When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 37 states in America.

Boycott traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

Over the past several years, anti-boycott legislation has passed in state legislatures across all corners of the United States.

37 states have laws on the books that penalize individuals or companies that use boycott and other nonviolent measures aimed at pressuring Israel on its human rights record.
There are parallel efforts at the federal level to adopt legislation prohibiting American citizens from boycotting companies that profit from Israel’s violation of international law.
Some of the anti-boycott bills/laws require the creation of blacklists of activists, non-profit organizations, and/or companies that are engaged in such boycott campaigns. Opponents have called the blacklists 21st-century McCarthyism.
Several states have passed or introduced similar legislation that punishes companies that boycott or divest from the fossil fuel industry or firearm manufacturers. Architects for the fossil fuel bills cite the anti-boycott bills related to Israel as their model.
This film screening has been brought to the Library by Bennington County Vermont Indivisible and Bennington County Democrats.

There is a suggested $10 donation, in part to benefit the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund.

About Just Vision
Just Vision fills a media gap on Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement.

We place documentary filmmaking and journalism at the center of our mission because we believe that stories have the power to shape public norms, equip audiences with vital information, undermine stereotypes and inspire.

Just Vision has produced several award-winning documentary films (Encounter Point, Budrus, My Neighbourhood and Naila and the Uprising), a graphic novel (Budrus), and co-publishes an independent Hebrew-language news site, Local Call.

Our films have been placed in top film festivals internationally from the Berlinale to IDFA to Tribeca, received high-level media attention and won numerous prestigious prizes, including over two-dozen festival honors, the 2012 DocSociety Creative Impact Award and a Peabody Award in 2013. Our documentaries have been broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Our work has also been featured in leading press outlets including The New York Times, BBC, Israeli Channel 2, Al Arabiya, HBO Latin America, and many others.

About Naked Edge Films
Naked Edge Films was founded in 2008 by Jim Butterworth and Daniel J. Chalfen to produce and executive produce documentary films.

NEF also focuses on scripted remakes of their non-fiction IP. Recent NEF credits include Ali El-Arabi’s Captains of Zaatari (Sundance 2021), Kristine Stolakis’ Netflix Original Pray Away (executive produced by Jason Blum & Ryan Murphy), the 2019 Sundance award winners Always in Season and The Infiltrators (both for PBS), Tina Brown & Dyana Winkler’s United Skates for HBO (executive produced by John Legend), and Deborah Esquenazi’s Peabody and Critics Choice-winning Southwest of Salem for Discovery ID. Other credits include Call her Ganda, The Feeling of Being Watched, Silenced, The Mind of Mark DeFriest, The Revisionaries, and War Don Don.