PLANS to promote the next film in the Canberra documentary film festival, “Stronger than Fiction”, have been thwarted after Facebook disabled the event’s advertising account because its promotion of the film has been deemed “political advertising”. 

The inclusion of David Osit’s film “Mayor” have been in tow for months, well before recent unrest in Israel and Palestine, and according to the festival’s directors, Hannah de Feyter and Deborah Kingsland, the screening will go ahead as planned on May 28 at Dendy Cinemas in Civic.

“Mayor”, which takes inspiration from TV shows like “Parks and Recreation”, is a cinematic portrait of the charismatic mayor of Ramallah, Musa Hadid.

He’s shown briefing the nine abseiling Santas for a Christmas parade, consulting with disgruntled shepherds about drainage problems in their pastures and trying to cut through marketing jargon in city branding meetings.

de Feyter and Kingsland, who have appealed against the Facebook ruling, believe the day-to-day frustrations of work in the public service are likely to chime with many Canberrans, and that the unusually humorous film about local government might throw a lighter and much-needed perspective on the current flood of news stories from the Middle East.

The screening will be followed by de Feyter’s interview with the director David Osit and again Stronger than Fiction audience members will have exclusive access to the Premium Lounge for wine and conversation after the screening.

“We are so disappointed that this has happened. We can’t believe that the people who designed the Facebook censorship rules really meant for films such as ‘Mayor’ to be banned from advertising a screening,” Kingsland says.

All details of the screening may be found here.