News
Sundance Film Festival
Published January 21, 2024, 4:40 PM ET
PARK CITY, Utah – An anti-Israel march that included booted “Scream” actress Melissa Barrera disrupted the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday and held up traffic while Hollywood's elite attended film premieres and parties nearby .
Barrera, 33, who starred in “Scream VI” but was fired from the seventh “Scream” film because of her controversial comments about the war, joined in the middle of the hours-long protest as it clogged the city's historic main street the festival visitors stopped traveling to and from events.
Barrera was fired from the horror film in November after posting on Instagram: “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp… THIS IS GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANING.”
She stars in the new Sundance film “Your Monster.”
The group of about 100 “Let Gaza Live” protesters chanted: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “We are tired of funding Israel!” Shame on Israel!” while holding signs that read “ Butcher Biden,” “De-platform Zionism,” and “Intifada Everywhere.”
A folk chant appeared to endorse Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on an Israeli music festival, in which 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and several hundred more were taken hostage.
“Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” the crowd shouted.
Fired “Scream” actress Melissa Barrera joined the protest in Park City, Utah. Getty Images for IMDb
The event was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Association of Utah, which said in a statement: “As bombs fall, people cannot continue to watch films on their screens while ignoring the genocide in Gaza.”
Most of the protesters appeared to come from outside the city, but some festival-goers, including Barerra, joined their ranks or honked their cars in solidarity.
Still, at least one passerby shouted, “Go home!”
On Sunday, an anti-Israel protest took place during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Johnny Oleksinski
The festival made it clear that it had no connection to the protest, adding in a statement: “Although the organizers are not affiliated with the festival itself, the safety of our festival goers is always important to us and we are working consistently to ensure this.” work with local law enforcement to create an environment that is welcoming, inspiring and safe for all of our participants.”
On the first day of Sundance, where Hollywood gathers each January for the premieres of independent films, an online group called Film Workers For Palestine was formed.
The website has collected hundreds of signatures from director Mike Leigh and actresses Susan Sarandon and Alia Shawkat.
On Friday, the group tweeted: “To be clear: We hold film festivals in complete complicity in condoning genocide. #Sundance takes money from Zionists and reinforces their views while remaining silent about Palestine.”
At the same time as the protest, a panel discussion on anti-Semitism called “Cults, Lies and Videotapes: Debunking Deadly Tropes About Jews and Israel in TV, Film and Media” was taking place about a mile away at the Ray Theater.
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