British leading lights Olivia Colman, Jonathan Glazer, Riz Ahmed, and Jessie Buckley are among hundreds of Academy members who have signed a letter circulating on Friday in which they lambast the Oscar body’s response to the reported attack on and detention of No Other Land co-director Hamdan Ballal.
The missive has been sent to Academy members and decries the Academy’s “indefensible” position, after CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang sent a letter to members on Thursday in which they condemned harm or suppression of artists based on their viewpoints, but did not mention Hallal by name, and implied the Academy did not comment publicly on such matters.
However the members circulating Friday’s letter believe the Academy did not go far enough in speaking up for the member of the Oscar-winning documentary team. Signatories include writer-director James Schamus, documentarians Laura Poitras, Alex Gibney, Lucy Walker, and Davis Guggenheim, and Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Penelope Cruz, and Javier Bardem.
“As artists, we depend on our ability to tell stories without reprisals,” Friday’s letter read (scroll to bottom). “Documentary filmmakers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten the world. It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later.”
It continued, ”The targeting of Ballal is not just an attack on one filmmaker—it is an attack on all those who dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths. We will continue to watch over this film team. Winning an Oscar has put their lives in increasing danger, and we will not mince words when the safety of fellow artists is at stake.”
Earlier on Friday, Deadline Hollywood reported that the Academy Governors had convened for an emergency session to discuss the body’s response to the situation.
Ballal was reportedly attacked on Monday in the Masafer Yatta community of Palestinian villages on the West Bank, before he was arrested and detained by Israeli police. He was released the following day.
He is one of four co-directors from the Palestinian-Israeli collective behind No Other Land, alongside Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, and Rachel Szor. The film won the documentary Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2 and depicts members of the Masafer Yatta community as they attempt to live their lives amid an Israeli programme to demolish homes in the area.
No US distributor acquired the film. Cinetic Marketing worked with the filmmakers and hired Michael Tuckman’s mTuckman Media to book cinemas. To date, No Other Land has grossed more than $1.7m in the US, and an additional $700,000 through international distributors who licensed the film from Autlook.
The letter sent out by Academy members on Friday read:
We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank.
As artists, we depend on our ability to tell stories without reprisals. Documentary filmmakers often expose themselves to extreme risks to enlighten the world. It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later.
To win an Oscar is not an easy task. Most films in competition are buoyed by wide distribution and exorbitantly priced campaigns directed at voting members. For “No Other Land” to win an Oscar without these advantages speaks to how important the film is to the voting membership.
The targeting of Ballal is not just an attack on one filmmaker—it is an attack on all those who dare to bear witness and tell inconvenient truths.
We will continue to watch over this film team. Winning an Oscar has put their lives in increasing danger, and we will not mince words when the safety of fellow artists is at stake.
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