American director Jim Jarmusch said Sunday he was “disappointed” that arthouse film streaming platform Mubi had accepted investment from a venture capital fund with links to the Israeli military.
Mubi, a rival to Netflix, is one of the distributors of Jarmusch’s latest film “Father Mother Sister Brother”, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday.
The group accepted $100 million from Silicon Valley firm Sequoia Capital, which includes Israeli defence firm Kela in its portfolio, sparking a petition signed by Jarmusch and other creatives.
“My relationship with Mubi was started much before that and they were fantastic to work with on this film,” Jarmusch told reporters. “I was, of course, disappointed and quite disconcerted by this relationship.”
Although the “Broken Flowers” director said independent filmmakers were also forced to take money from sources they would rather avoid.
“I consider pretty much all corporate money is dirty money,” he said.
“If you start analysing each of these film companies and their financing structures, you’re going to find a lot of nasty dirt.”
Mubi founder and CEO Efe Cakarel denied the company was “complicit in the events occurring in Gaza” in a statement last month, stressing that Sequoia was a minority shareholder.
The platform, founded in 2007, is an increasingly influential distributor and producer of independent arthouse films.
“Father Mother Sister Brother”, which stars Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits, explores dysfunctional families through three separate stories set in upstate New York, Dublin and Paris.
Jarmusch revealed he was applying for a long-term residency visa in France, which would add him to a growing list of artists leaving the United States under President Donald Trump.
The 72-year-old filmmaker said the French capital was already the “second place” in his life.
“I’m working on my French artist’s visa now. And I intend to shoot a new film in France,” he added.
High-profile exiles from the US entertainment industry include Ellen DeGeneres, who has moved to London, and Rosie O’Donnell who has set up home in Ireland.
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