Keanu Reeves Condemns Violence Against Cinema America

By Nate Nickolai

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Keanu Reeves has issued his support of the Italian cinema collective Cinema America, after it was attacked by an alt right organization.

Reeves joins a number of high profile film leaders in signing a statement issued from Cinema America, which condemns the violence directed at the film collective. The organization first released the statement Thursday on its Facebook page after four people were attacked following its showing of Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.”

According to the Guardian , the statement in Italian says: “It is unacceptable that there is still someone that thinks they can impose their view through the use of violence … We can’t accept a wound of this kind, inflicted not only to the world of art and cinema but to the whole world.”

Directors Francis Ford Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Spike Lee, Guillermo del Toro, and Stephen Frears have also signed the letter in addition to actors Willem Dafoe Jeremy Irons, Debra Winger, Richard Gere and John Malkovich.

Italian reports say that at least one of the suspects from the June 16 attack belongs to a youth wing of Italy’s neo-fascist CasaPound political party, a far-right organization that goes by the name Blocco Studentesco.

Cinema America is a seven year collective known for organizing free outdoor movie screenings in Rome.