West Point Professor Recounts Employee’s ‘Tirade’ at Burns Film Center Amid ‘October 8’ Screening Controversy

By Andrew Vitelli

Robert Goldstein and his wife have long cherished the Jacob Burns Film Center – the friendly staff, the cozy atmosphere, and its role as a cultural institution.

But after a disturbing alleged incident at the theater last week – and the Burns’ response – his feelings have shifted from admiration to deep disappointment, echoing outrage and debate unfolding across local social media pages.

The couple was enjoying an early dinner in Pleasantville on Friday when Goldstein’s wife received a text from their daughter. The Jacob Burns Film Center, the renowned nonprofit theater in the heart of the village’s downtown known colloquially as the JBFC or the Burns, had announced it would host one screening of October 8, a documentary on the rise of antisemitism following the October 7 attacks.

Goldstein, a 68-year-old Jewish Pleasantville resident and a professor at West Point, was aware of the push – both on social media and through a letter-writing campaign – to have the movie shown at the Burns. He and his wife were eager to secure seats and, finding themselves just a short walk from the theater, decided to pop by the box office to ask whether tickets were for sale.

But when his wife asked whether tickets for the October 8 screening were available, according to Goldstein’s account, the box office clerk became immediately belligerent.

“He said, ‘I’m not going to sell you a ticket. I am not going to sell any tickets to that film,’” Goldstein recalled in an interview with The Examiner this week.

The interaction only escalated from there, Goldstein stressed, with the clerk saying something along the lines of, “You are murderers,” according to Goldstein.

“The implication there was very, very clear,” Goldstein said. “What I took away from that is that I think he was talking about Jews in general, and me and [my wife] as members of that group.”

Another Burns employee witnessed the exchange, he also noted.

In a statement sent to The Examiner, a spokesperson for the Jacob Burns Film Center said the theater conducted an investigation into the incident but provided little detail on what the inquiry found.

“The safety and well-being of all those in our space is our top priority, and we require both our staff and patrons to treat each other with respect,” the statement said. “We were informed of the incident at our theater, and we immediately conducted an investigation, including reviewing video footage of the incident. We will continue to provide a positive experience for our patrons and staff.”

‘Oozing violence’

After the clerk’s comments, Goldstein acknowledged he responded angrily.

“I was flared up, so I cursed him back,” Goldstein said. “I called him the worst thing I could think of, which was a Nazi.”

Goldstein, however, maintains that he only became confrontational after the clerk directed hostility toward him and his wife, while the clerk was aggressive from the outset. And he said he only used the word “Nazi” after the clerk’s alleged “murderers” comment.

The Examiner asked the Burns whether the theater could provide the security camera footage or describe the sequence of events as determined by the organization’s investigation. The Burns did not respond to these requests.

Goldstein said the theater was mostly empty at the time of the confrontation.

“He was a young guy. He was very threatening. I stayed back, but he was like, oozing violence. And I did not want that to happen, and that’s why we left as quickly as we could,” Goldstein said. “I don’t like to admit to any weakness, but I was just shaking.”

After reporting the incident to another employee (who Goldstein said identified himself as the manager at the time) Goldstein emailed a half dozen generic email addresses affiliated with the Burns to report the incident but heard back from CFO Patrick Saxton. In response, Saxton promised to investigate and implement practices to make sure it does not happen again.

“It is completely unacceptable for any member of our staff to treat anyone in a disrespectful or hostile manner at our facilities,” Saxton said in the letter. “The behavior that you experienced does not reflect our standards, our code of conduct, or the values we hold as an organization.”

Saxton also offered to speak to Goldstein directly, but Goldstein said he would only do so after the employee was fired. Goldstein said he did not hear back from Saxton after that. He also did not file a police report.

The Examiner asked the Burns spokesperson whether the employee faced any disciplinary action, but the spokesperson did not respond.

Though the showing had been announced on social media, tickets for the film had yet to go on sale when Goldstein visited the box office. Sales for the May 1 screening went on sale March 31, and sold out almost immediately.

‘I was so mobilized’

Even before the incident, the JBFC’s approach to October 8 had come under scrutiny, leading to a letter-writing campaign, scores of comments on social media, and eventually a statement by the local congressman.

Released in theaters on March 14, October 8 depicts the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses, social media, and the streets following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. It has an 81 percent critic score and a 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregation site.

Last month Burns members and other local residents started pushing for the film to be screened, writing letters to the theater asking that it be shown. The discussion lit up social media, including several local community Facebook pages.

Sena Baron, a Sleepy Hollow resident, helped organize a letter writing campaign to push for October 8 to be screened.

“When I saw the film, I was so mobilized that I just couldn’t believe that it wasn’t going to be at the Burns, especially since they were doing a Jewish film festival,” said Baron, who visited Israel last July on a solidarity mission with Rabbi Aaron Brusso of Bet Torah and some 30 other congregants.

Several proponents of the film noted that the Burns had screened There Is Another Way, a documentary directed by JBFC founder Stephen Apkon about Combatants for Peace, an organization of Israeli and Palestinian activists.

The theater was also showing No Other Land, a documentary critical of Israel. No Other Land (which boasts a 100 percent critic score and a 100 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes) won the Academy Award for Best Documentary; the JBFC typically screens Oscar nominees and Oscar winners during the period around the award show.

Pleasantville and the surrounding villages have significant Jewish populations. A 2003 New York Times article estimated that 10 percent of the village population was Jewish, a number that may have grown since. And the Burns has long served as something of a cultural haven; the theater’s 23rd Jewish Film Festival is set to begin later this month, attracting patrons from across the region.

The Burns initially held firm and resisted any screening of October 8.

“Our film programmers are charged with the considerable challenge of identifying works that are artistically significant, socially relevant, and engaging to our audience,” JBFC Executive Director Mary Jo Ziesel wrote in a response sent to letter-writers asking for the film. “At the same time, they must balance myriad other prudential and logistical factors, including (among many others) the terms of distribution, the limited number of screens and times, and the breadth of artistic content.”

She continued, “All this to say that every programming decision is the result of a unique confluence of factors. Given these constraints, we are unable to bring in October 8 for a run at this time.”

Her response did little to stem the push. A March 20 Facebook post promoting a screening of There is Another Way featured a dozen comments, almost all asking why October 8 was not being shown.

Finally, last week, on March 28, the theater agreed to a special event screening of October 8, featuring a moderated discussion with the American Jewish Committee Westchester/Fairfield. On social media, commenters praised the decision, though some questioned why there would be only one sold-out screening instead of an extended run.

Congressman Weighs In

But the controversy is not over.

This week, Congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican whose district includes Pleasantville, released a statement questioning why the Burns had refused to show October 8 after showing No Other Land.

Lawler, whose statement came out after the Burns had announced the screening, tied the initial decision to the hiring of Eric Hynes as director of film curation.

The congressman highlighted Hynes’ history of making critical statements about Israel. Lawler also referenced an April post on X/Twitter in which Hynes appeared to downplay the credibility of Jewish students’ “fears for safety” in response to anti-Israel activists, arguing that such concerns were part of a broader trend of co-opting what he described as leftist language for reactionary purposes to justify silencing peaceful protest.

“Unfortunately, this hiring decision has reared its ugly head in the biased choice to refuse screening of October 8th, a critical film that highlights the challenges faced by Jews in the US following the horrific October 7th attacks,” Lawler said in the statement. “Given Mr. Hynes’ praise for the antisemitic protests at Columbia University and at CUNY, one doesn’t have to wonder if his personal anti-Israel bias factored into his decision to refuse screening this important film.”

The Burns spokesperson did not respond to a question about Hynes’s role in the theater initially resisting the film’s screening.

The Filmmaker 

October 8 is directed by filmmaker and journalist Wendy Sachs. In a brief conversation with The Examiner last week, before the incident at the ticket window and before the theater decided to screen her movie, Sachs refrained from criticizing JBFC without yet knowing the process behind the decision making.

She stressed that unsubstantiated claims should not be made before the facts are known while also acknowledging the real hostility her film has confronted in some quarters.

Sachs’ work has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, and NPR.

Her documentary SURGE, which premiered on Showtime in 2020, follows women candidates as they run for office and help flip red districts to blue in the 2018 midterm elections.