Misplaced Pages

Defamation (film)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Factomancer (talk | contribs) at 13:30, 22 March 2010 (Undo vandalistic removal of sourced content). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 13:30, 22 March 2010 by Factomancer (talk | contribs) (Undo vandalistic removal of sourced content)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 2009 film
Defamation
Directed byYoav Shamir
Produced bySandra Itkoff
Karoline Leth
Philippa Kowarsky
Knut Ogris
Distributed byFirst Run Features
Release dateNovember 20, 2009(U.S.)
Running time91 minutes
LanguagesEnglish, Hebrew

Defamation (Hashmatsa) is a 2009 documentary film by award-winning filmmaker Yoav Shamir. The film examines anti-Semitism, and in particular the way perceptions of anti-Semitism affect Israeli and U.S. politics. The film won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Content

Filmmaker Yoav Shamir states in the beginning of the film that as an Israeli he has never experienced anti-Semitism himself and wants to learn more about it since references to anti-Semitism in all over the world are extremely common in the Israeli media. The film includes extensive interviews with Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League and Norman Finkelstein, a critic of Israeli policy as well as many others. The film also follows a group of Israeli high school students on a class trip to Europe where they tour Auschwitz, as well as a number of other notable Holocaust locations.

The film examines whether the problem of antisemitism is real or exaggerated. The film notes that in 2007, the ADL reported a spike in antisemitism, claiming that there were 1,500 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States yet when Shamir contacts the ADL they can only list minor incidents such as websites with inflammatory comments, letters from employees denied time off for a Jewish holiday, or people offended by a cop's use of the word "Jew". Shamir also interviews a Rabbi who says that the hypervigilance of the ADL inflames relations between Jews and blacks in the United States. He also finds that there is more sensitivity to antisemitism among secular Jews than religious ones.

Controversy

After the film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement denouncing the film, stating that it "belittles the issue (of anti-Semitism) ... and cheapens the Holocaust. It is Shamir's perverse, personal, political perspective and a missed opportunity to document a serious and important issue."


References

  1. "Yoav Shamir draws flak for film 'Defamation'". SFGate.
  2. "In Search of Anti-Semitism". Jewcy.
  3. "Exploring The Politics Of 'Defamation'". National Public Radio.

External links

Category: