Veteran indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch premiered his new movie “Father Mother Sister Brother” today at the Venice Film Festival, where journalists asked him about Mubi, the streaming platform that co-produced the film — specifically, about Mubi’s recent $100 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
“I was disappointed and disconcerted by this relationship,” Jarmusch said, while noting that his own “relationship with Mubi started much before that, and they were fantastic to work with on this film.”
Numerous filmmakers — including those with ties to Mubi — signed an open letter criticizing the streamer for accepting money from Sequoia and saying that the firm’s backing of Israeli defense tech startup Kela meant that “Mubi’s financial growth as a company is now explicitly tied to the genocide in Gaza.” (Mubi’s founder and CEO subsequently insisted that “any suggestion that our work is connected to funding the war is simply untrue.”)
For his part, Jarmusch said at his film’s press conference that he’s “not the spokesman” for Mubi, but rather an independent filmmaker who’s “taken money from various sources to fund my films.”
“All corporate money is dirty,” he said.
