Thursday, November 21, 2002

From: Larry Clark
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 23:39:19 +0000
Subject: Larry Clark in London!

To Whom It May Concern:

I arrived in London to present my new film KEN PARK in the London Film Festival. The film was to be shown on the 9th and 10th of November. My co-director Ed Lachman and the actress Tiffany Limos are also in London to present the film.

Ed Lachman, Tiffany Limos, and I met Hamish McAlpine (the owner of Metro Tartan, the distributor for KEN PARK in Great Britain) at a dinner on the 7th of November.

Just about the first thing he said to me was "I would never live in America and I think September eleven was the best thing that ever happened to America. I thought the attack would make Americans understand why the rest of the world hates them."

I asked why and he said " Israel and the American support of the Jews."

I said, "isn't it the fanatic Muslim fundamentalists who want to set the world back 1000 years?"

He said "No it's fucking Israel, and America supports and backs Israel. The Arabs want peace and if Israel would go back to the borders before the 1967 war, there would be peace. The Arabs say that."

I said who say's that?

He said "Yasser Arafat" "

I said do you believe Yasser Arafat?"

He said " Hammas says it too."

I said "Hammas sends in suicide bombers to kill innocent people and civilians, what about that?"

He said ''They deserve to die"

I said "what!''

He says, "They fucking deserve to die. What are you gonna do about it?"

I said, "What about the innocent little children and babies who get blown up?"

He said, "they fucking deserve to die" and I lost it and punched him in the nose. I hit him a few more times. He went to the hospital with a broken nose and I went to jail for four hours before they let me go.

He now says he will not distribute KEN PARK and today pulled KEN PARK from the London Film Festival and it looks like it won't be shown at the festival. I have been told since he has a contract to distribute the film in the UK he has the right to cancel the screening of the film even though he says he now won't distribute KEN PARK.

If he is mad at me for punching him that's OK. I'm sorry I lost control and acted in an uncivilized manner but this sick son of a bitch said he supports terrorism and the bombing of innocent people and children and babies and he feels passionately they deserve to die. If he was trying to provoke me, he did. But pulling KEN PARK from the London Film Festival for spite is bullshit. Ed Lachman and Tiffany Limos who came to London for the film and all the people who were coming to see the film are being denied because of his outrageous comments and my inappropriate actions. But, If I had awoken this morning after listening to him last night and hadn't hit him, I don't think I could have looked at myself in the mirror.

 

 

 

.....


...