One of the protesters at Sunday's Spirit Awards ceremony was filmmaker Merawi Gerima, who won the Spirit Awards' John Cassavetes Award for a film made for less than $1 million in 2021 for his feature film “Residue.” A video posted on the American Palestinian Community Network's Instagram page shows the beginning of the protest, with Gerima speaking over a loudspeaker to announce that they are there on behalf of the USPCN and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression.
“We say it's much better to support the oppressed around the world than the oppressors here in Hollywood,” Gerima says in the video, before specifically criticizing actor Jeffrey Wright, star of the film “American Fiction,” on several occasions. which won two awards on Sunday, including lead performance for Wright.
“It's not enough to have a movie about racism, Mr. Jeffrey Wight,” Gerima said. “It's not enough to have a movie about oppression in America, Jeffrey Wright. “It is much more important to oppose oppression and racism as they exist in the world today in solidarity with the black and brown people of the planet, particularly the Palestinians.”
About 40 minutes into the daytime ceremony, which took place in a tent near the beach in Santa Monica, guests present could hear loud sounds. A small group of protesters had gathered on a public sidewalk in front of the store, holding a loudspeaker that played a looped pre-recorded chant of “Free Palestine, Free,” “Long Live Palestine,” and “Cease Fire Now” that could be heard. . during the rest of the show.
A caption on another Instagram video shows headset-wearing officials from the Spirit Awards program talking to protesters over the railing that kept them separated on the sidewalk. The video is captioned: “We told them we would stop when they called for a ceasefire. Its producers refused.”
Gerima says in that video: “An entire industry of communicators remains absolutely silent in the face of the genocide. And that's why we say there's nothing as usual, not even in Hollywood.”
Merawi Gerima, left, among protesters at the 2024 Spirit Awards ceremony. Gerima previously won a Spirit Award in 2021 for her film “Residue.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“Residue” was distributed by Ava DuVernay's Array Releasing. Gerima's parents are filmmakers Haile Gerima and Shirikiana Aina. Haile Gerima, best known for “Sankofa” and “Ashes and Embers,” received the Academy Museum of Motion Picture's inaugural Vantage Award in 2020.
A request for comment made Monday by Merawi Gerima has not yet been responded to. Film Independent, the organization that awards the Spirit Awards, did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday's protest.
