EXCLUSIVE: The Toronto Film Festival said Thursday that it will invite to its 50th edition Barry Avrich‘s October 7th documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, two days after organizers rescinded their invitation for it to appear in the Documentary lineup of this year’s festival.
In the days following TIFF‘s decision to uninvite the movie about retired Israel Defense Forces General Naom Tibon, several groups including the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation and the Creative Community for Peace expressed their upset over the fest’s refusal to book the documentary.
“We have worked together to find a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal and programming concerns. We are please to share that The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue will be an official TIFF selection at the festival this year, where we believe, it will contribute to the vital conversations that film is meant to inspire,” read a joint statement from TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey and the filmmakers this evening.
The Road Between Us follows how Tibon embarked on a mission to save his family, including his two granddaughters, who were surrounded by Hamas terrorists during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Tibon also rescued survivors of the music festival massacre and helped wounded soldiers on his journey to save his family.
The festival, which planned to put the film in its Documentary lineup, said it withdrew its invitation on Monday “because general requirements for inclusion in the festival, and conditions that were requested when the film was initially invited, were not met, including legal clearance of all footage,” which included footage shot through body cameras worn by Hamas attackers.
TIFF said the requests were sought to “protect TIFF from legal implications and to allow TIFF to manage and mitigate anticipated and known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption.”
The filmmakers, who said they had complied with many of TIFF’s requests, said they were “shocked and saddened that a venerable film festival has defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film, adding that they “are not political filmmakers, nor are we activists; we are storytellers.”
The move drew strong reaction from groups including the Creative Community for Peace and the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, who called on TIFF to reverse the move that the filmmakers described as “censorship.”
On Wednesday, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey refuted that idea.
“I want to be clear: claims that the film was rejected due to censorship are unequivocally false,” he wrote in a letter addressed to members of the TIFF community. “I remain committed to working with the filmmaker to meet TIFF’s screening requirements to allow the film to be screened at this year’s festival. I have asked our legal team to work with the filmmaker on considering all options available.”
Below is tonight’s joint statement from Bailey and filmmaker Barry Avrich:
Dear Members of the TIFF Community,
Over the past 24 hours, there has been much discussion about TIFF’s decision to withdraw its invitation to The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue for this year’s festival. Both TIFF and the filmmakers have heard the pain and frustration expressed by the public and we want to address this together.
We have worked together to find a resolution to satisfy important safety, legal, and programming concerns. We are pleased to share that The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue will be an official TIFF selection at the festival this year, where we believe it will contribute to the vital conversations that film is meant to inspire.
In this case, TIFF’s communication around its requirements did not clearly articulate the concerns and roadblocks that arose and for that, we are sorry.
Both TIFF and the filmmakers have always been committed to presenting diverse perspectives and a belief in the power of storytelling to spark and encourage dialogue and understanding. We thank our audiences and community for their passion, honesty, and belief in the importance of film. We look forward to announcing more details including the World Premiere date on August 20th.
— Cameron Bailey, CEO, TIFF & Barry Avrich, Filmmaker, The Road Between Us:
The Ultimate Rescue
Patrick Hipes contributed to this report.
