At Wednesday’s opening conference for this year’s Venice Film Festival, jury president Alexander Payne refused to answer a question about his personal attitude to the crisis in Gaza and said he felt “a little unprepared” to talk about the issue.
“Honestly, I feel a little unprepared for that question. I am here to judge and talk about cinema. My political opinions, I am safe, are in accordance with many of yours. But as far as my relationship with the festival and what the industry does, I have to think about it for a while to give you a measured answer,” he said.
The question came because Gaza is a major conversation theme at the Venice Film Festival, with a march planned for Saturday that condemned Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. And even on Wednesday, Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara and Alfonso Cuaron went aboard “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, a documentary about the 5-year-old Palestinian girl as was killed in Gaza last yearAs executive producers for the film’s Venice debut.
While Payne chose not to weigh the question at the opening conference, Venice Manager Alberto Barbera spoke calls for the festival to take a stronger attitude to Gaza and that Disinvite Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler from the festival.
“We have been asked to reject the invitation to artists, we will not,” Barbera said. “If they want to be at the festival they will be here. On the other hand, we have never hesitated to clearly explain our huge grief and suffering to what is happening in Gaza and Palestine. I think there is no doubt if there is something that is victims, the security injuries in a war that no one has been able to say no. No doubt whether it is a bow doctor.
The Venice Film Festival, Which Continues Through The Weekend Into Next Week, Will See The Premieres of Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Luca Guadagnino’s “After Hunt” and Yorgos Lanthimos “” Julia Roberts, Adam Sandler and Oscar Isaac are Due to Walk the Red Carpet.
Whether they will follow Payne’s leadership and stay away from the Gaza conversation remains to be seen, but the subject certainly does not disappear when Film Festival season kicks in gear.
