Group ‘defy Glastonbury ban’ on showing controversial Jeremy Corbyn film

A screening of the controversial film Oh Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie appears to have gone ahead at Glastonbury, despite festival organisers cancelling another planned screening after a backlash and accusations of antisemitism.

Initially Glastonbury’s cinema tent Pilton Palais had planned to show the documentary, saying it was “probably a film worth spending 80 minutes watching on a Sunday afternoon”.

But the decision sparked criticism from the Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and filmmaker Paul Mason in a review for LabourList, with all of them urging the festival to pull the plug.

The festival, now underway in Somerset, then U-turned earlier this week, saying showing the film was “not appropriate” as Glastonbury is about “unity and not division”, reversing a planned screening.

But footage emerged on social media on Thursday night appearing to show dozens of people watching the film at the festival. Reel News, which calls itself an activist video collective, tweeted the video with the message: “Reel News defying Glastonbury festival’s ban on the Jeremy Corbyn film and showing it right now to a packed Speakers Forum tent in Green Futures.”

The apparent screening took place despite an outcry over the initial Pilton Palais screening and months of controversy over the film itself, with filmmakers reporting other cinemas had previously refused to show it.

Reel News defying Glastonbury festival’s ban on the Jeremy Corbyn film and showing it right now to a packed Speakers Forum tent in Green Futures pic.twitter.com/teYmSwejGh

— Reel News (@ReelNewsLondon) June 22, 2023

The Board of Deputies had accused Glastonbury of “providing a platform for a film which clearly seeks to indoctrinate people into believing a conspiracy theory effectively aimed at Jewish organisations”, including suggesting they themselves “somehow helped to ‘orchestrate’ Jeremy Corbyn’s downfall as Labour party leader”.

Part of the film highlights attacks on Corbyn by Labour MPs, staffers and the media. But Mason condemned a montage the film includes of those it implies were behind an “orchestrated campaign” to bring down Corbyn, which consists of images of groups including the Jewish Board of Deputies, the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Friends of Israel and the Israel Advocacy Movement.

Mason highlighted examples given by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of antisemitism, which include the “myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the economy, government or other societal institutions”.

But Ben Sellers, director of the Institute of Employment Rights who previously worked for Jeremy Corbyn, called it an “incredible bit of solidarity”, attacking “so much caution in our movement”.

Norman Thomas of Platform Films, which made the documentary, had previously called the cancellation “disgraceful”, attacking the “huge storm of complaints about the film claiming, without any foundation whatsoever, that the film is antisemitic”.

Glastonbury and Reel News were approached for comment.