What are Jewish and Israeli filmmakers' (and Film Festivals) responsibilities to portray Judaism and Israel favorably outside of Israel?

Islamist massacre at Jewish-friendly Le Bataclan hall in Paris Nov 13, 2016

This weekend marks the first anniversary of the massacre at the Israel-friendly, Le Bataclan Massacre nightclub in Paris. In July, it was revealed (here in the Daily Mail) that the Muslim murderers went to extremes to punish patrons of the Jewish and Israel-friendly club: 

French government 'suppressed gruesome torture' of Bataclan victims as official inquiry is told some were castrated and had their eyes gouged out by the ISIS killers. Policemen on the scene of nightclub vomited when they saw victims.

Yesterday, Breitbart News reported "Six of the Jihadis Involved in Paris Attacks Entered Europe as ‘Refugees’:

Surviving Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam helped at least 10 Islamic State fighters enter Belgium as “refugees” through the Balkan route, local media reported Friday. Of these, six went on to participate in the terror attacks which struck Paris last November, and four were involved in the coordinated suicide bombings that hit Brussels in March. The two attacks left 215 people dead, and wounded hundreds more.

Trump-victory protestors in N.Y.C.fly Palestine flag, railing against Israel

One of the complaints among the anti-Trump protests' ideology is against Trump's professed plans to restrict immigration from militant, anti-Semitic, Islamist countries. Related is the anti-Zionist cause to genocide Jews in Israel. Students for "Justice" in Palestine call for a violent terror uprising against Jewish Israel, in this scene from an anti-Trump protest in NYC on Nov 10th, 2016.

Americans (especially Democrats) seeing these news pictures assume that the pro-Hillary, pro-Palestinians' grievances are worthy of appeasing, and Israel is deserving of censure and punishment.

Concomitantly this weekend, the 30th Israel Film Festival opens in Los Angeles. Here, the organizers have a 10-day (repeated in NYC) opportunity to present arguments by showing films (dramatic and documentary) which contradict Israel's opponents and win-over the uninformed, but curious, public.

At I.F.F. Gala, Debra & Tim Fletcher
have their own views on the dilemma

The socio-political economics of Israeli filmmaking encourage production of films critical of Israeli society and politics at the expense of stories favorable to Israel.  In the cold-war Israel is involved in, does the Israel-based (and Israeli government-supported) Festival owner, Meir Fenigstein, have a duty to exclude films which do not depict Israel in a favorable light?

Ardyth and Alyse Freshman share
 views at I.F.F. Gala in Bev Hills

In the wake of the election defeat of Hillary Clinton (backed by 70% of American Jews) at the opening events of the 2016 Festival in Beverly Hills, we spoke to a number of filmmakers and attendees for their perspectives. Mrs. Ardyth Freshman and daughter Alise agreed to speak with JewTube.Info.



A case in point is documentarian Maya Zinshtein's "Forever Pure" in which she examines Jewish-nationalist fans' reaction to the addition of two Muslim players to the Jerusalem capital's soccer team.  Click to play trailer for "Forever Pure" documentary from Maya Zinshtein on Vimeo.

Watch interviews with several Israel Film Festival filmmakers:

Director Raphael Rebibo ("Amor")

Estee Yakov-Meckleberg ("Sandstorm")

Cinematographer Ziv Berkovitch with several pictures in the Festival has some surprising views.