New York Counter Film Festival Puts the Focus on Palestine

The New York Counter Film Festival (NYCFF) is running concurrently with the New York Film Festival this week as part of a boycott of the official event in protest of organizer Film at Lincoln Center’s (FLC) ties to pro-Israel donors and companies.

The collaborative “counter-festival” is led by over a dozen cultural organizations and grassroots activist groups, including the itinerant film collective cinemóvil, the political and cultural education community space People’s Forum, the nonprofit media arts center Millennium Film Workshop, and arts and activist community center Mayday Space, among others. 

In a list of demands published last week, NYCFF organizers called on FLC to release a public statement supporting a ceasefire in Palestine and a weapons embargo. They are also urging Lincoln Center to cut ties with entities including Bloomberg Philanthropies, the New York Times, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, and Citigroup, all of which have been the subjects of pro-Palestine protests following October 7; and pro-Israel donors such as David Rubenstein, Bill Ackman, and David Geffen.

Currently scheduled to run until October 10, the NYCFF began last Friday with a social event and screening of the Newsreel Collective’s documentary short “The Case Against Lincoln Center” (1968) at Bushwick’s community art gallery the Living Gallery.

Tomorrow at 7:30pm, the program will continue at Williamsburg’s Spectacle Theater with the world premiere of “Invisible Worm” (2024) by Palestinian filmmaker Rosalind Nashashibi, who is also participating in the official Lincoln Center event where the 17-minute short will screen on Saturday and Sunday. The event will also feature the US premiere of Animalia Paradoxa (2024) directed by Niles Atallah, who withdrew from the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam earlier this year in protest of alleged silencing of pro-Palestine voices.

In addition to the boycott, at least 80 participants and film workers and over two dozen festival staffers signed on to two open letters released within 24 hours of each other last week urging FLC to end its partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies — the private foundation responsible for former New York City Mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg’s charitable efforts.

According to the filmmakers’ letter, first published by Screen Slate, the Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership at Tel Aviv University “trained mayors and city officials from Modi’in Illit and Mateh Binyamin Regional Council,” which represent over 40 illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank.

“As filmmakers and cultural workers, our creative expression should not be used to launder war crimes, particularly when many of our films shown in this year’s festival shed light on and demand justice in the face of state violence,” the letter reads.

NYFF, FLC, and Bloomberg Philanthropies have not yet responded to Hyperallergic‘s request for comment.