Advertisement
Boston's Morning Newsletter
Boston Palestine Film Festival nixes live screenings in wake of Israel-Hamas conflict
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
The good news is it’s already Thursday. The bad news is that the $1.73 billion Powerball ticket was sold way over in California.
To the rest of the news:
The Boston Palestine Film Festival will not go on as planned this year, in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas. The annual 10-day festival was supposed to begin tomorrow, but organizers announced they are postponing all live programming. Michael Maria, the festival’s director of programming, told WBUR’s Amy Sokolow it was a hard decision because the events would have been a space for the local Palestinian community to support each other. “But at the same time, it also felt very wrong for us to come together, sit in a movie theater in the safety and comfort of a Boston venue … while our relatives in Palestine are at risk every minute,” Maria said. The film festival still plans to offer virtual screenings on their website, including short films and documentaries.
- Another reason for the change: Organizers also have safety concerns. Maria said the Museum of Fine Arts, the Coolidge Corner Theater and MassArt — which would have hosted screenings — have faced “a lot of pressure and backlash” that would have required additional security measures if they moved forward with in-person events.
- What’s next: Maria says they’re planning to reschedule the live screenings and that their festival partners have “made it clear they’ll be with us” when that time comes. He hopes it will be sometime in 2024. “It’s just not a time for us to be able to celebrate when there’s so much trauma taking place,” Maria added.
- Listen: WBUR’s All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins spoke with a Palestinian man who calls Massachusetts home about trying to reach his family back in Gaza.
In related news: Boston police are investigating vandalism at the Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace in Brighton as a possible hate crime, after the word “nazi” was spray painted on the building’s stairs. The local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League called the vandalism an “affront to all who work towards peace and understanding.”
- The ADL is also condemning a statement from Tufts University student group Students for Justice in Palestine, which applauded the “creativity” of the Hamas attacks. According to The Boston Globe, Tufts officials are also denouncing the statement by those students.
The latest on the Massachusetts migrant crisis: Even as many top local Democratic elected officials have grown increasingly restless with the Biden administration’s response to the recent influx of migrants to the state, one Bay State congressman is sticking up for the president. During an appearance yesterday on Radio Boston, Rep. Jake Auchincloss said he believes the federal government is doing all it can to improve the situation. “The president is operating within the bounds of the law and of humanity to deal with a broken immigration system,” said the Newton Democrat. “It’s really ultimately not his fault. It is certainly not the governor’s. This is Congress’s fault. We failed for 30 years to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”
- His comments came on the second day of a visit by Department of Homeland Security officials — at the suggestion of Auchincloss — to see how the state’s shelter system was coping with the influx. Auchincloss told Radio Boston that we should get a better sense of the Biden administration’s stance on providing the state more support within a few weeks of the completed visit.
Full speed ahead: MBTA officials say they have lifted all speed restrictions on the Green Line Extension in Somerville and Medford — though they’re still trying to figure out what caused the tracks to become so narrow that trains had to slow down to walking speeds. “When I have that information, I’ll share that,” MBTA General Manager Phil Eng told reporters. “Everyone deserves to hear that.”
P.S.— The legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog will be in the building tonight to talk about his life and long-anticipated memoir, “Every Man for Himself and God Against All.” In-person CitySpace tickets are sold out, but you can still get livestream access for $5.
