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Film Festival Gives Gazans a Rare Taste of the Movies

Palestinian volunteers participate in organizing the sixth edition of the Red Carpet Film Festival, at a newly renovated theater in Gaza City, October 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Palestinian volunteers participate in organizing the sixth edition of the Red Carpet Film Festival, at a newly renovated theater in Gaza City, October 13, 2022. (Reuters)
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Film Festival Gives Gazans a Rare Taste of the Movies

Palestinian volunteers participate in organizing the sixth edition of the Red Carpet Film Festival, at a newly renovated theater in Gaza City, October 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Palestinian volunteers participate in organizing the sixth edition of the Red Carpet Film Festival, at a newly renovated theater in Gaza City, October 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Film buffs in the Gaza Strip, who for decades have been deprived of going to the movies due to the destruction of cinemas during bouts of unrest in the enclave, are enjoying a rare chance to see a slate of films on the big screen.

Cinema once flourished in Gaza, with audiences flocking to see Arab, Western and Asian films but the movie houses were torched in the First Intifada in 1987 and then burned down again in 1996 during another wave of internal violence.

Since then, Gazans have had to rely on television and online streaming services and the chance to see films on the big screen offered a rare treat for people living under a border blockade imposed by neighboring Israel and Egypt.

The Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival, which opened on Thursday, is showing around 40 films at a recently renovated culture center, around half dealing with the decades-long conflict with Israel and the rest dealing with human rights issues around the world.

While Gazans have been able to go to movie screenings which are held from time to time at theaters and other venues, such a full bill of films is a rare treat.

The festival's executive manager, Montaser Al-Sabe said he was proud of the festival in Gaza but that he hoped cinemas would open up again.

"We have cinemas in Gaza that are closed, open them," he said.

Around 300 films from 60 countries were submitted before organizers made their selection, which included films by four young local filmmakers who had the rare opportunity to show their work to local audiences.

All the films had to be reviewed ahead of screening by local authorities in Gaza, which has been controlled by the Hamas movement since 2007.

Among the films on show was "Eleven Days in May", co-directed by Gaza director Mohammed Sawwaf and British director, which tells the story of 66 children killed in the 11-day war between Israel and Gaza militants in May 2021.

"We focused on their beautiful memories, their jokes and their dreams," Sawwaf said. "Cinema is a civilized and important means to get the voice of children and the people of Gaza to the world."

But for some, the festival will be all about the simple pleasure of going to the cinema and watching a movie with loved ones.

"Outside Gaza, I had stood in line and bought a ticket. I hope I go through the same experience here in Gaza Strip and that I can take my little family and watch a movie at a cinema together," said Amira Hamdan, who was there with her husband.

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Francis Ford Coppola Sues Variety Over Story Alleging ‘Megalopolis’ Misconduct 

Francis Ford Coppola, the writer/director of "Megalopolis," poses at the premiere of the film at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Toronto. (AP)
Francis Ford Coppola, the writer/director of "Megalopolis," poses at the premiere of the film at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Toronto. (AP)
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Francis Ford Coppola Sues Variety Over Story Alleging ‘Megalopolis’ Misconduct 

Francis Ford Coppola, the writer/director of "Megalopolis," poses at the premiere of the film at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Toronto. (AP)
Francis Ford Coppola, the writer/director of "Megalopolis," poses at the premiere of the film at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Toronto. (AP)

Francis Ford Coppola has sued Variety, saying that a July story that said he ran an unprofessional set with impunity and touching and tried to kiss female extras during the production of his film “Megalopolis” was false and libelous.

The suit, which seeks at least $15 million from the entertainment trade publication, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, two weeks before the director's long-dreamed-of and self-financed epic is to be released in US theaters.

The suit calls the 85-year-old director of “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now” a “creative genius” and says others are “jealous” and therefore tell “knowing and reckless falsehoods.”

It says Variety's “writers and editors, hiding behind supposedly anonymous sources, accused Coppola of manifest incompetence as a motion picture director, of unprofessional behavior on the set of his most recent production, Megalopolis, of setting up some type of scheme so that anyone on the set who had a complaint of harassment or otherwise had nowhere to lodge a complaint, and of hugging topless actresses on the set. Each of these accusations was false.”

The lawsuit also names the story's reporters, Brent Lang and Tatiana Siegel, as defendants.

It repeatedly says Variety was either knowingly publicizing falsehoods or showing reckless disregard for the truth, echoing a standard for libel established by the US Supreme Court.

A Variety spokesperson, Jeffrey Schneider, told The Associated Press, “While we will not comment on active litigation, we stand by our reporters.”

Coppola said in a statement Thursday that nothing in his career compares to the difficult yet triumphant efforts to make “Megalopolis.”

“It was a collaboration of hundreds of artists, from extras to box office stars, to whom I consistently displayed the utmost respect and my deepest gratitude,” Coppola said. “To see our collective efforts tainted by false, reckless and irresponsible reporting is devastating.”

The July 26 story used anonymous reports and videos from crew members of the shooting for “Megalopolis” of a nightclub scene in an Atlanta concert hall in February, 2023. The story said Coppola tried to kiss young female extras and “appeared to act with impunity” on the set. It said the film's financial arrangements meant “there were none of the traditional checks and balances in place.”

In one video, Coppola, wearing a white suit, walks through a dancing crowd, stopping to apparently lean into several young women to hug them, kiss them on the cheek or whisper to them. Another video shows him leaning into a woman who pulls away and shakes her head.

All of the women have tops on, and the Variety story mentions “topless” extras only in reference to an original report on the allegations in the Guardian.

In a subsequent story about a week later, which is mentioned only parenthetically in Coppola's lawsuit, one of the women, Lauren Pagone, spoke to Variety and agreed to be identified, saying Coppola left her “in shock” when he touched, hugged and kissed her without her consent.

Pagone said she came forward because another of the extras, Rayna Menz, said in Variety's sister publication Deadline that Coppola did nothing to make her or anyone else on the set uncomfortable.

Pagone also filed a lawsuit Monday against Coppola in Georgia, alleging that her treatment on the set amounted to civil assault and civil battery.

Asked for a specific response to that lawsuit, a Coppola representative said there would be no immediate comment beyond the director's broader statement.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Pagone has.

Asked about the touching and kissing allegations by The AP before the lawsuit was filed, Coppola said, “I don’t even want to (talk about it). It’s a waste of time.”

Later in the same interview, without being asked about the subject again, Coppola said, “I’m very respectful of women. I always have been. My mother taught me — she was a little nuts — she said, ‘Francis if you ever make a pass at a girl, that means you disrespect her.’ So I never did.”

The lawsuit takes particular issue with an assertion in the Variety story that Coppola inadvertently got into a shot and ruined it. The suit says Coppola was well aware that some camera angles would include him, and that he was supposed to appear in the scene anyway.

“The average reader would understand that Coppola was so aged and infirm that he no longer knew how to direct a motion picture,” the suit says.

“Megalopolis” is a Roman epic set in a futuristic New York starring Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel. Coppola sold off pieces of his considerable wine empire to largely finance it himself.