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PARK CITY, Utah — An anti-Israel march that included booted “Scream’’ actress Melissa Barrera interrupted the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday, holding up traffic as Hollywood elite attended movie premieres and parties nearby.
Barrera, 33 — who appeared in “Scream VI” but was fired from the seventh “Scream” film over her controversial remarks on the war — joined the hourslong protest midway through as it choked the city’s historic main street and delayed festival-goers making their way to and from events.
Barrera was let go from the horror flick in November after posting on Instagram, “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp… THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”
She stars in the new Sundance film “Your Monster.”
The group of about 100 “Let Gaza Live” protesters chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “We are tired of funding Israel! Shame on Israel!” while clutching signs that read “Butcher Biden,” “De-platform Zionism” and “Intifada Everywhere.”
One crowd chant seemed to approve of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on an Israel music festival, where 1,200 people, mainly Israeli civilians, were killed and several hundred more taken hostage.
“Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” the crowd yelled.
The event was organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Association of Utah, which said in a statement, “While bombs are dropping, the people cannot continue watching films on their screens while ignoring a genocide in Gaza.”
Most of the protesters appeared to have come from out of town, though a few festival-goers, including Barerra, also joined their ranks or honked their car horns in solidarity.
Still, at least one passer-by shouted, “Go home!”
The festival made it clear it had no connection to the protest, adding in a statement, “While the organizers are non-affiliated with the festival itself, the safety and security of our festival goers is always of concern to us, and we consistently work with local law enforcement to uphold an environment that is welcoming, inspiring, and secure for all our attendees.”
On the first day of Sundance, where Hollywood converges every January for the premieres of independent films, an online group was formed called, “Film Workers For Palestine.”
The Web site has garnered hundreds of signatures from the likes of director Mike Leigh and actresses Susan Sarandon and Alia Shawkat.
On Friday, the group tweeted: “To be clear — we hold film festivals entirely complicit in affirming consent for genocide. #Sundance takes money from Zionists and amplifies their views while remaining silent about Palestine.”
Taking place at the same time as the protest about a mile away at the Ray Theatre was a panel on antisemitism called “Sects, Lies and Videotape: Debunking deadly tropes about Jews and Israel in TV, film and media.”
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Laura Davis is an entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to Broadway, she offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
