Venice Film Festival Announces New Solidarity Initiatives For Arrested And Jailed Filmmakers

deadline.com:

The Venice Film Festival has announced two new initiatives in collaboration with The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk to support and raise awareness about directors, filmmakers, and artists who have been arrested or imprisoned around the world during the past year.Held on September 3 at the Palazzo del Casino press conference room, the first initiative is a panel titled: Filmmakers Under Attack: Taking Stock, Taking Action, which will feature guests including Venice head Alberto Barbera, Vanja Kalurdjercic (Director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival), producer Nadir Öperli, Orwa Nyrabia (Director of the Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival), Mike Downey (Chairman of the European Film Academy) and an unnamed Iranian filmmaker.The panel will aim to “provide information on the situation of filmmakers who are currently being persecuted, arrested or incarcerated around the world” and highlight the need for “the world of cinema to mobilize and discuss possible actions that the international community could concretely undertake to help,” the festival said in a statement.Over the course of the afternoon, the panelists will discuss the ICFR’s fund for Ukrainian directors, the many cases of persecuted filmmakers that ICFR is working on in the rest of the world, and the situation in Turkey, with reference to the case of the producer Cidgem Mater and her colleagues, condemned along with her.

The panelists will also touch on the situation in Iran, with reference to the recent cases of the filmmakers Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Mostafa Al-Ahmad.In addition to the panel, the festival will hold a flash mob on the Palazzo Del Cinema Red Carpet on Sept.