Can a Jewish Film Festival Offer Critical Fare?

[additional-authors]

Susan Freudenheim

July 24, 2009

Is it OK for a Jewish film festival to screen “Rachel,” a bio-pic on Rachel Corrie, the Pro-Palestinian activist killed in 2003 while protesting in front of Israeli bulldozers? That was the initial question raised in San Francisco in advance of a screening of the film this weekend. And if the answer is yes, as some are saying, is it OK to bring the girl’s mother, Cindy Corrie, to speak? Not if no one is there to represent another point of view, apparently. The festival belatedly invited a pro-Israel activist to balance the July 25 screening.
The heart of the controversy is not the film, but why this particular speaker was invited. Certainly Cindy Corrie’s heartbreak at the loss of her daughter is a legitimate story, but does her tragedy fit the context?
A story in

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