EIFF joins boycott of Israel

-----Original Message-----
From: Ginnie Atkinson
Sent: 15 May 2009 16:11
To: Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Subject: RE: Your call

I'm sorry I thought that conclusion was implicit. We will not be taking the funding.
I have to say that the response from your membership has been at times extraordinarily aggressive, misguidedly presumptive and provocative.
Our not taking the funding has not been influenced by the SPSC. The decision is a natural conclusion to having realised that we had made a mistake in the first place - as I explained in my email.
I trust that you will ask your members to desist from further correspondence on this matter now.
I will not be answering any emails on the subject after this.
Thank you
Ginnie Atkinson
MD

----- Original Message -----
From: Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
[mailto:chair@scottishpsc.org.uk]
To: 'Ginnie Atkinson'
Sent: Fri, 15 May 2009 15:57:03
+0100
Subject: RE: Your call

Dear Ginnie Atkinson

Thank you for your email. I am glad that our positions are beginning to converge. We have no wish to involve the Filmhouse but the only published for EIFF is 88 Lothian Road.

Please indicate that you will return the money to the Israeli Embassy or we will have no alternative but to begin mobilising for protests that will extend from tomorrow until June 28.

From: Ginnie Atkinson
Sent: 15 May 2009 15:14
To: chair@scottishpsc.org.uk
Subject: Your call
 

Dear Mick Napier

Thanks for your call and concern on this matter.

I would plead with you not to involve Filmhouse in this. It has nothing to do with them.
 
Our current position is as follows, by way of explanation that we probably do not have too distant views on the fundamentals.

The EIFF routinely approaches or is approached by the particular national cultural support office or organisation with regard to enabling the filmmakers from their country to attend the EIFF. This extends to anything between 3 and 8 countries per annum. Everyone involved understands that this enables the Festival to use its budget to invite and pay for other, additional filmmakers who would not otherwise have been able to attend; it optimises the budget and the number of filmmakers coming to EIFF with their films. None of these funds are spent on anything other than travel or accommodation for filmmakers. This funding is not funding for the EIFF directly. These agencies and organisations are routinely listed in our programme as a form of acknowledgement. This may be construed as funding for the festival and we acknowledge this is a moot point but worth explaining in detail.

This mission caused us to routinely accept £300 from the Israeli Embassy this year – to contribute to the travel costs of the director of a film in the programme. At the time this was not fully considered; the virtuous intention to get the filmmaker to EIFF overshadowed the associated issues.

EIFF have made a statement about our programming policy and we hold a fairly universal view that art should not be prevented by politics and do not believe that this is in fact the issue, although some angry correspondence we have received does seem to confuse programming policy with the funding of the visit of the filmmaker.
 
EIFF acknowledge that given the potential for misunderstanding our basic 'virtuous' intention it was a mistake to accept the £300 from the Israeli Embassy.
 

Edinburgh International Film Festival
88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9BZ
Scotland, United Kingdom