Actress Melissa Barrera joins the anti-Israel demonstration at Sundance Film Festival

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Sundance Film Festival

by Johnny Oleksinski

PARK CITY, Utah — An anti-Israel rally, which included actress Melissa Barrera, disrupted the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, snarling traffic as Hollywood elite attended movie premieres and parties nearby.

Barrera, 33, who appeared in “Scream VI” but was fired from the seventh “Scream” film over her controversial statements about the war, joined the hours-long protest in the middle of the road where the city’s historic main street was choked and festival-goers delayed the route to and from… Events.

Barrera was let go from the horror film in November after posting on Instagram: “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp… This is genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

She stars in the new Sundance film “Your Monster.”

Under the slogan “Long Live Gaza,” the group of about 100 demonstrators chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” “We are tired of funding Israel!” Shame on Israel!” While they were holding signs reading “Butcher Biden,” “Get rid of Zionism,” and “Intifada everywhere.”

One crowd chant appeared to approve of the October 7 Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival, in which 1,200 people were killed, most of them Israeli civilians, and several hundred others were taken hostage.

The crowd chanted: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”

The event was organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Association of Utah, which said in a statement: “As the bombs fall, people cannot continue to watch movies on their screens while ignoring the genocide in Gaza.”

Most of the protesters appeared to have come from out of town, though a few festival-goers, including Barrera, also joined the ranks or honked their car horns in solidarity.

However, at least one bystander shouted: “Go home!”

The festival clarified that it had nothing to do with the protest, adding in a statement: “Although the organizers are not affiliated with the festival itself, the safety and security of our festival-goers is always our concern, and we are constantly working with local law enforcement to maintain a welcoming, inspiring and safe environment for all attendees.” .

On the first day of Sundance, where Hollywood gathers every January for independent film premieres, an online group called Film Workers for Palestine was formed.

The site has received hundreds of signatures from the likes of director Mike Leigh and actresses Susan Sarandon and Alia Shawkat.

On Friday, the group tweeted: “To be clear – we hold film festivals that are completely complicit in affirming approval of genocide. #Sundance takes money from Zionists and amplifies their views while remaining silent on Palestine.

At the same time as the protest taking place about a mile away at the Ray Theater, there was a panel discussion on anti-Semitism titled “Cults, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Deadly Tropes About Jews and Israel in TV, Film and the Media.”