The online release of To Kill a War Machine was brought forward to this week after it emerged that the Home Office is going to proscribe Palestine Action after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and spray-painted two military planes red.
Days after the incident, the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the “disgraceful attack” was “the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action”.
A draft of a proscription order against Palestine Action will be presented to parliament on Monday.
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The ban under terror laws would make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group and would be punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The film’s directors have been scrambling to take legal advice and fear they will end up being in breach of counter-terror laws if they continue distributing their documentary, according to the Guardian.
Showings of the film have been lined up across Britain in the coming days and weeks but plans to ban the group have cast doubt over whether the screenings can go ahead.
To Kill a War Machine was made available to watch online on Tuesday and has been downloaded by people from all over the world.
However, its London-based directors, Hannan Majid and Richard York, are concerned that Britain could end up being the only place in the world where people would not be able to see the film.
“We’ve operated around the world and have a lot of experience of regimes telling us what we can and can’t do,” Majid told the Guardian.
“We’ve had authorities in Bangladesh telling us we shouldn’t even be editing footage of garment workers and activists advocating for their rights, and we’ve been followed by the police in Cambodia, but we have never encountered anything like this in Britain.”
Majid has been working with York since 2006 through their production company, Rainbow Collective, which focuses on documentaries about human rights issues and have collaborated with organisations including Amnesty International.
To Kill a War Machine took six months of work and was made independently of Palestine Action by the filmmakers.
The documentary uses real-time bodycam and phone footage that the group had put into the public domain.
In the film, activists are seen smashing and occupying weapons factories across the UK while explaining their motivation for their actions, which they view as legitimate in the face of alleged war crimes in Gaza.
(Image: @IMDmilo)
There are also interviews with two activists from Palestine Action, Sohail Sultan and Joe Irving, both of whom were acquitted of charges of causing criminal damage.
However, the move by the UK Government to proscribe Palestine Action means there are now questions looming over whether the documentary and events, including a London premiere on July 18, can continue after the group is banned.
“We set out to make this film in a completely legitimate and legal manner, as we have done with other films. It’s been certified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and it is good to go but now we are being advised that the curtailing of Palestine Action could have a major knock-on effect for us as it could become not only illegal for others to voice support for them but also for us, as film-makers, to distribute this film,” said York.
Majid added: “People are still excited and there has been a tremendous outpouring of support on social media.
“Hopefully we can still go ahead with much of our plans, but we have had to rush things forward and do the digital release this week rather than waiting for September and try to build on the awards we have already picked up.
“That all changed on Monday night and there has been a spike as soon as we put it online.”
The filmmakers are having discussions with distributors in the UK and the US about the potential risks of showing the film.
“On the basis of some of our legal advice, we may not even be able to distribute it in other countries and territories if the film is seen as being somehow in support of a group which is proscribed. We are still hoping to be able to show it in cinemas within the law,” said York.
They are also considering whether they will have to withdraw submissions for a range of international film festivals.
