Staff from NYC’s Alamo Drafthouse, with the assistance of outsider activist groups, are trying to cancel screenings of “September 5” which depicts the massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists during the ‘72 Munich Olympics.
These groups want to cancel all screenings of “September 5” via a new petition with roughly 1,000 signatures. The chain runs three theaters in New York City. What’s the reason behind their call for nixing the film? They claim “September 5” is “Zionist propaganda.”
The film is an ahistorical and dehumanizing dramatization of Operation Iqrit and Biram, undertaken by the Black September Organization at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich in the name of the liberation of 200+ Palestinian prisoners. It is told from the perspective of the ABC news room, with a callous group of sports journalists eager to cover the unfolding events while not hesitating to call the militants “terrorists” and “A-rabs."
They go on to call “September 5” an attempt by the Western media to “push its imperialist and racist agenda, manufacturing consent for the continued genocide and cultural decimation of Palestine and its peoples.”
What’s even more interesting is that the petition features 101 signatures from NYC Alamo United. Staff has been promoting the petition on X, demanding their employer bend the knee. The NYC Alamo Union will present the petition to Alamo Drafthouse officials during its annual January bargaining session.
“September 5,” although not the Oscar contender THR’s Scott Feinberg claimed it to be, has earned positive reviews and strong audience scores. Feinberg recently reported that the film, a — buzzed title that screened at Venice and Telluride — had been rejected by Toronto (TIFF) to avoid controversy.
Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Leonie Benesch star in “September 5,” the third feature from director Tim Fehlbaum (“The Colony” and “Hell”), a dramatic thriller about ABC Sports’ coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack in which Palestinian militants took hostage Israeli athletes. The story is told from the perspective of the broadcasters.
Having seen the film, there should be no controversy. I’m kind of baffled by activists’ attempts to cancel it. The film isn’t even shot from the perspective of the terrorists or the athletes. The “Munich Massacre” has been well-documented in the history books, not to mention in Steven Spielberg’s excellent “Munich” which tackled the aftermath of the tragedy, and posed moral questions about revenge.