TIFF Admitted Pulling Oct. 7 Documentary Was a ‘Mistake,’ Director Barry Avrich Says

The road to premiering “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue” at the Toronto International Film Festival has been a rocky one, to say the least, but director Barry Avrich said on Saturday that festival CEO Cameron Bailey admitted to him that pulling the movie from the lineup was a “mistake.”

The film was reinstated after a protest by 1,000 petitioners denouncing the festival’s handling of the feature as an attempt to “silence Jewish voices.”

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Avrich and Bailey met before the festival began, and the filmmaker said Bailey told him “that he felt that the process was a mistake, the decision to disinvite was a mistake.” Still, the documentary — which follows retired Israeli general Noam Tibon as he rushes to rescue his son and his son’s family during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — has only limited exposure at TIFF with just one screening on Sept. 10 and no press and industry screenings.

Avrich recounted the experience of seeing his Oct. 7 documentary invited, disinvited and then reinvited to TIFF on Saturday during an interview with TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman at the Glenn Gould theater, calling it “one of the strangest episodes of my career.”

This is unusual for a film festival of TIFF’s size, where most documentaries and other films are available with several screening options. Press and industry professionals also typically have their own screening as an option to attend at TIFF.

“I think that ultimately this was what they prepared to do,” Avrich explained to Waxman’s disbelief that there will be no press screening option. “Invite the film back, put it in a very large theater, invite the press and industry to that screening.”

“The Road Between Us” was initially pulled from the lineup because TIFF said it lacked “legal clearance of all footage.” When Avrich publicly rebuffed the claim, widespread outcry over the festival’s decision erupted, culminating in an open letter signed by over 1,000 industry leaders — including Debra Messing, Amy Schumer, Mayim Bialik and Jerry O’Connell — denouncing the festival’s handling of the film.

“The Toronto Film Festival was certainly aware that the film was coming and they screened it. The reasoning as to if the filmmakers didn’t have the legal clearance for footage seemed unusual to me,” Avrich told Waxman.

“I will say that having done this for a long time,” Avrich said, defending his position, “We went into this assuring the film festival that anything that they needed to feel comfortable about the film that we would do. There’s something in the film industry called Errors & Omissions Insurance, and the film festival has to be added to that policy. Once that’s done, if anybody sues them, whether it’s Hamas, if they have a legal entity in Canada or elsewhere, then it becomes my responsibility as the producer of the film to deal with that.”

Waxman told the audience that she invited Bailey to be a part of Saturday’s conversation, but he did not respond.

During what could have been a contentious conversation, Waxman and Avrich felt the civility in the air while discussing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Waxman, having screened the documentary ahead of interviewing Avrich, assured the audience in attendance that the film is not controversial in the slightest. Avrich made sure to point out that the only controversy the film generated for festival organizers was their confusion over the nature of some of the footage being used.

“I’ve made 70 different kinds of films, this is not my first rodeo in terms of licensing footage,” Avrich clarified. “To the best of my knowledge, I’ve not known Hamas to have a licensing division,” to some laughter from the audience. “If they did, then we would do the right thing and say who is the rightful owner of this footage as we’ve done in every film.”

Waxman took time to discuss the film at the center of the supposed controversy, focusing on Noam Tibon’s personal story and why this event has become an intriguing subject for filmmakers like Avrich. Avrich said he “didn’t have a political statement to make,” commenting that his late mother would constantly pester him about making a movie with a lighter subject at the center of the premise. He explained that she once asked, “Can’t you do a movie about Debbie Reynolds?”

But to Avrich’s credit, his willingness to discuss this critical issue and make a film where he retraces some of the same steps Noam did helps audiences see all points of view of an ongoing conflict. Though these hot-button issues have captured the world’s attention in the past two years, Avrich is sure that audiences can gain valuable information from just seeing Noam’s journey on the biggest screen available: “I’ve always believed that a film festival… is about dialogue and debate. Ultimately you have to watch the film and decide for yourself.”

Note: TheWrap is a media sponsor at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and no questions were cleared in advance for this interview.

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