Gaza Protest March At Venice Film Festival: Images, Update

A large protest gathered today on the Lido during the Venice Film Festival in support of Palestine and to denounce Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

Hundreds gathered for the event, which was largely made up of local political and grassroot groups, but also included some accredited festival guests. The protestors gathered on the main Santa Maria Elisabetta avenue by the Lido’s main boat station and had said they would walk to the festival centre in a bid to improve the spotlight on their cause but also to urge the festival to make a statement denouncing what the groups described as Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“At a time when the eyes of the world will be on Venice and the Film Festival, we have a duty to make the voices of all those who are outraged and rebelling heard: let us therefore turn the spotlight of the Festival on Palestine,” the bodies said in a statement earlier this week.

90 minutes after the start of the march, however, there was still no sign of the protestors at the festival centre and police we spoke to (there was a large police presence on the Lido this afternoon) told us protestors would not be allowed into the festival area on safety grounds.

This evening’s world premiere of Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein is just about to kick off. Those on the red carpet may even be able to hear or see the helicopters buzzing overhead. From this reporter’s hotel near the Santa Maria Elisabetta station I can still hear protestors’ chants into loudspeakers so they may not have been allowed to venture far from where the march started.

Earlier in the week organizers told us that the intention of the march was to “shine the spotlight of the film festival in the right direction.”

Last weekend, an open letter was signed by hundreds of Italian cinema professionals gathered under the banner of Venice4Palestine (V4P).

They called on the Venice Film Festival; its parent body, the Biennale, and the independent parallel sections of Giornate degli Autori (previously known as Venice Days) and the International Critics’ Week, “to be more courageous and clear in condemning the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing across Palestine carried out by the Israeli government and army.”

We’ll report back if there are any significant updates.