Saudi Film Festivals: Real Reform or Hollywood Whitewash?

Saudi red carpet whitewashing or the best kind of Hypocrisy. According to Showbiz 411 Hollywood celebrities swanning down the Red Sea Film Festival carpet in Jeddah are oblivious to Saudi Arabia's human rights record. From the murder of journalist jamal Khashoggi in 2018 to ongoing repression and impunity. For none of that's wrong. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman still runs an authoritarian state, but he's also pushed pushed through the most aggressive social liberalization project in the region right now. Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia lifted a 35 year cinema ban, allowed women to drive, loosened strict gender segregation, opened the door to concerts and mixed gendered events. For decades, Western pop culture was literally illegal in Saudia theaters. Today, the Red Sea film festival, its fifth edition screening 100 plus films from over 70 countries and flying in stars from Hollywood, Bollywood and beyond. Is this image laundering? Of course. But it's also real change. If young Saudis are staying up late to argue about Marvel movies, K pop and box office returns, that's time they're not being recruited by religious extremists. You want people, money, careers, status, not martyrdom. So. So yes, keep criticizing MBS on human rights and at the same time admit that open doors to movie, music and capitalism is genuine progress. What's the real message here? All these holier than thou types. How dare you movie stars go to Saudi Arabia. How dare you have gotta wisen up. Realize we want people doing things for money as opposed to martyrdom. Letting Hollywood stars into the. Into Saudi Arabia. It's open, it's getting people there. Young girls, boys, realizing there's a world beyond worshiping one true religion. Now this issue came up comedy festival. So much heaped on these big name for taking 200,400, $800,000 paychecks. I got to tell you, nobody's more critical than of Muhammad Bin Som taking a hex or giving the order to say cut up a journal hacksaw and kill him is true. Would I vote for him if he were on the ballot to run? No, I. If you. If you purport to care about world about making the world a better you can't deal simply in what's you have to focus on what is going to make incremental improvement. It's going to nudge things direction, a better place. And as much as I am not laundering the fact that MBS is a stone cold necessary. Any objective analyst of the Middle east say look, Saudi Arabia is one of the better places. They're Liberalizing more than a lot of other countries over there. They're opening doors. They're allowing women to drive, have jobs and appear without their veils on. They are in fact liberalizing. So the idea that a Hollywood star is supposed to say, okay, here's a part of the world where they've not wanted us for decades, ever. They've said we're bad. They said their people can't watch us because they need to stay at home worshiping one book all day and they don't let the women or act like improper fathers or husbands. Now they want us in there. They want to learn from us. They want to celebrate, they want to enjoy our culture. They're inviting us over and we're supposed to say, nope, you were bad in the past. So there's something fundamentally screwy about that. This is the same sort of logic that it's not specific to those on the left quite often can be. It's as if people who are pro gay rights were saying, no, Obama, because you initially in the earlier parts of you did not embrace gay men, we're always going to hate you. Even though later on you went from not being in favor of gay marriage to pro gay, we're going to condemn you forever. That's not how most people treated President Obama. Like it or not, the Saudis are liberal. It's not a liberal society. Let's not kid ourselves. But they are liberal. What makes society open to different from different place, different ideas? Invite comics in when you invite creative types, directors, stars, font. So I have to condemn the people who are condemning these Hollywood stars for going over there. Now if you're a big movie star, if Meryl Streep goes over there and says, I just want to say anyone who criticized BS as anything other than Martin Luther, who's never harmed anyone in his life, this is the greatest place for free run rights ever. If she said that, fine, go ahead and go ahead and condemn her. But guess what? She's not saying that nor have any. And as far as I know, even go over there nor have none of the movie stars have gone over red scripts somehow absolving mbs of civil rights, atrocity atrocities or murder. They're not doing that. They're just going over there talking about art, talking about their same with the Hollywood or the comedians comedy a month. They weren't over there saying, hey, everyone over here is great. This is the freest society ever. And it's all a bunch of nonsense. This criticism about how they're bad for women and gays. Nobody said that. That's not what happened. They went over and did their comedy. What is comedy? It's poking fun at us quite often. Guess what? We want saw to get used to the idea of criticizing those more. So yeah, I understand the comedians had to sign documents saying they make fun of the leaders of the tree or their religion. I get that most of those come out. Most part they're American. None of American pop culture. Their whole act was not making fun of a particular religion. So it wasn't asking to have some huge sacrifice. So I am. I'm very much favor of anyone for the west who gets invited to Saudi Arabia or any repressive place and can talk about what they do for a living and is doesn't just have to spout off proper promoting that. Do it now. Where I draw the line is something like the president of the United States did last week when asked about MBS ordering on the Journal murder and cutting them up in the bone saw. Stuff happened. Get over it. That's where I draw the line. That's really doing PR for thugs. But I haven't seen any hot stars or kids. What's your take? Would you do whatever your profession, Would you provide that service or make that product?