HAS Their eyes, the notion of copyright is sacred. Perhaps a little too much… The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a film festival to be held from September 4 to 14, is under an intense controversy, unveiled by the American media Deadline. In question, the deprogramming of The Road Between Us : The Ultimate Rescuea documentary by Barry Avrich on the history of the Israeli general Noam Tibon (father of the survivor journalist Amir Tibon), who embarked on a mission to save his family, including his two granddaughters, surrounded by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. The reasons for this deprogramming were shocked to say the least.
Indeed, according to sources in Deadline, the filmmakers were informed that they had to make editorial changes. Nothing dramatic, on paper, festivals being customary to ask for changes, especially duration. But, in this case, the length of the film has not been incriminated. No, the TIFF demanded from filmmakers that they focus specifically on propaganda images broadcast by Hamas during the pogrom of October 7, 2023. The work indeed contains images filmed by the terrorists themselves.
The festival, which denies having asked to make these modifications, would have demanded that the film team identify the source of the images and that it confirms the legal authorization of their use, of which, as a reminder, the authors are a terrorist group whose attack left more than a thousand dead. The filmmakers were invited to provide a legal report confirming this authorization, as well as reinforced security. The team of The Road Between Us provided a letter of insurance and omissions including the TIFF as insured, just as they agreed to modify the moose title of the film, Out of Nowhere : The Ultimate Rescue.
The director denies censorship
On August 6, the TIFF lawyer informed the producers that they wanted to consult the evidence of compensation, the legal report and the insurance certificate, and project the film a third time on August 8 to verify that the changes required by the TIFF had been made. Monday August 11, Cameron Bailey, the director of the TIFF, called the documentary producers to ask them to withdraw their film. The filmmakers refused and, Tuesday August 12, the festival officially withdrew its invitation to The Road Between Us. It is therefore unlikely that the film team has reached this request.
A TIFF spokesperson told Deadline on Tuesday August 12: “The invitation to the Canadian documentary The Road Between Us : The Ultimate Rescue was removed by the TIFF because the general requirements of inclusion at the festival, as well as the conditions required during the initial invitation, were not respected, in particular the legal authorization of all the sequences. These conditions aimed to protect the TIFF from legal implications and to allow it to manage and mitigate the anticipated and known risks linked to the projection of a film on a highly sensitive subject, in particular the potential threat of significant disturbances “, arguing that” The TIFF can disqualify of participation in the Festival Any film that the TIFF determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that it would not be in its interest to include at the festival ”.
The director of TIFF, Cameron Bailey, defended himself from having wanted to censor the footage: “My intention was to project The Road Between Us : The Ultimate Rescue, This is why I invited the film to participate in this year’s festival, “he wrote in a letter addressed to members of the TIFF community. “I want to be clear: the allegations that the film was refused due to censorship are completely false. »»
“We are neither political filmmakers nor activists”
He recognized in his letter “concerns” that the decision “aroused among the members of the Jewish community and beyond”. “Although we are not a political organization, the TIFF will always strive to present its programming in a safe and inclusive environment”. “Given the sensitive and significant nature of the subject of the film, I believe it tells an important story and contributes to the rich mosaic of perspectives of our programming-stories that resonate both here and around the world,” he explained. “I remain determined to collaborate with the filmmaker to meet the projection requirements of the TIFF and allow the projection of the film during this year’s festival. I asked our legal team to collaborate with the filmmaker to study all the possible options. »»
To discover
The kangaroo of the day
Answer
“We are shocked and saddened that a prestigious film festival has challenged its mission and censored its own program by refusing this film,” saddened the production team, which believes that it has responded to all the requirements of the festival. “In the end, cinema is an art form that stimulates the debate from all angles, which can both entertain us and make us uncomfortable. A film festival organizes the feast and the public decides what he will see or not. We are neither political filmmakers nor activists; We are storytellers. We remain determined, we will release the film and we invite the public, broadcasters and streamers to make their own opinion after seeing it. ”
This controversy has a taste of deja vu: in 2024, the TIFF had suspended the projections of the documentary Russians at Warwhich had aroused the indignation of the Ukrainian community and the Vice-Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland. The film had not been broadcast only a few days after the end of the festival, with security agents present during the projections. Again, in 2025, the question of security and potential disturbances is at the heart of the justifications of the TIFF. But ask a terrorist group for authorization to disseminate images of a massacre, one of the most important in the XXIe century, of which he is the author, is it very serious?
