialog around the work. 'That was surprising,' she says of the disinvite, which occurred under the radar before the festival unveiled its lineup. In the meantime, the push back has only strengthened the film team's resolve to get the film seen, with the producers opting for a direct-to-audience strategy. 'The best counter to the protests and the anger is for people to see the film,' says Principe. '99% of the protests came from people who hadn't seen the film… I totally agree that peaceful protest is a great and constructive way to voice one's opinion, but it would be nice also to see the film.' Principe cites documentaries such as Brett Story and Stephen Maing's Union, following Amazon workers as they attempt to unionize, and Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which also released direct-to-audience, as inspirations for going down the self-distribution route. 'For films that are potentially controversial for some communities or some groups or corporations, going direct-to-audience seems to be the way to go,' says Principe. 'Getting it out there as far and wide as possible was really our plan and it seemed more and more after things happened in Canada and TIFF, that doing it ourselves was the way to go.' Working with the direct-to-audience platform of tech entertainment company Gathr, the producers have created the website, where spectators will be able to gain paid access to the film from August 12. 'It took months and months to get our website together. It's a very fulsome website with lots of content to give people background on the making of the film, frequently asked questions, criticisms that we address, all that is there,' says Principe. The release is worldwide but excludes Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, with the production planning to make it available in those territories for free at a later date. 'That's going to be a separate release because it will be free and we need to make sure that it can actually be accessed in Russia, says Principe. An experienced TV producer and documentarian, who has also worked in Syria and Iraq, Trofimova knew the film would receive pushback from some quarters for the human light in which it portrayed the Russia-aligned soldiers but was not prepared for the full-out backlash it sparked as it embarked on its festival tour last year. 'I think it was easier to go to the front and to be in the war than to deal with what happened afterwards because it was so unexpected. The documentary community has been very supportive overall and very understanding, but what was a shock to me is, how easy it is to be accused of something that people say you did, not that you actually did or said yourself,' she says. 'Most of the people who have been attacking this film, and the most vicious attacks, of course, have been happening online, have not seen the film… In Toronto, where we were the top news story for at least a week, journalists asked the protesters, 'Have you seen the film?' They would reply, 'No, we have not, and we refuse to.' What was surprising for me was, why this anger directed at the film? Why this anger directed at me? Because it's like I became their personal enemy, or the film became their personal enemy.' The fallout has also raised questions for Trofimova around the power of coordinated deplatforming campaigns. 'It has been quite interesting to realize how easy it is for anyone in the documentary community to be attacked and silenced by some sort of interest group, because it didn't take that much to be honest. A lot of the stuff is online. It's quite organized. There's been quite a coordinated defamation deplatforming campaign against this film,' she says. 'It's left quite a bit of damage. I'm not talking about our emotional state, but rather the fact that it started off so well. It was receiving invitations from the world's top festivals and the attacks on it made it so much more difficult for people to program it and to see it. That was the shocking thing.' She also questions the implications of what happened to her for other documentarians who want to tackle controversial and complex topics in the future 'It made me wonder how do we make complex films? It's a question for anyone who wants to take on a big, controversial problem in the world, and we have a lot of them. Now more than ever, documentaries have this huge responsibility to try to explain, to tackle them, to analyze them, to get in there. What do we have to be prepared for as filmmakers next time we go in?,' she says. Trofimova is not certain it is safe for her return to Russia any time soon given the unflattering light in which Russians at War portrays conditions at the front for the country's soldiers, but she hopes to able to return one day to continue a personal mission to capture Russian stories that are told neither in the local media, or internationally. 'The thing about war documentaries is that if you're just faithfully observing and recording this reality, you cannot make anything but an anti -war film, because the longer you stay and the longer you see the futility and how people who are very dear to someone back home, they're just gone. And the same thing goes for both sides… it becomes very, very tragic.' Principe notes how this time last year, she and Trofimova were iin Paris finishing post-production on the work ahead of the Venice premiere. 'A year ago, we were looking forward to Venice. A year later, we're looking forward to releasing the film online, so that people can see it and judge for themselves,' she says. 'They don't have to love the film. They have to don't agree with the film, but watch it and then, we'd love to hear what you think.' Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media 'The Boys' Season 5: Everything We Know So Far
