{"id":2002406,"date":"2025-09-06T18:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2002406"},"modified":"2025-09-06T18:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T18:31:08","slug":"tiff-admitted-pulling-oct-7-documentary-was-a-mistake-director-barry-avrich-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/tiff-admitted-pulling-oct-7-documentary-was-a-mistake-director-barry-avrich-says\/","title":{"rendered":"TIFF Admitted Pulling Oct. 7 Documentary Was a \u2018Mistake,\u2019 Director Barry Avrich Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The road to premiering \u201cThe Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue\u201d 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 \u201cmistake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The film was reinstated after a protest by 1,000 petitioners denouncing the festival\u2019s handling of the feature as an attempt to \u201csilence Jewish voices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>More from TheWrap<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Avrich and Bailey met before the festival began, and the filmmaker said Bailey told him \u201cthat he felt that the process was a mistake, the decision to disinvite was a mistake.\u201d Still, the documentary \u2014 which follows retired Israeli general Noam Tibon as he rushes to rescue his son and his son\u2019s family during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks \u2014 has only limited exposure at TIFF with just one screening on Sept. 10 and no press and industry screenings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Avrich recounted the experience of seeing his Oct. 7 documentary invited, disinvited and then reinvited to TIFF on Saturday during an interview with TheWrap\u2019s Sharon Waxman at the Glenn Gould theater, calling it \u201cone of the strangest episodes of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/join-pro\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=site&amp;utm_campaign=articlePROpromo&amp;utm_id=070825\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"relative\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This is unusual for a film festival of TIFF\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI think that ultimately this was what they prepared to do,\u201d Avrich explained to Waxman\u2019s disbelief that there will be no press screening option. \u201cInvite the film back, put it in a very large theater, invite the press and industry to that screening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe Road Between Us\u201d was initially pulled from the lineup because TIFF said it lacked \u201clegal clearance of all footage.\u201d When Avrich publicly rebuffed the claim, widespread outcry over the festival\u2019s decision erupted,\u00a0culminating in an open letter\u00a0signed by over 1,000 industry leaders \u2014 including Debra Messing, Amy Schumer, Mayim Bialik and Jerry O\u2019Connell \u2014 denouncing the festival\u2019s handling of the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe Toronto Film Festival was certainly aware that the film was coming and they screened it. The reasoning as to if the filmmakers didn\u2019t have the legal clearance for footage seemed unusual to me,\u201d Avrich told Waxman.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img alt=\"sharon-waxman-barry-avrich-tiff\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"592\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/3tdEo_Nb7WLx7ynHcNuJPA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU5MjtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/thewrap.com\/228c6106bf39e7b164ff7030216e687c\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>Sharon Waxman and Barry Avrich discuss \u201cThe Road Between Us\u201d at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (Photo by Tien Tienngern for TheWrap)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI will say that having done this for a long time,\u201d Avrich said, defending his position, \u201cWe went into this assuring the film festival that anything that they needed to feel comfortable about the film that we would do. There\u2019s something in the film industry called Errors &amp; Omissions Insurance, and the film festival has to be added to that policy. Once that\u2019s done, if anybody sues them, whether it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Waxman told the audience that she invited Bailey to be a part of Saturday\u2019s conversation, but he did not respond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI\u2019ve made 70 different kinds of films, this is not my first rodeo in terms of licensing footage,\u201d Avrich clarified. \u201cTo the best of my knowledge, I\u2019ve not known Hamas to have a licensing division,\u201d to some laughter from the audience. \u201cIf they did, then we would do the right thing and say who is the rightful owner of this footage as we\u2019ve done in every film.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Waxman took time to discuss the film at the center of the supposed controversy, focusing on Noam Tibon\u2019s personal story and why this event has become an intriguing subject for filmmakers like Avrich. Avrich said he \u201cdidn\u2019t have a political statement to make,\u201d 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, \u201cCan\u2019t you do a movie about Debbie Reynolds?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But to Avrich\u2019s 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\u2019s attention in the past two years, Avrich is sure that audiences can gain valuable information from just seeing Noam\u2019s journey on the biggest screen available: \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that a film festival\u2026 is about dialogue and debate. Ultimately you have to watch the film and decide for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>Note: TheWrap is a media sponsor at this year\u2019s Toronto International Film Festival, and no questions were cleared in advance for this interview<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/road-between-us-oct-7-documentary-tiff-mistake-barry-avrich-interview\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:TIFF Admitted Pulling Oct. 7 Documentary Was a \u2018Mistake,\u2019 Director Barry Avrich Says;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">TIFF Admitted Pulling Oct. 7 Documentary Was a \u2018Mistake,\u2019 Director Barry Avrich Says<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:TheWrap;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">TheWrap<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The road to premiering \u201cThe Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue\u201d 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 \u201cmistake.\u201d The film was reinstated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1956684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[345446,345445,317163,364365,343725],"class_list":["post-2002406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-barry-avrich","tag-cameron-bailey","tag-film-festival","tag-sharon-waxman","tag-tiff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Ryan-Reynolds-Dwayne-Johnson-Tessa-Thompson-and-More-Set-Panels.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2002406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1956684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2002406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2002406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2002406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}