By Maya Palit
This year Annemarie Jacir, a Palestinian filmmaker, went to Cannes for the second time to screen her film. Except this time she went with a baby, and things got a little out of hand.
https://twitter.com/AnnemarieJacir/status/865320574033297414
According to Jacir’s Twitter updates, she had to miss meetings and screenings because her one-year-old child wasn’t given a festival badge. Bureaucracy took over once she tried to make a fuss, because she was told that ‘dogs and babies’ need a special badge, and then later informed that there weren’t any badges for infants this year.
https://twitter.com/AnnemarieJacir/status/866397411366887430
https://twitter.com/AnnemarieJacir/status/866574771630338050
Jacir isn’t the only one to have spoken out either — Anna Tatarska, a Polish journalist, was apparently told she couldn’t bring her baby along to pick up her accreditation for having covered the Cannes festival. She was also misled and told several different things, like babies need ‘special’ accreditation, and that babies aren’t allowed inside the Palais.
Remember when a Spanish MP breastfed her five-month-old baby in Parliament and everybody from Conservatives to feminist groups had a breakdown? And a Canadian MP was given a warning by the President when she took her baby to the House of Commons because no one was available to watch him? There was a lot of talk at the time about the hostile environment for women in politics, but from what’s unfurling at Cannes it looks like the sheer presence of children is enough to throw people in film festivals into quandaries too.