I'm not sure I agree. I am willing to bet that in most venues where such a film is screened, there is very little dissent from the audience. This could be one of those opportunities where more critical-minded viewers will challenge whatever Corrie's mother spews forth during her talk. There are certain myths fermented around Corrie's mission which need to be debunked, with all due respect to her mother's grief. And I hope people who have first rate knowledge of the event will be present to ask the pertinent questions that need to be put to her.

It would all be very tightly controlled if it happened at all. All things like this do is grant respectability to the Corries' viewpoint. You can't cure an hour and a half of propaganda with a few pointed questions (that the Corries have heard before and become undoubtedly good at deflecting).

The romance and seductive appeal of a "martyrdom," one that coincides with both the leftward ideological narrative/script as well as the suicide/homicide religious "martyrdoms" promoted by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad & Co., all that is not going to be rebutted by a few questions from the audience.

By contrast, what are the chances a film/documentary that promotes the evidence and reasoning Hitchens forwards, covering similar ground, will be made? Not impossible, but it's unlikely. There are too many aspects of Hitchens' critical review that don't lend themselves to the narrative/script in question, that run counter to it, that don't lend themselves to a certain devolved romantic appeal, that run counter to it as well. (Indeed, Hitchens only begins to explore the arguments in favor of the major theme he's defending.)

In general, while they can have positive value as well, images and film are often used to avoid any more more probative and demanding or disciplined analysis.

An instructive compare and contrast: the reprehensible Ken Loach as treated in Melbourne.

Does that suggest those managing the Melbourne film festival are somehow "close minded"? Far from it, it means Australia here is capable of a certain judicious balance, informed by a qualitative set of epistemic, moral, social/political and aesthetic standards.

That is precisely what it means.

In the same vein, is it overly judgemental to consider Loach in a "reprehensible" frame? Not in the least.

Where is "Muslim Voice for Peace"?

There ain't any.

There certainly is a Muslim Voice for Jihad - the leadership of the new mosque in Boston.

As for Saint Pancake, screw her and her Islamofascist Solidarity Movement handlers.

Films are powerful

We(Jews) must make our own films to show ourselves in a "good light"

This is an absolute disgrace. The Corries have been stirring up hatred for both Israel and Jews, in general, for several years now. The anti-Israel groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and American Friends Service Committee gleefully demonize Israel. We Jews must not side with enemies. Israel's survival is at stake.

Update by way of Israel Matzav, San Francisco's 'Jewish film festival' becomes an Israel-bashing fest.

He additionally has a couple of links that detail what actually did happen to Corrie.

Stand With Us will have a local speaker at this event, see:

NEW DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

http://www.standwithus.com/app/iNews/view_n.asp?ID=1124


and,
Film festival, sponsors respond to ‘Rachel’ controversy

http://jweekly.com/article/full/39307/a-message-from-the-s.f.-jewish-film-festival-about-rachel-screening/

I still think it's dispicable,
ss

Showing the Corrie film and inviting Cindy Corrie, who travels around the country demonizing Israel, is the zenith of self-hatred on the part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's organizers. Hopefully, the SFJFF will yet come to its senses by disinviting Mrs. Corrie and canceling the film. If it does not, it deserves no funding from Jewish sources.

Nobody should be treated as less than a human being. My great grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, described to me before her death the horrors of complacency as her community was sent on death marches, or to labor camps. She described to me how people were afraid to speak up, or had investment in doing so because it wasn't them being targeted. It was she, a woman who witnessed these events, who convinced me that nobody should either be denied their nationhood (Israel) or have it taken away (Palestine). We, as a people with a terrible legacy of discrimination and oppression, cannot allow the same to be done to others.

Jack,

Are you troubled that islamofascists (islamofascist regime of iran) have joined neo-nazis in denying the Holocaust, minimizing the extent of the Holocaust, dehumanize Jews (not just Zionists) as sons of pigs and monkeys, openly call for the destruction of Israel?

The stark lesson of the Holocaust is that Jews should NEVER depend upon others to defend them as European Jewry were thrown to the wolves.

Dr. Mike Harris was given 5 minutes to provide "balance'. You can see the results here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k66uGD5nuk
(Yes- the JVP'ers are cheering for Ahmedinejad, a man who has denied the Holocaust of the Jewish people, while planning the next one)

The full text of Dr. harris's speech is printed here:

http://www.bluetruth.net/2009/07/sf-jewish-film-festival-audience-jeers.html

The left wing ki-es who run the SF Jewish film festival have now joined forces with the other left wing anti-semites who seek to murder Jews in the next Holocause widely touted by these same elements.
Rachel Corrie and her family would deny Israelis the right of self defense against an implacable enemy who has openly stated "no negotiation, no peace, no compromise". They say it. They mean it. They act on it. Only Israel's national suicide would satisfy the Corries and their allies.
Not one gesture nor one penny of support to this disgraceful organization.

Now that the film has aired, we see how pathetic it is to assume a "fair hearing" for anything involving Israel in SF.

The first few posters are assuming a civil open minded response on the part of the audience. Instead, after being "outraged" at the "muzzling" of "anti-Israeli Jewish sentiment" and the fact that a number of board members thought the inclusion of the movie and invitation to Corrie's mother to speak, these rabid "free speechers" couldn't allow a pro-Israeli speaker five minutes without heckling. Then this particular "audience" (which would never actually think of attending a movie with any true Jewish content) cheers Ahmedinejad. This despite the fact that Ahmedinejad wants all of them (SF gays and lesbians watching the movie in the Castro theater) dead as well.

Jews, don't put the knife in your own back. The world is lined up behind you waiting to do it. Exactly what do you think has changed in the last 2000 years? Whatever you think, you are wrong.

If you have ethical concerns, save it for discussions with open minded people of good faith, don't put it out there to be used as a tool by those who already know they hate you, and are just waiting to use your intellectual honesty against you.

I can just imagine an Irish film festival where the Brits and Protestants get to tell their "side" of the story unchallenged, or a Scottish film festival where Edward Longshanks is favorably reviewed, and we learn why William Wallace really deserved to be drawn and quartered. Yet Jews in SF sponsor a film festival that gives a platform to those who support terrorism against Jews.

Sometimes I think we really are too stupid to survive.

I seen The Rachel Corrie Documentary and it's to bad about her death, but how she died by protecting a Palestinian doctor's home in Gaza is not something you do in a occupied territory where there are closed borders especially when you are being protected.

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival that shown "Rachel Corrie" has lost one of there sponsors to this because it is very controversial and not only that one of it's committee members in the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival left because of this also.