London Film Festival Pulled Far-Right Doc At Eleventh Hour Over “Safety” Concerns
EXCLUSIVE: British filmmaker Havana Marking was set to debut her latest project Undercover: Exposing The Far Right, an undercover documentary about far-right communities in the UK, this evening at the London Film Festival.
However, the doc will now world premiere on Channel 4 on October 21 after the London Film Festival pulled the film from its lineup and informed the filmmakers that it will no longer screen the project due to what was described to us as safety concerns.
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The doc, created in collaboration with the UK anti-racist organization Hope not Hate, was extended an invitation to world premiere at LFF in June. Weeks later, on September 27, the filmmakers were contacted by London Film Festival organizers who told them they were considering pulling the film from the schedule. LFF confirmed to the filmmakers on October 3, six days before the festival was set to start, that it would not be showing the film.
We understand the decision to pull the film was due to “operational and safety” concerns over what festival organizers told the filmmakers they believed were “perceived risks of disruption or harm to audiences or staff.”
The 90 minute doc follows activists from Hope Not Hate as they undertake secret investigations with hidden cameras that reveal how far-right activists have set plans to target minority communities and use well-funded, media-savvy influencers to disseminated racist material to new audiences. The doc comes after a series of race riots that took place in cities across the UK this summer and lasted just under a week. The violence had broken out across the UK after the fatal stabbing of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. The unrest was initially fueled by social media misinformation that the suspected assailant, Cardiff-born Axel Rudakubana, was an asylum seeker. Anger continued to be whipped up online, not least by X/Twitter owner Elon Musk, who had been critical of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and claimed that Britain is on the brink of civil war.
The film’s director Havana Marking is best known for her 2009 Sundance-winning feature Afghan Star. She has also directed the non-fiction projects Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Cyber Attacks and The Kleptocrats and served as a senior producer on the Will Smith docuseries Welcome to Earth. Undercover: Exposing The Far Right was produced by BAFTA-winning production company Tigerlily Productions. Their credits include Working with Weinstein, The Lovers & the Despot, and White Nanny Black Child.
In a statement to Deadline, the filmmakers said they had “taken every precaution” during the film’s production and in preparation for the screening including “several security briefings” at LFF venues to maintain the safety of festival staff and audiences.
“We believe that even given LFF’s concerns, alternative ways to air the film within the festival context could have been explored. We are dismayed that LFF did not engage in attempts to find such a solution,” they said.
In a separate statement, Marking described Undercover: Exposing The Far Right as a “very powerful film” and said she was “disappointed” it wasn’t able to screen at London Film Festival.
“We have spent two years following the brave and inspiring work done by Hope Not Hate in an extraordinarily febrile time. It is shocking to see the extent of far-right influence in both street-level and elite ‘intellectual’ circles,” she said. “I understand the fear that people have, but I’m very disappointed that no alternative method of screening at LFF could be found. It is getting harder and harder to make these films and to lose this audience was upsetting.”
In a statement sent to Deadline in response, Kristy Matheson, Director BFI London Film Festival, said: “After exploring all the viable options to screen this film at a public film festival we took the heartbreaking decision to not present Undercover: Exposing the Far Right at the LFF. I think the film is exceptional and easily one of the best documentaries I have seen this year. However, festival workers have the right to feel safe and that their mental health and well being is respected in their workplace. I took on board the expert opinion of colleagues around the safety and well being risks that the screening could have created for audiences and the team and that informed our decision, which we did not take lightly. The film is incredibly important and we wish it the very best.”
Following its debut on Channel 4, Undercover: Exposing The Far Right will screen at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) on November 19. Information on far right figures uncovered in the doc has been used to shape a series of investigative pieces in The Guardian newspaper about racism in British society. The Guardian‘s series is ongoing. The BFI is a supporter of the film as a financier through the BFI Doc Society Fund.
The London Film Festival ends on Sunday.
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