Tribeca to screen movie by controversial anti-vaccine activist Andrew Wakefield

[progressoid]

A movie from the leader of the anti-vaccine movement is set to create controversy when it screens at the Tribeca Film Festival next month.

On Monday, the annual springtime confab quietly announced that, amid a list of Hollywood-centric talks, it would screen a documentary titled “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.” The festival said that the film, a previously unknown production, draws a link between vaccines and autism and that the April 24 event would also feature “a conversation with creators and subjects of the film.”

Tribeca did not reveal the director. He is, it turns out, the highly controversial anti-vaccine activist Andrew Wakefield.

...

"It's shocking," Michael Specter, a staff writer at the New Yorker who has studied and written extensively about the issue, said when asked in a phone interview Tuesday about the screening. "This is a criminal who is responsible for people dying. This isn't someone who has a 'point-of-view.’ It's comparable to Leni Riefenstahl making a movie about the Third Reich, or Mike Tyson making a movie about violence toward women. The fact that a respectable organization like the Tribeca Film Festival is giving Wakefield a platform is a disgraceful thing to do."

...

Contacted by the Times, a Tribeca spokeswoman provided a statement about the decision to host the film and its director.

“Tribeca, as most film festivals, are about dialogue and discussion. Over the years we have presented many films from opposing sides of an issue. We are a forum, not a judge,” it read.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-anti-vaccine-andrew-wakefield-movie-tribeca-20160322-story.html

[HuckleB]

1. DeNiro is a scumbag.

Ugh.

[progressoid]

5. uriel1972 just posted their retraction

He may not have gone full Jenny McCarthy, but it seems like he (and his wife?) sure got close.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/27/robert-de-niro-pulls-vaccination-film-tribeca-vaxxed

[HuckleB]

7. They're still making excuses for it with their "it was about discussion" BS.

But it is good.

[Archae]

2. Would they let a film be shown that openly advocates what the Nazis did?

[progressoid]

6. They already removed it!

A win for science!

Hattip to uriel1972 for the update. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/27/robert-de-niro-pulls-vaccination-film-tribeca-vaxxed

[uriel1972]

3. Blink and you miss it...

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/27/robert-de-niro-pulls-vaccination-film-tribeca-vaxxed

and gone... amidst notapologies

[progressoid]

4. Veddy interesting.

A controversial film about the discredited link between autism and vaccinations has been pulled from Robert De Niro’s Tribeca film festival, after the actor consulted “the scientific community” and found “concerns with certain things in this film”.

The father of an autistic child and co-founder of the festival, De Niro at first defended the decision to premiere Vaxxed: from Cover-Up to Catastrophe, despite outcry from doctors and researchers.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Good to see it was pulled; this summed up why they never should have considered it

Joe Hanson
‏@jtotheizzoe

Hey @Tribeca, I fixed some errors in Andrew Wakefield’s bio for you

https://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe/status/713414630572367872/photo/1

'From Cover-up to Controversy' should be the title of Wakefield's confession, if he ever turns honest.

[LeftishBrit]

10. Excellent!

[LeftishBrit]

9. I'd use stronger terms than controversial!

Argh! And sorry that my country inflicted that export on yours!