The Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich made a documentary about astounding rescue mission by retired IDF Maj. Gen. Noam Tibion who, on October 7, 2023, who went to kibbutz Nahal Oz, attacked by terrorists, where his son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters lived.
On his way to Nahal Oz the general rescued some victims of Nova festival and some wounded soldiers, while he himself was helped by soldiers hurrying to rescue civilians where and how they could. Brotherhood among ordinary citizens, rescue mission against all odds and raising against common, terrible danger that unifies people above divisions is a powerful story.
The film was to make premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September this year. The original title “Out of Nowhere: The Ultimate Rescue” was changed to “The Road Between Us” at the request of TIFF.
Recently, according to film making team, they were receiving signals that they should pull back from the festival. They did not. This week the film’s invitation has been withdrawn by TIFF organizers. TIFF said the documentary was removed "because general requirements for inclusion in the festival, and conditions that were requested when the film was initially invited, were not met, including legal clearance of all footage." (according to Associated Press). TIFF statement continued that: ““The purpose of the requested conditions was to protect TIFF from legal implications and to allow TIFF to manage and mitigate anticipated and known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption.”
These “legal clearance of all footage" refers to the use of Hamas’ live streamed video of the rape, murder and kidnapping of Jews. Yes, you heard it right, organizers insisted the filmmakers need the rights from the terrorist group to use their horrific footage of the massacre. And TIFF was supposedly afraid to show the truth from terrorists’ go-pros because they might have been sued by the murderous terror organization.
In reality they were probably concerned about security issues, similar to ones I described writing years ago (2011) about Israeli Film Festival held in Dublin, Ireland. Nevertheless, when completely stunned filmmakers stated that TIFF has “defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film” the matter became very public. American, Canadian and Israeli media commented the situation widely.
That caused TIFF’s reaction and yesterday, late in the evening, its CEO, Cameron Bailey, offered his “sincere apologies for any pain this situation may have caused” adding that it was never his “intention to offend or alienate anyone.” The milk has spilled but Cameron Bailey stated that he remains “committed to working with the filmmaker to meet TIFF’s screening requirements to allow the film to be screened at this year’s festival.” We will see in September. Nevertheless, the pure idea that the material made available as life streaming of the massacre by Hamas needs to be cleared legally by them in order to remind how this war has started and what really happened on October 7 (and about what they bragged publicly) is exorbitantly absurd. Or was it, before we moved to post-truth world?
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