Open letter to CPH:DOX

We as filmmakers and participants from CPH:DOX Academy urge colleagues and organisations to sign the following open letter written by the Palestine Group in International Forum to CPH:DOX

LETTER TO CPH:DOX

Today marks the beginning of the annual, prestigious documentary film festival CPH:DOX, which gathers filmmakers and cultural figures from around the world in Copenhagen. CPH:DOX has since its inception showcased documentary films that depict political struggles worldwide. Nevertheless, the festival claims that its leadership “does not take a stance on geopolitical conflicts in which we are not a party.”

The idea of an “apolitical stance” is an age-old trope in Danish self-perception. CPH:DOX, which presents films about anti-colonial struggles, should above all know that this is a ruler technique that supports the oppressive power, not the oppressed. Not holding the Danish state or the occupying power accountable is an active action that supports the Zionist project.

The hypocrisy and contradiction in CPH:DOX’s stance were already pointed out last year by Filmworkers for Ceasefire in an open letter to CPH:DOX, criticizing why CPH:DOX’s choices are anything but “neutral.” For example, in 2022, CPH:DOX had no problem issuing the solidarity statement CPH:DOX Stands With Ukraine and curating a program under that title.

At this year’s festival, we can conclude that CPH:DOX once again ignores the appeal for the call for action from industry professionals and has instead moved closer to the Zionist agenda.

We are deeply concerned by the festival’s continued refusal to make a solidarity statement with the Palestinian people and by the rhetoric the festival uses in its communication regarding films about the occupation and the Palestinian people, such as referring to it as “a four-decade-long conflict between Palestine and Israel.” CPH:DOX once again chooses to avoid terms such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid in its communication, even though these terms are used by everyone from UN officials and international law experts to human rights organizations and that the Israeli state is accused of genocide at the ICJ.

And we are even more alarmed that CPH:DOX has chosen to invite Mette Frederiksen as the keynote speaker at the opening gala - accompanied by former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Mette Frederiksen is responsible for Denmark’s support of the occupation’s genocide. Giving the Prime Minister further time to speak is a reprehensible legitimization of her unlawful and deadly policies.

Finally, we find it deeply problematic that CPH:DOX has selected and invited the Israeli production company CoPro as one of 20 companies from various countries to CPH:DOX’s “International Delegations” program. CoPro is the occupation’s largest documentary production company and is Zionist in its essence, as CoPro describes itself as “entirely dedicated to exposing Israeli documentary projects to executives in the international documentary film industry around the world.” BDS has repeatedly called for a boycott of CoPro due to its important role in whitewashing the Zionist project through films and international collaborations and its involvement with the Israeli state.

CoPro’s involvement with the Israeli state is clearly evident when the production company hosts a dinner with the Israeli Embassy in Denmark in connection with its participation in CPH:DOX, where a number of Danish journalists are invited. In this way, CPH:DOX contributes to strengthening and promoting the Zionist state's lobbying in Denmark and around the world.

While CPH:DOX contributes to the normalization of the occupation’s genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid rule and supports the Israeli film industry, CPH:DOX has largely excluded the Palestinian film industry from the festival, and the vast majority of the festival’s films about Palestine are made by non-Palestinians.

We acknowledge that CPH:DOX has included Palestinian voices in the program, but in the context of the leadership’s choices, Palestinian representation and resistance mostly appear as an aestheticization that the festival can selectively use. The Palestinian resistance struggle and its forms of expression are not an apolitical choice of cultural consumption! It is a struggle for freedom from Zionist occupation and oppression. And CPH:DOX ultimately undermines this struggle when they continue to support the Zionist agenda.

Our message to CPH:DOX is therefore clear: There is no such thing as an “apolitical” stance when it comes to Denmark’s complicity in the occupation’s oppression. As an internationally influential cultural institution, it is not just hypocritical but morally reprehensible that you support Zionist agendas, refuse to use your influential platform to express support for the Palestinian people in the midst of a genocide, and at the same time profit from and promote your festival at the expense of Palestinian oppression.

We urge everyone to use every opportunity to hold CPH:DOX accountable for its actions, with demands for:

1. Not giving a platform to politicians and actors who are directly responsible for Denmark’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza

2. Ending collaborations with Zionist companies and delegations - and demanding full transparency about the funding of these companies

3. Officially declaring support for the Palestinian people’s struggle against genocide, illegal occupation, and apartheid rule, using terms recognized by the UN and Amnesty International in the festival’s external communication and supporting Palestinian filmmakers and delegations.

CPH:DOX Academy participants    Kontakt forfatteren af dette andragende