Joaquin Phoenix, Sandra Oh, Emma Thompson were among more than 500 Hollywood stars and industry leaders who signed a letter that called out and condemned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for failing to support Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal after he was recently attacked Israeli settlers and arrested by soldiers.
“We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” the group wrote in a letter on Thursday. “To win an Oscar is not an easy task. Most films in competition are buoyed by wide distribution and exorbitantly priced campaigns… For ‘No Other Land’ to win an Oscar without these advantages speaks to how important the film is to the voting membership. The targeting of Ballal is not just an attack on one filmmaker — it is an attack on all those who dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths.”
The signees said the group’s letter comes as a response to the Academy after it sent out an email that was “ostensibly responding to the detention of Palestinian filmmaker,” which the group says “failed to mention either Ballal or the film by name nor did it describe the events it was responding to.”
“Therefore we are issuing our own statement,” the letter read before completely going in.
“As artists, we depend on our ability to tell stories without reprisals. Documentary filmmakers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten the world. It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later,” it continued. “To win an Oscar is not an easy task. Most films in competition are buoyed by wide distribution and exorbitantly priced campaigns directed at voting members. For ‘No Other Land’ to win an Oscar without these advantages speaks to how important the film is to the voting membership.”
It concluded by saying the Academy’s actions were not “just an attack on one filmmaker — it is an attack on all those who dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths.” Other notable signatures came from writer-director Ava DuVernay, director Adam McKay, actor Richard Gere, actress Penèlope Cruz and a slew of notable documentarians, including Joan Churchill and Joshua Oppenheimer.
“We will continue to watch over this film team. Winning an Oscar has put their lives in increasing danger, and we will not mince words when the safety of fellow artists is at stake,” the letter ended, which included the full list of signees as well as an image of Ballal taking home his Oscar for the film.
As TheWrap previously reported, Ballal was one of three Palestinians who were arrested in connection to an apparent stone-throwing fight that broke out between Israelis and Palestinians after an Israeli shepherd was attacked by Palestinians, per witnesses who spoke to Israel Hayom, a Hebrew-language daily newspaper.
Activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence who spoke to the Associated Press said that Ballal was “taken away in a blindfold” by Israeli military as he was being treated in an ambulance.
“A group of 10-20 masked settlers attacked him and other Jewish activists with stones and sticks, and smashed their car windows and slashed their tires,” representatives from the group told AP.
“No Other Land,” is a documentary made over four years by the filmmaking team of Palestinian West Bank residents Ballal and Basel Adra alongside Israelis Abraham and Rachel Szor, all of whom attended the Oscars earlier this month and received the award for Best Documentary Feature. The film chronicles the destruction of Palestinians’ homes in the West Bank hamlet of Masafer Yattaby by Israeli settlers after a 2019 Israeli court ruling upheld the area as a “military zone.”
Since the film’s premiere at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, Ballal, Abraham and Adra have continued to post photos and videos of attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, with Ballal’s most recent post on Instagram coming six hours before Abraham said he had been attacked and detained.
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