Controversy brews over initial refusal to show film on antisemitism at Pleasantville film theater
Rye Brook resident Hanna Poplausky said an Oscar-winning documentary called "No Other Land" was shown at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville.
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Controversy is brewing over the initial refusal of a Pleasantville film theater to show a film about antisemitism.
Rye Brook resident Hanna Poplausky said an Oscar-winning documentary called "No Other Land" was shown at Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville. Some consider the movie to be considered critical of Israel.
So as a Jewish woman, she said she wanted to see if a movie called "October 8" was going to be shown at the theater as well.
"So, 'October 8th' just came out a couple weeks ago. It describes what's going on campuses all over right now," Poplausky said.
Poplausky said she directed her inquiry to the film studio that was releasing the movie.
"And he said, 'As a matter of fact, they turned it down,'" Poplausky said.
Poplausky said the response inspired her to start a letter-writing campaign to encourage Jacob Burns to show the film.
"I put it my WhatsApp chat, she posted it out to everybody on that group, and then I put it on the Facebook...And it just started snow-balling," Poplausky said.
Poplausky estimates that thousands of people have followed her lead and sent letters to get the movie shown at the theater.
"It's a great resource for this community, but we expected you to have this movie on your own and sadly you didn't, so we needed a little push," Poplausky said.
Poplausky said her push worked.
"The movie's going to be shown in a special screening with a moderator from AJC," Poplausky said.
A spokesperson for Jacob Burns said they screen about 400 films a year and added that the views expressed in the "October 8" movie don't reflect those of the center.
