A Canberra film festival was blocked from advertising the screening of a film set in Palestine on Facebook because it breached the platform's advertising policy on "political advertising", organisers say.
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Co-director of the Stronger Than Fiction documentary film festival Deborah Kingsland said promotion of the screening of Mayor at Dendy Cinemas on May 28 had been blocked and the festival's Facebook advertising account disabled.
The documentary, directed by David Osit, is an "engaging portrait" of Musa Hadid, mayor of Ramallah, a Palestinian city on the central West Bank, about 10km north of Jerusalem.
It paints a picture of a man "devoted to improving public life" in the city, as he deals with a Christmas parade, drainage problems and park benches.
The screening will be followed by an exclusive interview with the film's director. Organisers were trying to spread the word on Friday about the screening through festival supporters, and encouraging comments on its Facebook page, which is still running.
But following a query from The Canberra Times, Facebook restored the festival's account, and a spokeswoman said it had been suspended in error.
"This ad account was removed in error and we have since restored it. We apologise to this business for any inconvenience," she said.
The festival, which is running monthly screenings at Dendy, has promoted the film as an antidote to the usual news feed that comes from the region.
"While a darkly humorous film about local government might seem to have little to do with the critical situation in Palestine, seeing life under Israeli occupation through this strikingly relatable lens has the power to provide critical emotional context to the current flood of news stories," the festival organisers said.
"It's quite unlike any other film about Palestine," Ms Kingsland said. "It's about local government, which is why we thought it would appeal to Canberrans. It gives a timeless perspective into the Palestinian world."
She said the film, which came out in 2020, had been booked for screening well before the current conflict in the Middle East, and the timing of the screening was "completely coincidental".
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Sally Pryor
As features editor at The Canberra Times, I love telling people things they didn't know - or even things they've always known - about the city we live in.
As features editor at The Canberra Times, I love telling people things they didn't know - or even things they've always known - about the city we live in.
