The sound of a bullhorn playing a recording of the chant “Free Palestine” could be heard on the Film Independent Spirit Awards broadcast on Sunday, as a small group of protesters were playing the recording outside of the large event tent where the awards ceremony was being held on Santa Monica Beach.
As seen in the video above, the two protesters played the bullhorn recording while standing next to a guardrail outside the event. Event security moved a large van in front of the protesters and blared audio from the ceremony in an attempt to drown out the recording.
While the words of the chant could be difficult to discern, they were audible on the ceremony’s livestream on YouTube. Comedian Jim Gaffigan struggled to speak over the chants while onstage to present one of the awards. Host Aidy Bryant later acknowledged the chants, saying that “We are at the beach and people are practicing their freedom of speech.”
The Iranian-born director of “Fremont,” Babak Jalali, also acknowledged the chants while receiving the John Cassavetes Award: “There are people speaking outside, and whatever they’re saying, I think it’s far more important than what I’m about to say. I’m so inspired by what they’re saying outside, I can’t think of what I’m about to say.”
Protests demanding that Israel agree to a ceasefire after months of attacks on Hamas and tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties in Gaza have taken place around the world, with Hollywood being no exception. A pro-Palestine protest was staged last month at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, with its organizers saying in a statement that “while we do not take issue with Sundance as a whole, we aim to let spectators & news reporters know that Utah stands with Palestine.”
