Big Hollywood’s Victor Morton describes the eerie silence of all those concerned artists when it comes to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2009, the city was from a country that has invaded neighbors and occupied for some decades territory that is inhabited by an internationally-recognized people of another ethnic group and language who want a state of their own on that land. In battling against insurgents and terrorists, that nation sometimes violates human rights and has been credibly accused of war crimes.
In 2010, the city was from a country that has invaded neighbors and occupied for some decades territory that is inhabited by an internationally-recognized people of another ethnic group and language who want a state of their own on that land. In battling against insurgents and terrorists, that nation sometimes violates human rights and has been credibly accused of war crimes.
In 2009, that city was Tel Aviv. In 2010, that city is Istanbul. One of those City-to-City programs created a storm of controversy, public boycotts, open letters, a film being pulled. The other has created the proverbial perfect pin-dropping environment. And if you can’t figure out which is which, maybe I shouldn’t be quoting “A Tale of Two Cities,†but something more appropriate like “Rip Van Winkle.â€
The City-to-City program for 2010 has nine feature films and a program of eight avant-garde shorts and gets under way Friday evening with a film called “40,†apparently about migration to Istanbul from within Turkey and from abroad.
And the crickets have been chirping.
Put Toronto Film Festival, John Greyson or Naomi Klein into our search box (on the right hand side) and you’ll see our extensive coverage of last year’s attacks on the Festival by the hypocrites who say nothing now about this year’s festival.
