12 St 14 Aug 2021 Jahr - NOTICIAS DE NAVARRA José Luis Rebordinos SSIFF Director If the Council decided to withdraw the Donostia award from Johnny Depp, I would have to accept it and leave

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If the Council decided to withdraw the Donostia award from Johnny Depp, I would have to accept it and leave

by Harri X. Fernández

Let's talk about ethics is the statement published yesterday by Zinemaldia, signed by its director, José Luis Rebordinos, in defense of the Festival for the accusations received "of lack of ethics in the face of violence against women", after it became known that it will award the Donostia Prize to the American actor and producer Johnny Depp. Thus, Rebordinos reaffirmed the commitment of Zinemaldia to "the rejection of any violent or harassment behavior", "the presumption of innocence and the right to reintegration".

Have you or your team considered withdrawing the Donostia Award from Johnny Depp?

At no time. When we made the decision we were aware that it could be controversial, not so much because of what Johnny Depp's reality may be, but because of the things that were already circulating on the Web. If I'm honest with you, I didn't think it would reach the degree where a political group was going to request the withdrawal of the award.

Why get into that controversy?

We rightly or wrongly think that the debates are interesting. This serves to check what social networks can do when lynching someone. More and more we are leaving aside the presumption of innocence. All of us, and I mean everyone, increasingly tend to judge people very easily. That this debate is in society and that we serve for it seems interesting to me. Depp lives in a very unfair situation in which, for many years, things that are not real are being taken for granted.

Is Johnny Depp aware of the controversy that his appointment as the Donostia Award has generated?

Totally. And he thanks us that we are defending the award and that we are there telling what his own lawyers had communicated to us and what we have been checking and ratifying in the British, North American media, etc.

The award is for a career but perhaps it transcends it and other issues must be taken into account.

-That's very cheating. Do you think that when we give an award to the great Hollywood actors we know something about their personal lives? Not at all. When we give them an award, are we saying that they are wonderful people? Why? Because it hasn't been revealed to the press I don't know what? Many have problems, judgments... We don't give a prize because they are more or less kind, I'm unable to judge that. We can only talk about objective data. The more we investigate the issue of Johnny Depp, the more complex it is and, precisely, not because of issues that have to do with abuse. There are economic interests, things that are mixed... We will never have all the data. That is why Justice exists and that is why we are a society with separation of powers. There is nothing more dangerous than social lynching, you can ruin someone's life even if they are not guilty of anything.

The statement highlights the ethical pillars of Zinemaldia.

-We live in a patriarchal society, where the role of women is not yet what would be normal in an egalitarian one. You just have to look at the data on murders of women by sexist violence to know that we live in an absolutely anomalous situation that must be ended. The reaction to this, fortunately, is occurring in an intense and strong way, but it is true that, sometimes, it makes us forget the presumption of innocence and, even another value that I want to claim, reintegration. It gives the impression, and not only with sexist violence, that when someone commits a crime it must be completely annulled forever. My opinion is, and the law protects me, that when someone commits a crime he has to be tried by a judge, not by society, he has to be convicted if he is guilty and when he serves his sentence he becomes a citizen like anyone else, with the same rights and obligations as me. Our anger, our anger, our concern for all those crimes that are happening, for all that mistreatment against women, cannot make us lose that other type of ethical criteria that also serve for that fight.

[...]

Have any members of the Board of Directors contacted you concerned about this issue?

-There have been some members of a political party who in a very friendly way have called me to ask me how the situation really is. They worry, like any normal person, because there is talk of abuse. The only thing that has bothered me these days is that someone doubts Zinemaldia's commitment against abuse. We are a team made up of men and women who, although we can differ in how to achieve them, we always agree on the objectives. We listen. In this matter we are clear that what we cannot allow is that false data is used to unfairly criminalize a person.

If the controversy were too much and you were asked to withdraw the prize, would you put your position at your disposal?

-Knowing the Council, I don't think I'm going to be in that line at all. If it happened, obviously, I would have to leave the address of Zinemaldia. I have always said that the members of the Council are my bosses, they are the ones who rule the Festival. We have a pretty good chemistry and we have always gone hand in hand but, really, they are the ones who have to decide. If they decided that the prize cannot be given, I would have to accept it, but I would have to leave. I would leave with peace of mind and thanking them for these great years in which I have been able to work with them. If at a given time the Council is not comfortable with its director, it is normal to tell him to leave. I'm sure they will agree with our decision and that they will support us, but if it wasn't like that I would leave without tearing my clothes and it wouldn't be an excessive drama. What is a drama is that women are killed for being women.

CIMA and (H)emen, the associations of women filmmakers of the State and the Basque Country, have spoken out against the award. Have you spoken to your representatives?

-The Association of Women Filmmakers of the Canary Islands came out yesterday to support us after the statement. No, I haven't talked to them and I'm very sorry they haven't called us to ask us why the prize was or to show their disagreement. I'm very sorry because with some of the filmmakers who are giving their opinion and who are claiming that Depp is doomed we talked about other topics. I say it without bitterness, but I'm a little sorry that they didn't call us, that we would have talked and that then they would have made the decision they considered appropriate. We didn't expect this type of associations to come out with that forcefulness. I understand your position and I also understand that based on the information you handle, those statements are made.

Depp reported the newspaper 'The Sun' for defamation because he published that he was a "woman abuser" but the complaint was dismissed.

-Depp is not accused before any court of abuse. He has defamation trials with Amber Heard that go back and forth. She made some statements in The Sun newspaper in which she accused him of "abelising women." It was Depp who denounced the newspaper and the judge dismissed the complaint because he thought there could be indications of abuse. He was not judging a case of abuse but, given the possibility that there were, he did not condemn the newspaper. To be able to convict The Sun he would have to prove that the abuse is a lie, but he cannot say it because he is not judging that case. The judge thinks there may be indications and those indications should be reported by her and tried in a court. I think that may have given rise to misinterpretations. We have the official papers, we have contrasted it and everything confirms that he has never, never, never been tried, nor does he have pending lawsuits before any court, in any jurisdiction, neither British nor North American, for mistreatment of any woman.

Does the fact that the judge perceives that there are indications of abuse not generate an ethical problem when awarding the Donostia Award?

No. For me, none. She has not accused him of mistreatment in any court, she has accused him in a newspaper and there is no trial. For me that is fundamental. We have more personal information that I will not enter to comment. I'm not going to start talking about what I know about the lives of both. We can only talk about the objective: he is not denounced for abuse, he is not tried, nor convicted.

They have been denounced among themselves for defamation, not for mistreatment.

-It seems so, but I insist that it is a topic that I do not want to go into.

"Depp lives in a very unfair situation in which, for many years, things that are not real are being taken for granted"

"We can only talk about the objective: Johnny Depp is not reported for abuse, he is not tried, nor convicted"

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