After intense scrutiny, the independent Chicago film venue Facets has agreed to reschedule a screening of the documentary Bring the Family Home, a new film that tackles campus antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel.
The fracas over the film, which prominently features scenes from the encampments last spring at DePaul University, is the latest example of what some Jewish artists say is censorious behavior around their works amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Theaters showing work by Palestinian artists, including the Oscar-winning feature No Other Land, have also reported harassment campaigns in some cities.
Rami Even-Esh, the first-time filmmaker behind Bring the Family Home, said he was excited to debut the self-funded documentary at Facets. An Israeli American rapper and comedian known professionally as Kosha Dillz, Even-Esh had planned to include footage from the premiere in the final cut as a triumph for talking despite differences. Instead, he was shocked to see Facets cancel the screening and refund his rental fees four hours before the event was supposed to happen.
“This tit-for-tat thing that continuously exists around protests and boycotts,” he said, “like how we have a sick cycle of violence in the Middle East … there’s a sick cycle of canceling.”
Facets Executive Director Karen Cardarelli said in an email Monday to WBEZ that the venue had a “productive” meeting with Even-Esh on Friday afternoon, but no specific date had yet been set for a rescheduled screening. “When we have finalized planning for the screening event, that information will be shared,” Cardarelli wrote.
Facets did not make anyone available for an interview. But in a statement shared Friday afternoon by board co-chairs Rich Moskal and Tamara Bohorquez, Facets said that, as a small nonprofit venue, the site was “not prepared to provide the level of onsite staffing and coordination necessary to support … the screening” and that it canceled the event out of “an abundance of caution.”
“In retrospect, we realize this was an overreaction and inconsistent with our mission,” Facets wrote.
The screening was organized by Even-Esh and the Chicago Jewish Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to mobilizing against antisemitism and anti-Zionism. CJA co-founder Josh Weiner said that he was told the event was canceled because of “safety concerns.”
Facets “felt there wasn’t ample security,” he said, although his group had notified the Chicago Police Department about the event and offered to supply security professionals.
Earlier that day, Facets told Even-Esh and CJA that it had received unspecified complaints about the film and removed the title from its marquee. On Tuesday afternoon, Facets posted on Instagram that its decision to cancel was “rooted in our commitment to ensuring that hate has no place in our cinema” — though it did not cite anything specific in the film to which it objected. The post, which has since been deleted, also said, “We reject antisemitism in all forms — just as we reject Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and any form of hate or dehumanization.”
The filmmaker did find a last-minute host for his premiere. A few hours after Facets canceled, he screened it at the Wilmette Theatre for about 70 or 80 attendees. A panel discussion and audience Q&A led by Weiner also featured American Jewish Committee program facilitator Jake Rosenfield and David Pawlan, co-founder of Jewish event production company Chai Chicago.
“We talked about the difficulties with creating discourse and dialogue around [antisemitism and Israel],” Weiner said. Some pro-Palestinian activists advocate for isolating and refusing contact with people, groups or products associated with Israel; large majorities of Jewish Americans regard connection with Israel as an important compotent of their identities.
Movie theaters have proved potent battlegrounds for the Israel-Gaza conflict. Last March, moviegoers at the Logan Theatre heading to a documentary about the Nova Music Festival massacre on October 7th were confronted by protesters, some of whom followed attendees into the lobby; one man was surrounded and attacked.
Artists with Palestinian ties have also faced trouble from the viewing public. No Other Land has struggled to land a U.S. distributor, and theaters have faced pressure not to show it. In one high-profile case, the mayor of Miami Beach, Fla., threatened to terminate the lease of an independent theater which showed the documentary.
Both Facets and the Wilmette Theatre have screened No Other Land. Amy Falkowski, the program director at Wilmette Theatre, reported receiving calls requesting the theater not show the movie, but she declined. She also declined an offer by police for protection during the documentary’s run, she said.
“We kind of pride ourselves on being a safe space for everybody and being welcoming to everybody,” she said. “Whether that is within this conflict or any other conflict, we as a theater just are available for everyone, and I think that’s something that’s important as to who we are.”
Even-Esh, for his part, “was practically crying on the Zoom” when he met with Facets to reschedule the screening, he told The Hollywood Reporter over the weekend.
“We [Jews and Israelis] don’t get to experience what it’s like to just be an artist; we’re like, political through existence. Palestinians get that too,” Even-Esh told WBEZ. “Not one life is more important than another life. Bring the Family Home is literally made for the idea that we are all a family, whether we disagree or not.”