“We’re Here, We’re Queer, Steer Clear of Apartheid!”: On the Cancellation of “Invisible Men” at the Chicago International Social Change Festival � In Our Words

12.10.12

“We’re Here, We’re Queer, Steer Clear of Apartheid!”: On the Cancellation of “Invisible Men” at the Chicago International Social Change Festival � In Our Words: This Sunday, October 7th, the Chicago International Social Change Festival was set to screen the Chicago premiere of Yariv Mozer’s documentary, Gvarim Bilti Nirim (The Invisible Men), depicting the lives of Palestinian gay men living inside of Israel as “gay refugees” from their homelands. A group of activists, considering the decision to screen this film by the Chicago International Social Change Festival to be racist, inconsistent, and contrary to the very idea of social justice on which the festival is founded, showed up to picket. Taking advantage of a power outage at the event, activists were able to spend time handing out information to passers-by and, eventually, confronted one of the festival’s founders.

We are proud to announce that after meeting with Todd Belcore, co-founder of the festival, Invisible Men was officially dropped from the schedule.