So, a big issue that’s been surfacing is the danger of threats to Jewish Film Festivals which is a very big concern. Now, there has been content from Toronto Jewish Film Festival before, and it seems to be looking okay for the time being as it doesn’t start until June. Plus, the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival still seems to be going. But unfortunately, that’s not the case for the Hamilton Jewish Film Festival, which was supposed to be happening from April 7 to 9 at Playhouse Cinema. It has been postponed and now they’re looking for another place to host it, mainly because of current happenings in Israel. I’m sure you have all heard about the scary things happening over there with the Israel-Gaza conflict, and like many others, I’m only hoping for enough hope that things settle. But it doesn’t look like that anytime soon, and things aren’t so good for Jewish Film Festivals either as the Hamilton Jewish Film Festival had to postpone over security and safety concerns. Mainly the big issues involved numerous calls and messages but the festival runners were very upset at being canceled over complaints about Israeli films. There were about 5 films including The Man in the Basement, The Boy, Hope without Boundaries, Women in Sink, and Children of Nobody. While I can understand the idea of cancelling a festival over safety concerns, I can also understand it may not have been the wisest decision to do so. Preventing Jewish events, or events of any racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious group is a pretty dangerous move to make, especially nowadays. But at the same time, who knows what could happen if they played as is? Sadly, it only seems this has been a problem for a while. Sometime back in December of last year, The Hamilton Film Festival stopped hosting their event at Westdale Theatre, after they decided to cancel a screening of the film Israelism, only to change their mind sometime after a debate. Do you think Playhouse Cinema made the right choice? Yes or no? Give some feedback, because while I gathered info from both sides, I also want to learn of other perspectives.
