TIFF's Self-Immolation in Fiery Shame

"A TIFF spokesman told Deadline, an online Hollywood news site, on Tuesday: “The invitation for the Canadian documentary film ‘The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue’ was withdrawn by TIFF because general requirements for inclusion in the festival, and conditions that were requested when the film was initially invited, were not met, including legal clearance of all footage.”

"Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar criticized and satirized the decision, writing on X on Wednesday that it was made because “there was no ‘legal clearance’ from Hamas for their GoPro massacre videos.”

"The festival, he added, “would have asked Hitler or Goebbels for copyright on Auschwitz footage,” adding, “Of course, the festival is about to screen five Palestinian films." 

Jewish News Syndicate

TIFF Lightbox is the headquarters for the Toronto International Film Festival. Credit: Raysonho via Wikimedia Commons.

"This film is not about politics, it's about humanity, family and sacrifice. In one day, one extraordinary man reversed the fate of his family and inspired the world. We look forward to working with Noam [retired Israel Defense Forces Gen.Noam Tibon] and his family to document this jaw-dropping story."

Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich 

 

"[The filmmakers did not secure] legal clearance of all footage [which was among the conditions the festival requested to mitigate] known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption."

Toronto International Film Festival statement 

 

"We are shocked and saddened that a venerable film festival has defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film."

"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."

"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."

Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich

 

"There's no legal problem with showing these clips, which were already streamed live on October 7."

"From an intellectual property standpoint, they are clearly in the public domain."

"The topic of creators' rights is something I work with regularly."

Talia Harris Ram, film producer

Protesters gather in front of the TIFF Lightbox in downtown Toronto on Thursday to voice their disapproval over the festival organizers' initial decision to pull a documentary about the Oct. 7 attacks from this year's lineup.  EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail

 

The Toronto International Film Festival's outrageous decision not to include the documentary film about the October 7 attacks in southern Israel when 6,000 Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine operatives with the terrorist groups invaded with the distinct purpose of attacking Israeli kibbutzim -- the farming communities that gave thousands of Palestinian workers employment -- to rape, mutilate and murder 1,200 Jews. The film documented a retired IDF General, Noam Tibon on his mission to save his family living in one of the kibbutzim.

 

He fearlessly set out with the determination to save as many people as he could from the murderous rampage and succeeded to an astonishing degree for one man against a savage horde of jihadist psychopaths. This was his story, and it was also the story of immeasurable terror and grief that left the country reeling in disbelief at the wholesale sadistic slaughter of children, the elderly, foreign farm workers, entire families whose homes were torched as they sought shelter in their safe rooms only to be immolated in a fiery furnace of venomous hatred.

 

Some of the terms demanded by TIFF were met by the filmmaker; the title The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, produced by Melbar Entertainment Group, was changed from its original Out of Nowhere: The Ultimate Rescue. But what the TIFF organizers really focused on was the controversial issue of backlash from the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel groups that have been showing up everywhere in Canadian cities wreaking social havoc, threatening, mocking, and disrupting life everywhere as they slandered and tried to isolate Canadian Jews.

 

The hook they fastened on to extricate themselves from an obligation to show the documentary was copyright infringement of all things. That permission had to be sought and obtained from those whose videos formed part of the base for the resulting documentary. Those from whom 'permission' and thus 'legal clearance' would be sought would be the very terrorists who videoed their violent savagery and in fact uploaded the shocking results themselves immediately on social media, videos that showed their glee in the pain and horror manifested on the faces of their anguished victims.

 

Retired Israeli general Noam Tibon in the documentary 'The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue' Courtesy

 

Never was an antisemitic move of denial of authenticity more manifestly absurd than that of the Toronto Film Festival's, of the legal necessity to obtain permission to use the video footage that had been in the public domain for years -- first released in triumph as a 'liberating' event by the very terrorists who had marauded through Israel destroying and murdering innocent civilians, parading dead and live hostages back in Gaza for the entertainment of Palestinian civilians among whom were those who jeered at the hostages, and beat the helpless victims mercilessly.  

 

News of TIFF's rejection of the documentary for their line-up spread quickly, and those who heard of it and the absurdity of the demands were incredulous. Condemnation came from politicians at every level of government. Pressure grew when the group Canadian Women Against Antisemitism demanded that TIFF reverse its decision and that its supporters "tell Ontario and Canada: No more funding for cultural capitulation". 

"It is  unconscionable that TIFF is allowing a small mob of extremists -- who use intimidation and threats of violence to dictate that films Canadians can see at the festival."

"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."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada 

Wednesday the controversy raged. The story was picked up internationally. And it ran through the media with the incredulity of its absurd storyline, receiving a backlash of disbelief and anger. In the process diminishing the reputation of a storied film festival, by the sheer absurdity of the decision made by its director whose own accreditation is now questioned. In the end, a shameful decision led to a shame-faced retraction by Thursday, led by a shallow and extremely lame exculpatory effort that failed. The shame will not be easily lifted, nor the harm done to the festival's reputation forgotten. 

 

The view outside outside TIFF Lightbox, headquarters for the Toronto International Film Festival, In September 2024. Photo by Brian de Rivera Simon/Getty Images/File

 

"Tens of thousands of Canadians — including civic leaders, elected officials, artists and people from all backgrounds—spoke out against TIFF’s shameful decision to cave to extremist pressure."

"Their voices were heard [and effected a reversal]."

 "Let’s make it the most-watched film at TIFF and, eventually, on screens across the country."

"Everyone needs to see the real cost of unchecked extremism—and the bravery of those who stand in defence of human life and our shared values."

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs 

 

"[The film festival’s Wednesday apology — in which it denied that] censorship [had played a role in the decision was ]— “PR perfume on institutional moral rot.”

"They called it important. Then they withdrew it for phantom legal reasons forcing October 7th survivors to seek Hamas permission for massacre footage."

"Zero transparency on core outrage."

Idit Shamir, Israel’s consul general for Toronto and western Canada