TIFF Cancels Oct. 7 Documentary Over Hamas Copyright

The stunned filmmakers, including Canadian director Barry Avrich, slammed the decision, telling Deadline that TIFF has “defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film.”

While TIFF alleges they required permission from Hamas to use the footage, the documentary’s line producer, Talia Harris Ram, told the Times of Israel that their rationale was ridiculous.

“The topic of creators’ rights is something I work with regularly,” she said. “There’s no legal problem with showing these clips, which were already streamed live on October 7. From an intellectual property standpoint, they are clearly in the public domain.”

The “Road Between Us” team insisted they were only depicting a man’s story — a man who was also profiled on “60 Minutes.”

“We are not political filmmakers, nor are we activists; we are storytellers,” they said in their statement. “We remain defiant, we will release the film, and we invite audiences, broadcasters, and streamers to make up their own mind, once they have seen it.”

Tibon, the doc’s subject, decried the cancellation.

“The festival management’s claim that the film cannot be screened because ‘permissions to use’ the footage of the Nukhba terrorists were not obtained is absurd and bizarre, and constitutes further harm to the victims,” he told the Times of Israel.

“My message to the festival management: The truth cannot be erased. The atrocities committed by Hamas cannot be erased or denied.”