An Australian documentary about how Jewish creatives are being “cancelled” in the industry has itself been cancelled, according to filmmaker Danny Ben-Moshe.
The documentary, aptly named Cancelled, follows musician Deborah Conway, visual artist Nina Sanadze, writer Joshua Dabelstein and circus artist Talia Sofizade, all of whom have apparently experienced difficulties finding work due to rising antisemitism in the country since October 7.
It centres around the Goldstone Gallery, in Collingwood, Australia, which is owned by Sanadze and which she established to give a voice to creatives who have been silenced by cancel culture.
Ben-Moshe, known for films such as 2016’s Strictly Jewish and 2023’s Revenge: Our dad the Nazi Killer, completed production on December 14 last year, the same day as the Bondi Beach massacre on Chanukah.
But when he approached ABC, SBS, and the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals with his new film, they all said no.
“The people who should be documenting this are not. They’re just not interested,” he told the Australian Jewish Network (AJN). “They don’t see us, or they don’t care about us, or our story conflicts with the narrative.”
Revenge: Our dad the Nazi Killer was also pulled from a cinema chain because it said it was “provocative”, according to AJN.
Ben-Moshe went on: “Just being Jewish was an act of provocation… [Jews’ reality] is being denied, distorted, obfuscated and defended in Australia”.
Cancelled was eventually accepted by the Jewish Independent Film Festival (JIFF), and other Jewish film groups have also expressed interest in screening.
Ben-Moshe, according to AJN, has accepted that the film will be launched by JIFF, despite having been eager for it to be premiered to a mainstream audience.
He added: “We’re not the first Jewish community to experience discrimination and hatred in history, far from it, and they got through it, and we will too.”
Cancelled will also be screened on Sky at a later date.
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