by Christian Toto
Documentary was inspired by Warren Kinsella's book, “The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda."
Movie producer Kari Hollend didn’t immediately notice what she now calls a coordinated effort to demonize Israel following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
But Warren Kinsella did.
“He understood very quickly on October 8,” Hollend says of Kinsella, a political strategist and cultural observer. “’I [now] know what a campaign looks like. No way you have a movement that big, organizing the people the next day.’”
Kinsella wrote “The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda.” The book reveals what has come to be believed as an expansive plan to turn that horrible day into a weapon against the Jewish people.
In many ways, that disinformation effort proved alarmingly effective, Hollend argues in her new documentary inspired by Kinsella’s book.
“The Campaign,” which prominently features the author, explores why the world in many cases turned against Israel and Jewish people after Oct. 7, 2023 – when Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched a series of coordinated armed attacks from Gaza into southern Israel, killing at least 1,195 people.
In some ways, the titular “Campaign” began long before the latest Hamas atrocities.
“It didn’t happen overnight. it has been a longstanding strategy for 40 years,” says Hollend, a co-director on the film. She noted how the anti-Israel messaging worked its way through the educational system over the years. “This was a foundation laid a long time ago.”
Subtitled “Disinformation in a Time of War,” “The Campaign” even includes a copywriting guru to break down some of the sophisticated messaging shared by antisemitic forces.
“The Campaign” shares select footage captured by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, making some sequences not for the squeamish.
“It was definitely a choice and a difficult one,” Hollend says. “We went back and forth. How far do we go?” Including the footage, her team eventually decided, mattered in the big picture.
“I do wonder what would have happened if some of these images were shown to the world early on,” she continues, while arguing that many people have already forgotten the atrocities or never connected the news reports to the horrors on the ground.
“They never really saw or understood what happened on Oct. 7,” Hollend also said. “That was by design ... so many people still to this day have no idea what happened and how brutal it was. Some still refer to [Hamas] as freedom fighters, people who I’ve known for years. They never saw those images, of bodies beaten and burned and mutilated.”
“The Campaign” touches on content moderation, a practice that can start with good intentions but too often bleeds into viewpoint discrimination.
“I was the most left-leaning progressive," Hollend said. I’ve worked in the arts for 25 years. I come from that left side. I’m a big believer in freedom of speech.”
That said, she argues some filtering is appropriate and necessary.
“My kids can’t drive until they’re 16. ... Why are my children allowed to open their phones without any barriers or guardrails to some of the most violent images and hate?” she asks.
The film acknowledges the corrosive role social media can play, but it also skewers mainstream media malfeasance. Consider how some news outlets, like The New York Times, erroneously blamed a 2023 hospital bombing on IDF forces, not Hamas.
“Once these things get out, you don’t have the ability to pull them back in,” Hollend says.
Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim, swiftly weaponized the false report to attack Israel, and she wasn’t alone. The filmmaker also called out the Old Gray Lady for a columnist’s claim that Israeli forces trained dogs to rape Palestinians.
“Most younger people get their information from social media, but there’s still a huge generation, Gen X and up, that look to the mainstream media,” Hollend says. “None of these organizations have held any journalistic integrity … That’s a huge problem. Where do you go to find any semblance of truth?”
She also blasts The Associated Press for honoring an image of Shani Louk's desecrated body from the Oct. 7 attacks, saying, “That is so sick to me."
“The Campaign” will screen in select Laemmle theaters in Los Angeles from Oct. 9-15. Hollend and co-director Cristina Bishai will participate in Q&A moderated by investigative journalist and writer Jay Solomon following the Oct. 12 screening at the Town Center. More U.S. dates will follow.
The film is getting an unorthodox rollout. Hollend and co. are sharing the film not just in theaters but on college campuses, in embassies and law firms.
The former is designed to reach “young students entering into that phase of peak indoctrination,” she says.
“It’s not a film about a side," Hollend continues. "It’s about the harm of what digital warfare and misinformation is doing to your city,” she says. “It’s getting worse by the day, and it’s the oldest play in the world – divide and conquer.”
Christian Toto
Source: https://justthenews.com/index%2Ephp/nation/culture/movie-hidden-hand-information-war-and-rise-antisemitic-propaganda-book
No comments:
Post a Comment