Gesher film fund denies minister’s queries mark a new political crackdown
Ziv Naveh says Miri Regev’s demand for detailed information could pose a problem but is not a ‘disaster,’ as public funding has always come with oversight
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
The head of an Israeli film fund said Thursday that requests by the Culture Ministry for more detailed information about the film proposal process in Israel were not new, rebuffing claims of a politically motivated witch hunt against left-wing filmmakers.
Ziv Naveh, director of the Gesher Multicultural Film Fund, said state funding had long come with strings attached.
“From the time that the film funds have functioned, there have been clauses that limit the support,” said Naveh. “You could call it censorship or not, but it’s there. Whoever gets money has to show where the money comes from, and that’s nothing new.”
Culture Minister Miri Regev came under fire this week after assembling a panel to review the film funds’ budgets and proposal process. The move was seen as an attempt to rein in what she considers anti-Israel sentiment in some of the films produced with partial government funding, and was derided by some as United States 1950s era-style McCarthyism.
Each of the Israeli film funds that help support filmmakers receive a portion of their budgets from the Culture Ministry.
The funds have been asked to supply paperwork going back five years.
Naveh said more filmmakers are making politically left-leaning films, creating a conflict between the filmmakers, film funds, and Culture Ministry.
“The public money has to be supervised money. I’m not saying there ever should be censorship; art should be free and should bring opinions, even if they’re critical, that’s art. If you want to make art and get public money for it, you need to know that you’ll need to give credit to the film funds and the public money in them,” she said.
“This isn’t a disaster, but if it’s a trend, it’s a problem,” she added.
“From what I hear, there is a trend of right-wing filmmakers who aren’t getting funding,” she said. “There aren’t enough right-wing films because there aren’t enough professionals making them.”
Gesher, which is charged with helping fund Israeli-made films that show the multicultural society of Israel, was one of the organizations providing funding for “Sand Storm,” an award-winning drama about Bedouin women that swept Israel’s Ophir awards last September. The fund has helped make hundreds of Israeli films, including ultra-Orthodox feature film “Ushpizin” and Ethiopian drama “Red Leaves.”
