Jerusalem is Proud to Present + panel discussion

Last summer, Jerusalem was due to host the annual World Pride celebrations and gay pride parade, unprecedented in the city's history. This hair-raising documentary captures the homophobic hate campaign launched by fundamentalist religious groups against the event. Death threats pour into the Open House, Jerusalem's LGBT community centre, while in the Jerusalem City Council arguments for equality from its only openly gay member are met with verbal abuse, and a mayor so disinterested in democracy he simply leaves the room.

Orthodox Jews riot in the streets, their chief Rabbi apparently sanctioning violence to stop the ‘defilement' of the holy city. The escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict further impedes World Pride preparations, and the eventual compromise was controversial among the gay community. Nitzan Gilady's film is nevertheless an important record of bravery in an environment where the only thing uniting some Jewish, Christian and Arab leaders is their hatred for gay people.

Director Nitzan Gilady will attend the screening, which will be followed by a special panel discussion called Sexual and other Politics - Jews, Activism and Identity featuring guest speakers Rabbi Elizabeth (Elli) Tikvah Sarah of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue, one of the co-rabbis of the Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group (London), and Nancy Fishman, Programme Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and guest curator of Reel Radical Jews sidebar.

In association with Beit Klal Yisrael and The Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group