Hamilton Jewish Film Festival put on hold amid cinema's 'security and safety' concerns

An independent movie theatre in Hamilton is withdrawing from hosting a Jewish film festival next month because of security and safety concerns, it says.

The Playhouse Cinema announced its decision earlier this week to hold off hosting the Hamilton Jewish Federation's event featuring four Israeli films in early April.

This decision was covered widely by Canadian media this week as well as Israeli news organizations The Times of Israel and Haaretz, as the war in Gaza continues and tensions remain heightened between some Jewish and pro-Palestinian groups. 

The Playhouse made the "difficult decision" after receiving "numerous security and safety related emails, phone calls and social media messages," it said in a statement.  

It said the safety concerns come at a "particularly sensitive time." 

In response, the Hamilton Jewish Federation said it is "outraged" by the postponement and is exploring possible legal action.

The cinema had received "a small number" of threatening complaints about the festival from a few individuals who claim "any film produced in Israel is a form of Zionist propaganda," the federation said in a statement.  

"The Playhouse Cinema is prioritizing the will of antisemites over an apolitical cultural festival that stands for artistic excellence and integrity," it said. 

The Playhouse Cinema did not respond to requests for further comment.

Festival location changed after controversy last year

In past years, the Hamilton Jewish Federation held its festival at The Westdale, another independent cinema in the city's west end.

But after The Westdale decided to screen Israelism, a film critical of Israel in December 2023, against the federation's wishes, the organization withdrew from the cinema in protest and found a new location at the Playhouse.

The federation said it's now planning to show the films at its own facility later this spring. 

Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green called "threats of violence" targeting Jewish communities "completely unacceptable."

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Canadian Jewish group that advocates against antisemitism, was "sharply critical" of the Playhouse's decision. 

"This is the most recent case in what is becoming a modern-day witch hunt driven by anti-Israel groups in which Jewish individuals are often blacklisted, organizations hosting them are hounded and venues are pressured to cancel Jewish or pro-Israel speakers, artists, films and plays," the organization said in a statement. 

In January, a theatre festival in Vancouver cancelled showing a play called The Runner, which tells the story of an Israeli emergency volunteer who's life changes when he decides to aid a Palestinian woman instead of an Israeli soldier. 

Day 613:21Why a Vancouver theatre festival canceled a play about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and what that says about how we talk about the issue

Before Hamas launched its deadly attacks on Israel on October 7th, Vancouver's PuSh Festival had planned to stage The Runner, a play by Canadian playwright Christopher Morris, which tells the fictional story of an Israeli emergency volunteer whose life is upended after he makes a split-second decision to give aid to a young Palestinian woman instead of an Israeli soldier. When protests and petitions against the play emerged, the PuSh Festival stood its ground and defended the play. But ultimately, it decided to cancel the performance. Gabrielle Martin, the PuSh Festival's director of programming, explains why.

PuSH Festival's director of programming Gabrille Martin told CBC's Day 6 on Jan. 19 that her team felt "an extreme amount of pressure" and an "incredible amount of anger" from both those who wanted the play to be shown and those who wanted it to be cancelled.

"There were very few emails or phone calls that were really looking to have a conversation, or from a perspective of understanding complexity," Martin said. 

Festival films set in Israel, Europe

Originally the play by Canadian playwright Christopher Morris had been chosen because of the message it sends, which is that "we're all complicit existing in societies that tell us to devalue others," Martin said. 

But Basel Zaraa, a Palestinian artist who was part of the festival, raised concerns that the play didn't challenge colonial narratives and lacked context about the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, said Martin. 

"This is not about closing the door on cultural perspectives that is Jewish or Israeli," Martin said. "And that's something Basel made clear too. It's about the narrative."

Six films were slated for the Jewish Film Festival in Hamilton, which the federation hopes will still show later this spring. The films include:

• Hope without Boundaries (Israel 2023): an Israeli field hospital is set up amidst the war in Ukraine.

• March 1968 (Poland 2022): two students fall in love in communist Poland but politics soon catches up with them.

• Women in Sink (Israel 2015): the documentary's director works in a salon and hears from clients what it's like to live in a Christian Arab community in Israel.

• Children of Nobody (Israel 2022): a group of boys band together to save their shelter on Tel Aviv's outskirts.

• The Boy (Israel 2023): a father and son live in a Kibbutz bordering the Gaza strip where they experience rockets and conflict with each other. The film's director, Yahav Winner, was killed in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

• The Man in the Basement (France 2021): a couple sells their apartment to a man who appears to be trustworthy but is actually a Holocaust denier.