A comeback for Los Angeles’ iconic 88-year-old Bruin Theatre in Westwood is now in doubt. Information about its new operator, Canadian exhibitor Rui Pereira, may kill the revival.
On Aug. 26, IndieWire published an investigation highlighting claims of a checkered history with previous endeavors in Toronto’s film community. Among the accusations are nonpayment and unlicensed screenings at another independent venue. Most notably, the outlet — which, like The Hollywood Reporter, is owned by Penske Media — highlighted Pereira’s history of making racist and antisemitic remarks on his theaters’ social media accounts. These included references to “fake Jews,” “sub human devils,” “zionazis” and “murderous filthy vile hasbara fake Jew scumbags.” After another user referred to him as antisemitic, he responded on a Bruin Theatre-branded account: “You mean anti-septic?”
In an interview with THR, Pereira, 60, described any focus on his rhetoric as “nonsense” and “bullshit,” explaining, “whatever is there [online] doesn’t have to do with what I’m doing [at the Bruin]. This is a contrived situation that exists in the false fantasyland of the Internet.” He argued he’s not a public figure. “I’m just a guy, a working person. My business is selling popcorn and pop and making sure the film is on the screen.”
Still, Pereira — who says he has no investors or partners in either his Toronto venues or his Bruin endeavor (he signed the lease in July) — believes that the highlighting of his comments may be blowback for his prior hosting of screenings of the recent Israel-critical films No Other Land and Palestine 36 in Canada. “I’m sympathetic to the Palestinians and to humanity,” he says.
Pereira sought out the Bruin after he learned that a previous deal for it had collapsed. The earlier effort involved the director Jason Reitman, who has taken over the Westwood Village Theater across the street. The Bruin’s owners are descendants of Spyros Skouras, once the president of 20th Century Fox. The family could not be reached for comment.
Pereira, who contends he isn’t “anti-Jewish,” asserts, “Zionism has now been conflated with genocide and ethnic cleansing.” (Both charges are subject to significant dispute among scholars of the Israel-Palestine conflict.) He tells THR, “everyone is welcome at the [Bruin] theater, including Zionists. I’ve come to open the theater for everybody.”
The Bruin is located at the heart of one of the most demographically Jewish areas of the Los Angeles region, which features the third-largest concentration of Jews in the world after New York City and Tel Aviv. According to a recent survey, 88 percent of Jews believe that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, Democratic state — the historically accepted definition of Zionism.
The venue is among a group of local exhibition landmarks, including Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome, Glendale’s Alex and Westwood’s Village, whose resurrections as first-run movie houses has generated a surge of civic optimism. In recent years, the Bruin has repeatedly played itself on screen, first in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, when Sharon Tate watches herself in The Wrecking Crew, and again earlier this month in FX’s The Shards, when Bret Easton Ellis visits to see The Shining.
Filmgoers mill outside the Bruin Theatre in 1978 in anticipation of Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war film ‘Apocalypse Now.’
George Rose/Getty Images
Pereira tells THR that he doesn’t believe his rhetoric will jeopardize the Bruin’s ability to operate, including working with major studios to secure prints and premieres, as well as attracting prominent filmmakers to participate in post-screening talks. But a group of local Jewish organizations object to his stewardship of a key cultural venue in the city.
“Hate has no place in Los Angeles,” says Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles senior regional director David Englin. “Moviegoers, employees, production staff, and anyone involved in any theater have a right to be free from antisemitism, racism, and other forms of bigotry and discrimination.” Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, says: “The Bruin’s reopening should be a bright spot for Hollywood. It is a signal of the industry’s resurgence and a moviegoing home that is open to everyone. There is no context in which calling Jews ‘sub human devils’ or celebrating a swastika outside a Jewish family’s home is anything but naked antisemitism, and anyone entrusted with a theater this central to the business must reject that hatred unequivocally.”
Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, explains, “The comments attributed to Rui Pereira, whose entity operates the Bruin Theatre, are not just disturbing; they echo a script Jews have heard before. To dehumanize Jews, invoke Goebbels and Nazi imagery, tell Jews to ‘go back to Poland,’ and describe a swastika painted outside a Jewish family’s home as an appropriate symbol for ‘zionazis’ is not criticism of Israel. These are old hatreds, rehearsed in new costume.” He adds, “Antisemitic hatred and the dehumanization of Jews cannot be dismissed as political discourse simply because Israel is invoked,” and notes, “the community deserves an artistic venue operator to operate without bias towards any group, irrespective of their religion or race and expects the controlling ownership of the Bruin to make this commitment without delay.”
Ari Ingel, executive director of Creative Community for Peace, a non-profit which seeks to counter anti-Israeli sentiment in Hollywood, called Pereira’s remarks “appalling and completely unacceptable,” explaining, “at a time when Canada’s Jewish community is confronting record levels of antisemitism, this is one Canadian export Los Angeles can do without.”
After hearing of the Jewish organizations’ response to his rhetoric, Pereira acknowledged it was “offensive” and he “must take responsibility.” However, he also characterized the broader conversation about his conduct as “distractions from reopening the Bruin and the excitement and positive energy it has generated.”
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