A Melbourne cinema has cancelled a screening of a documentary on men’s rights activism for fear it could be “potentially damaging to our credibility” following online uproar.

The Red Pill, a documentary by film-maker Cassie Jaye, was due to screen at Palace Cinema’s Kino cinema on Sunday 6 November, at an event organised by Men’s Rights Melbourne. The film professes to take a “balanced approach” to the men’s rights movement, documenting Jaye’s “life-altering journey where she would never see the world the same way again”. But it has faced backlash from members of the feminist community and has been criticised as unbalanced and in favour of men’s rights groups.

The Australian premiere was cancelled on Wednesday, after an online petition calling on the cinema to abandon the “misogynistic propaganda film” eclipsed 2,000 signatures.

Susie Smith, who founded the petition on change.org, said the film gave a platform to views similar to those of Daryush “Roosh V” Valizadeh, a self-described neo-masculinist whose planned visit to Australia caused a stir with immigration in February.

“This is the kind of disgusting, violent message that is totally out of line with Australian values and law,” Smith wrote.

“Please do not associate your cinema with the kind of people who teach men how to violate women physically and emotionally. Please stand with the women everywhere, and do not promote misogynistic hate.”

The petition was directly referenced by Kino cinema in its email to notify David Williams, the event organiser and a spokesman for Men’s Rights Melbourne, that the screening had been cancelled. Guardian Australia has contacted Williams for comment.

Williams pasted the email above a rival petition on change.org, set up to “stop extremists censoring what Australians are allowed to see”. At time of writing it had more than 5,000 signatures.

In the email, the representative of Kino cinema told Williams that much of the feedback to the screening of The Red Pill assumed that it was a “curatorial decision ... which is potentially damaging to our credibility as we are yet to see the film so cannot stand by its contents in the face of the criticism we are receiving”.





A spokeswoman for Palace Cinemas confirmed that the email pasted by Williams was sent by staff at Kino cinema.

Benjamin Zeccola, chief executive of Palace Cinemas, told Guardian Australia on Thursday that the decision to cancel the screening was made “in the absence of any judgement of the film, filmmakers or attendees”.

“However, what was initially booked as a closed, private screening was being publicised widely and this in turn upset a significant proportion of our customers, who communicated their feelings to us directly.

“Upon receiving such direct feedback we realised that irrespective of the content, its presence in one of our cinemas was offensive to a large section of our core audience and movie club members. Therefore we took the decision to cancel the screening aware that regardless of the decision we took, a significant number of people would be disgruntled: so we took the decision that we think was best for our customer base at that time.”

Jaye rallied against the decision on social media, and called for “one Melbourne movie theatre to defend free speech” and host the screening.

“The numbers are on our side, people want to see The Red Pill, so why aren’t any Australian movie theatres wiling to stand up to censorship?” she wrote.

Williams told the Herald Sun he was “determined” to find a new venue to screen her film.

It's confirmed: @palace_cinemas has pulled The Red Pill, a film they have not even seen! Read their letter here: https://t.co/ukarLj7S2x — Cassie Jaye (@Cassie_Jaye) October 25, 2016

2,370 uninformed protestors bullied a Melbourne theater into censoring #redpillmovie, but 4,700+ have signed wanting to save THE RED PILL! — Cassie Jaye (@Cassie_Jaye) October 26, 2016

Just need one Melbourne theater to defend free speech and screen @redpillmovie, but they're all saying they don't want to invite controversy — Cassie Jaye (@Cassie_Jaye) October 26, 2016

Jaye told Guardian Australia she was “very disappointed that a petition filled with lies” raised the response it did, and that Kino cinema had “decided to cave to these bullies’ demands ... rather than stand up for what’s right”.

“I’m still hopeful that The Red Pill will find a courageous Australian cinema to support a screening of the documentary, and if that happens I believe that theatre will receive a lot of praise and support from the general public for standing up for free speech.”



Pointing to her portfolio of work, she said she was a supporter of women’s rights and gay rights. “I am not a men’s rights activist, even after making The Red Pill, but I do believe in having an open dialogue about gender equality and that’s what my film is about,” she said.

She told the website Breitbart last year that she had struggled to find executive producers who were prepared to work on a “balanced” film about the men’s rights movement: “We found people who wanted to make a feminist film.”

Though the film eventually raised more than US$211,000 on Kickstarter, its release has been plagued with controversy, much centring around one of its central subjects: Paul Elam, the founder of the men’s rights website A Voice for Men, which has published some “deliberately inflammatory” articles on domestic violence, feminism and rape.

“You see, I find you, as a feminist, to be a loathsome, vile piece of human garbage,” reads one of his posts on the site. “I find you so pernicious and repugnant that the idea of fucking your shit up gives me an erection.”

Alan Scherstuhl referenced Elam’s writings in his review of the documentary for the Village Voice.

The Red Pill, he noted, was screened in theatres “mostly so that outlets like this one get tricked into running reviews that, even if negative, confer some kind of legitimacy”.

“I apologise for taking the bait,” he added.

David Futrelle, a Chicago blogger who “tracks and mocks” the men’s rights movement on his website We Hunted The Mammoth, on Tuesday updated his scathing “open letter to Cassie Jaye” published last year, to ask readers not to campaign against screenings of The Red Pill.

“It’s just free publicity for them,” he said.

Jaye has has accused Futrelle of sending her “bullying emails”, and told Guardian Australia he was a “radical feminist troll blogger ... who has been discredited a countless number of times”.

But Futrelle wrote on Tuesday that petitions against The Red Pill gave Jaye and men’s rights activists the opportunity to “play the part of free-speech martyrs”.

“It’s exactly what they want,” he wrote. “So please don’t start petitions against The Red Pill, don’t sign petitions against The Red Pill; don’t support petitions against The Red Pill.

“Let it sink into the obscurity it deserves on its own.”

Guardian Australia also apologises for taking the bait.