Regular readers of these pages will be familiar with Mubi, the art house streaming platform that in environments such as SA provides one of the only spaces where art house film lovers can get a legal fix of experimental, independent cinema offerings from parts of the world whose cinematic output no longer has a home on local theatrical screens.
Founded in 2007 by Turkish entrepreneur Efe Çakarel under the artsy name of The Auteurs, the business in 2010 became Mubi, a made-up word chosen because of its cutesy sound relationship to “movie”, and has since then slowly but surely established itself as a serious player on its own terms in the art house cinema game with a subscription-based service available in 190 countries.
In recent years Mubi has also expanded into the business of production and distribution, spending millions on acquisitions at high-profile festivals such as Venice and Cannes and driving last year’s sleeper hit, the Demi Moore-starring The Substance to international acclaim and Oscar contention.
Like any film business, Mubi needs serious cash to fund its increasingly global moviemaking ambitions and in May the company landed a lucrative $100m investment from Silicon Valley venture capital giant Sequoia Capital, a major tech industry investment firm that manages $56bn in assets and has since its founding in 1972 made many profitable bets on companies such as Apple, Google and Nvidia.
The announcement of Sequoia’s Mubi deal was not, however, met with universal cheer. That’s because Sequoia’s huge portfolio includes major investments in several companies whose main area of focus is the development of AI military technology used by the Israeli government and its army in the country’s assault on Gaza.
Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire also caused outrage earlier this year with online attacks on New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. The tech-bro described Mamdani in a series of posts on X as an “Islamicist ... who comes from a culture that lies about everything”, “defends terrorists” and is, along with his father — the renowned academic Mahmood Mamdani — “so excited for a third intifada”.
Sequoia’s investments, together with Maguire’s outbursts, have led to outrage from Silicon Valley and the creative community against both Sequoia and Mubi.
More than 1,000 people signed an open letter to Sequoia in July condemning Maguire’s comments and demanding that he be disciplined and that the company apologises. A letter to Mubi expressing “serious concern” about its decision to accept Sequoia’s investment and arguing that the venture capital firm had “since 2023 chosen to double down on investing in Israeli military companies with the goal of profiting from the Gazan genocide” was signed by 35 filmmakers affiliated with Mubi at the end of July.
The filmmakers have argued that “Mubi’s financial growth as a company is now explicitly tied to the genocide in Gaza, which implicates all of us that work with Mubi” and have called for the company to publicly condemn Sequoia and implement an ethical policy for all future investments.
Filmmakers who signed the original letter include Finnish legend Aki Kaurismäki, Romanian provocateur Radu Jude and Oscar-winner Joshua Oppenheimer, and over the past month the number of signatories has grown to close to 70 filmmakers from the global art cinema sector.
Initially Çakarel hummed and hawed and gave little indication that he or his company would listen to the cries of outraged filmmakers, but last week the Turkish CEO finally sat down to pen a letter of response. In his letter Çakarel began by making clear that “what’s happening in Gaza is unbelievably tragic and devastating ... We condemn all acts that harm innocent civilians and reaffirm the right of all people to live in peace and safety. The immense suffering, displacement and starvation of the Palestinian people is a humanitarian catastrophe that must end. We stand firmly against war and tyranny in all forms, and in support of the dignity and freedom of all people.”
He then went on to “clarify our relationship with Sequoia Capital and Shaun Maguire” to show detractors that Mubi was not complicit in “the events occurring in Gaza”.
Çakarel argued that the “profits Mubi generates do not fund any other companies in Sequoia’s portfolio” and that “any suggestion that our work is connected to funding the war is simply untrue”. He also assured filmmakers that Maguire was not a partner of any of the funds that invest in Mubi and that he has no relationship with the Mubi team and plays no role in its partnership with Sequoia. Mubi “neither supports nor endorses Shaun’s views, and we have voiced our concerns about his public statements directly to Sequoia”.
Çakarel was at pains to explain that Sequoia’s overall involvement in Mubi was “minimal” and that “as founder and CEO I remain the largest shareholder and maintain full control over all business and curatorial decisions”.
Çakarel announced that Mubi would be formalising an ethical funding and investment policy to “set clear criteria for future funding partners [and] establish safeguards that separate investor interests from editorial and commissioning decisions”. The policy would invite feedback from filmmakers, artists, audiences, civil society groups “and all who care about Mubi’s mission” before it was finalised in October.
Whether this will satisfy critics remains to be seen. Çakarel has acknowledged that “we know some in our community will want us to go further and others may feel we have gone too far”, but he believes that Mubi’s “responsibility is to protect a space where filmmakers and audiences can meet. That means being transparent about how we are funded, explicit about how we protect artistic independence, and humble about what we still need to learn.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.