Director Ken Loach exits Melbourne Film Festival in protest

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25800179-12377,00.html

DIRECTOR Ken Loach has pulled out of the Melbourne International Film festival in protest against Israeli funding.

British-based Loach pulled his film Looking For Eric after organisers refused to bow to his demands they reject Israeli government sponsorship.

The festival's executive director Richard Moore said that Mr Loach's emailed demands were part of an orchestrated campaign to target events that receive financial support from Israel.

He said Mr Loach, who objects to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the recent Gaza intrusion, showed another of his films It's a Free World at last year's festival - which was also Israeli-funded.

In the festival website, Mr Moore wrote that the festival had a long tradition of programming films that examined various points of view on the Middle East including the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

He said films showing this year included Amreeka, which outlines the difficulties that a Palestinian family faces adapting to life in the US, and Young Freud In Gaza about a young Palestinian psychiatrist dealing with psychological problems faced by Palestinians living under occupation.

Mr Moore said the festival understood that the Israeli-Palestinian issue was a particularly emotional one for people “but we will not participate in a boycott against the state of Israel, just as we would not contemplate boycotting films from China or other nations involved in difficult longstanding historical disputes”.

The festival earlier this week refused a demand from Chinese officials to dump a documentary about an exiled Uighur leader who they have branded a terrorist.