Director Jim Jarmusch has said he was “disappointed and disconcerted” to find out that Mubi had accepted an investor with ties to the Israeli military.
The streamer is distributing Jarmusch’s latest film, Father Mother Sister Brother.
In May, Mubi announced that they had secured a $100m investment from venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, which also has a stake in Kela, a defence-tech startup founded by Israeli intelligence units after the attacks of 7 October.
“Yes, I have spoken to Mubi about it, and I have a very good relationship particularly with [CCO] Jason Ropell at Mubi who called me immediately. He had not been made aware when this relationship was made,” Jarmusch said on Sunday at a press conference for Father Mother Sister Brother, which premiered later the same day.
“My relationship with Mubi started much before that, and they were fantastic to work with on this film. I was of course disappointed and quite disconcerted by this relationship. Really, if you want to discuss it, you have to address Mubi about it. I’m not the spokesman. However, yes, I was concerned.”
Jarmusch added that he believed “all corporate money [was] dirty money”.
“I also have a distribution agreement with Mubi for certain territories, which I also had entered into before my knowledge of this [investment]. But having said that, on a personal level, I have to say I’m an independent filmmaker, and I have taken money from various sources to be able to realise my films,” he continued.
“And I consider pretty much all corporate money [to be] dirty money. If you start analysing each of these film companies and their financing structures, you’re going to find a lot of nasty dirt. It’s all there.”
The Dead Don't Die director ended with saying that the onus should not be on independent artists trying to make films, but the larger companies accepting the investments.
“We could avoid it and not make films at all, but the films are what I choose to carry. So yes, I’m concerned, but one thing I don’t like is that – and you have not done this – but putting the onus of the explanation of this on us, the artists. It’s not us, it’s Mubi you must address. Not just Mubi but other companies as well.”
The Independent has reached out to Mubi for comment.
Jarmusch was joined at the conference by actors Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps, and Indya Moore. Moore, who has been a vocal Palestine supporter and was arrested in 2023 for being present at a protest demanding a ceasefire also weighed in on what she described as the “creative warfare and resource warfare behind the scenes”.
“Since the genocide of Palestinians began, there has been an incredible amount of creative warfare and resource warfare behind the scenes,” she said. “The issue with the way people are trying to figure out how we are going to work at a capacity that is ethical and not enabling a systematic pipeline that funds these kinds of things to happen to people… a kind of due diligence that people are learning how to do is a developing process.
“These are not questions we’ve ever had to ask before, especially as independent artists. We’re all trying to figure out how to navigate this and survive. One thing is for sure: If you were to ask me, Indya, why did you work here or work there when this person is there or that entity is behind this thing? Most likely, I didn’t know.”
Earlier in August, Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel shared a statement writing that “any suggestion that our work is connected to funding the war is simply untrue,” responding to an open letter signed by more than 100 artists criticising Mubi’s decision to accept the investment and called for the streamer to condemn Sequoia Capital for “genocide profiteering”.
“Following the investment from Sequoia, some have suggested that we are complicit in the events occurring in Gaza. These accusations are fundamentally at odds with the values we hold as individuals and as a company,” he wrote. “Any suggestion that our work is connected to funding the war is simply untrue.”
Father Mother Sister Brother follows three stories that delve into the relationship between estranged siblings forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents.
Father Mother Sister Brother will be released in theatres in the US on 24 December.
