Earlier this month, after the Edinbergh International Film Festival capitulated to Ken Loach’s threat to support a boycott unless Israeli sponsorship money was returned, and accepted that Loach spoke “on behalf of the film community,” I wrote:
Tell us, EIFF: on what basis do you accept that Loach speaks for the entire “film community”? If you’re going to give in to threats and bullying, please come up with a more plausible reason than that.
Are there any filmmakers out there who want to set them straight? I’m sure the EIFF would be interested to hear from you.
British filmmaker Gary Sinyor has set them straight. He handed back an award he won from the EIFF for his 1992 comedy “Leon the Pig Farmer” and said he wanted nothing more to do with the festival.
Sinyor writes at The Independent:
It’s possible that Ken was speaking on behalf of all film directors/writers and producers worldwide, but my phone never rang so at best it would be the entire global film community minus one. If someone at the EIFF made an absolute howler of a comment to The Scotsman, it should admit the mistake publicly. It hasn’t.
We can only assume, therefore, that Ken Loach exerted sufficient pressure on the festival that one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world actually caved in.
Read it all. It’s the best response yet I’ve seen to the bullying Loach and the craven festival organizers.
Over at Socialist Unity, John Wight urges solidarity– with poor Ken Loach, of course.
