Ten days - that’s all the time it took for V4P (Venice for Palestine) to be born, grow and become a voice difficult to ignore in the international film landscape, a spontaneous movement of audiovisual professionals united by a shared sentiment: horror and deep frustration towards the unfolding genocide in Gaza.

V4P emerged from the urgency to do something concrete to support the Palestinian people by inserting oneself into the flow of collective conscience taking shape in an organised manner together with other entities such as the #NoBavaglio Artists network, the Global Sumud Flotilla and many other realities. Among these are the promoters of the event on 30 August, set to take place at the Venice Lido. The catalyst has been the awareness that yet another Venice Film Festival was about to begin without putting the unfolding tragedy at its centre, as if nothing were happening.

With an open letter addressed to the Biennale, the Festival, the parallel sections as well as colleagues in the sector, V4P wanted to urge people to take clear positions and host and promote encounters and moments of debate and reflection about the genocide in progress. The document has received an extraordinary response: over 1,500 signatories from festivals, cultural associations, trade unions, professionals and artists, amongst which the Literature Nobel Brize winner Annie Ernaux, screenwriter Paul Laverty, the long-term collaborator of Ken Loach, and the director himself.

Many publications have reported the news of the cancelled participations of Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot to the festival. V4P highlights the example of cultural boycott against apartheid in South Africa as one of the historical forms of non-violent protest and resistance. V4P did not request the exclusion of Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler for their nationality (Butler is in fact Scottish), but because the two actors have, over the years, come out in favour of the Netanyahu government and in particular of the Israeli army. “This isn’t about silencing opinions”, explains V4P, “but about saying that positions that justify a genocide don’t have their place in the democratic debate”.

This isn’t about censorship, but rather about making it clear that we cannot normalise a genocide. Taking up the idea expressed by Francesca Albanese, “confronting those who defend the occupying army (...) serves no purpose other than to normalise an unsustainable situation.”

V4P represents the expression of a collective sensibility and it is fundamental to clarify that simply signing the open letter doesn’t automatically imply membership to the movement. V4P has started a constructive dialogue with various sections of the Venice Film Festival, in particular with the Giornate degli Autori and International Critics Week sections. V4P’s main request is clear: act as a sounding board for what is happening in Palestine, give a voice to the Palestinian people, seize the opportunity of the festival to carry their stories of resistance to the centre of the world stage. For this reason, they suggested Palestinian artists who would be available to share their testimonies.

V4P is confident about having a constructive dialogue with the Venice Film Festival, as well as about the humanity and sensibility often demonstrated by director Alberto Barbera. The final objective is for the Biennale to seize this opportunity to become an actor of real change.

V4P dreams of a cinema that can become an instrument of social conscience and civil resistance. In a historical moment in which art and culture are called to take positions, V4P aims to demonstrate that it is possible to stop the clocks before a massacre and that it is fundamental to “remain human together”.

The challenge now is to transform this initial momentum into durable initiatives that go beyond the Venice festival, keeping the focus on a tragedy that cannot be normalised.