> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Four Participants Withdraw From a Tel Aviv Documentary Festival in Solidarity With BDS
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/docaviv-israel-documentary-festival-bds-guests-withdraw/
- Published: 2020-09-21T18:59:38.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:51:49.000Z
- Description: Several filmmakers and international guests canceled their participation in this year’s edition of the Docaviv festival.
- Author: Dan Schindel
- Tags: In Brief, BDS, Documentary, Israel, Palestine, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/docaviv-boycott.png)

Since 1998, the Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, better known as [Docaviv](https://www.docaviv.co.il/org-en/?ref=hyperallergic.com), has grown to become one of Israel’s premier nonfiction film events. Several times in recent years, the festival has faced criticism and boycotts due to its sponsorship ties to Israel’s Ministry of Culture and Sports and the nation’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian land. In 2014, when [*American Revolutionary* ](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2385558/?ref=hyperallergic.com)was entered into the program, [both lead subject Grace Lee Boggs and interviewee Danny Glover criticized the move](https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/grace-lee-boggs-danny-glover-object-film-screening-tel-aviv?ref=hyperallergic.com). In 2019, Moroccan director Nadir Bouhmouch [declined an invitation](https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/moroccan-filmmaker-boycotts-tel-aviv-festival?ref=hyperallergic.com) to submit his film [*Amussu*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10074458/?ref=hyperallergic.com) to the festival.

This year’s edition of Docaviv, which ran September 3 through 12, was hit with even more withdrawals. Cíntia Gil, artistic director of [Sheffield Doc/Fest](https://sheffdocfest.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), had been a member of [this year’s jury](https://www.docaviv.co.il/2020-en/competitions-and-awards/?ref=hyperallergic.com) but [confirmed her departure to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Portugal](https://www.facebook.com/BDS.Portugal/posts/2795734503860459). Similarly, Danish director Eva Marie Rødbro, whose documentary [*I Love You I Miss You I Hope I See You Before I Die*](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10380760/?ref=hyperallergic.com)had been selected for inclusion in the program, [withdrew the film](https://www.facebook.com/boykotisrael.dk/posts/3271155442967317). Two others — another unidentified director whose film was in the program and an anonymous international guest — also left. [All had been individually contacted](https://bdsmovement.net/news/docaviv2020?ref=hyperallergic.com) by members of the BDS movement.

In a statement, Alia Malak of the [Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel](https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi?ref=hyperallergic.com) said, “We thank each international filmmaker and guest who has withdrawn from Docaviv 2020 over its complicity in art-washing Israel’s brutal regime of apartheid, occupation and settler-colonialism, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

“Docaviv has never taken a stance in favour of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, as stipulated in international law … support for the peaceful BDS movement continues to grow among artists and diverse communities worldwide,” Malak continued. “We urge all international film and TV workers to join them.”