Anna Feder, former curator of the Bright Lights Film Series, filed a lawsuit against Emerson College on Tuesday alleging that the college wrongfully terminated her because of her “personal political activism.” 

Feder, who was employed at the college for 17 years before she was laid off with nine other employees over the summer, alleges she was fired after screening the film “Israelism,” a 2023 documentary that tackles how attitudes toward the state of Israel are changing for some young American Jews. The message of the film became controversial after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israeli settlements in southern Israel and the government’s subsequent declaration of war on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The lawsuit states that administrators “pressured” Feder, who is Jewish, to postpone the event, which was originally scheduled to screen in November 2023, a programming decision Feder says she made before the Oct. 7 attack. After she rescheduled the screening for the following February, Emerson “publicly disavowed” the film in a statement.

“​​The screening of films in this series does not connote endorsement or support of the film’s content by Emerson College or the Visual and Media Arts Department,” the statement read. “Emerson prides itself on being a community of diverse people and perspectives that values social justice and free expression while also protecting our community from bias, threats, and intimidation.”

Feder is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 related to lost wages and earning capacity, damage to reputation, emotional distress, and loss of employment opportunities. This is the second lawsuit Feder has filed against Emerson in recent years; the first was filed in 2021 and alleged she was denied a promotion due to gender-based discrimination.

“In the Summer of 2024, Emerson College implemented several cost-cutting measures, including a reduction in force, which eliminated a modest number of positions and programs,” a college spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Beacon. “The college adamantly denies any wrongdoing in this cost-reduction process and is confident that the facts fully support its position.”

Feder did not immediately respond to The Beacon’s request for comment.

Bright Lights, which Feder established, began in 2012 as a way to connect students with working filmmakers and included a number of Emerson alumni, faculty, and staff. The series was designed to foster dialogue between students and filmmakers, bringing them together to navigate timely topics with industry professionals.

“The series had a small budget and was inexpensive for the college to run, but had a significant impact on students’ opportunities to engage with both experienced filmmakers and academic discourse,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit further alleges that Feder was contacted by one unnamed faculty member and one unnamed member of the Board of Trustees who both expressed concerns over the documentary’s content after Feder made the Bright Lights programming public over the summer of 2023. Feder assured both parties that she had programmed the screening “with the utmost care” and planned to have a conversation post-screening. 

The trustees’ concerns made its way to President Jay Bernhardt’s office, who, according to Feder, asked her to have a meeting to discuss “Israelism.” In the meeting Bernhardt, who is Jewish, told Feder it was not appropriate for the trustee to contact her as they had, and to proceed with the screening, according to the lawsuit.

After the events of Oct. 7, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas militants and, in retaliation, the Israeli government ordered its military to restrict Palestinian movement within the Gaza Strip and killed over 46,000 people, Feder alleges she was asked by the college to reconsider the screening. The same trustee allegedly further communicated their concerns to Feder, who then attended several meetings with her supervisor and Bernhardt. Feder alleges in the suit that the college said if the screening went on as planned, it would require the presence of armed, uniformed police officers, it would be publicly disavowed, and the Bright Lights program would be “revisited.”

After the screening was rescheduled, Feder and the president’s office allegedly received over 1,000 emails from individuals not affiliated with Emerson claiming that “showing this movie denies reality, incites further terror and violence and opens up for more bloodbaths—and opens up a major security risk on your campus for Jewish students,” according to the lawsuit.

Of the emails Feder received from Emerson community members expressing such concerns, Feder allegedly offered each complainant a seat at the screening and opportunities to discuss the film with the filmmakers. The Office of Equal Opportunity, Emerson’s Title IX office, allegedly reached out to Feder after fielding numerous community concerns, and was told her plan to address such concerns was “sufficient.”

The screening of “Israelism” was the most successful Bright Lights had ever seen and took place without incident, the lawsuit states.

When Feder began publicizing the Bright Lights programming for the 2024-25 academic year, she announced on a social media page that the series would be partnering with the Boston Palestine Film Festival to screen the film “Tomorrow’s Freedom,” a 2022 documentary about Marwan Barghouthi, an imprisoned Palestinian political leader. Bright Lights had previously collaborated with that festival every year for several years.

Upon her supervisor’s return to campus in early August 2024, Feder was allegedly informed that the administration would be reviewing proposed films and she was not permitted to announce the lineup ahead of obtaining approval. In previous years, the lawsuit states, Feder had organized the upcoming lineup by the end of the spring semester, and when she had announced the films for the 2024-25 year she received no real-time feedback.

A couple of weeks later, on Aug. 13, Feder was notified that Emerson would be ending the Bright Lights Film Series and laying her off due to budget shortfalls and “a need to focus on academic programs,” the lawsuit states. Because of her union contract, Feder continued to be employed by Emerson for the following 60 days but was barred from entering campus, save for three instances when she was granted permission to assist in archival work to preserve the work done through Bright Lights. 

In July 2024, the college announced that it would lay off several faculty and staff positions and not fill some vacant positions to address budget cuts in response to reduced enrollment, which the college said was partly due to the uptick in pro-Palestine campus demonstrations and “negative press and social media.” The college followed through the month after, laying off 10 staff members, including Feder, and ending two programs: Bright Lights and the Engagement Lab. The decisions, which the college said were irreversible, were met with strong opposition from campus community members, who wrote several op-eds in The Beacon.

The lawsuit alleges that Feder was informed three days later that the decision to end the program came from Provost Alexandra Socarides, who began working at the college just weeks before. The provost allegedly stated “on information and belief” that the decision to end the series and lay Feder off came from the Board of Trustees. 

Emerson is among 60 higher education institutions currently under federal investigation by the Trump administration for allegedly failing to protect its Jewish students, according to a letter from the Department of Education sent last month. The college has seen an increase in national attention since the arrest of 118 people in April 2024 after Boylston Students for Justice in Palestine staged a four-day encampment in solidarity with the Palestinian people. On April 26, 2024, the Student Government Association passed a unanimous vote of “no confidence” in Bernhardt and faculty members voted to censure the president.

Feder participated in the encampment last April in her capacity as a member of the unaffiliated organization Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, and she was present for the police sweep that took place in the early morning hours of April 25, which she live streamed. Feder was later seen at police precincts around Greater Boston supporting the detained individuals upon their release. 

Of the 10 individuals laid off, Feder was the only union member and the most senior staff member. The lawsuit states that one of the others laid off was a member of FSJP and an anti-Zionist Jewish person who had been involved in Palestinian advocacy on campus. The individual was not named.

Ahead of students’ return to campus for the 2024-25 academic year, Emerson announced a series of interim policies meant to curtail campus protest, including updates to the community code of conduct and the launch of EmersonTogether, a program intended to reunite the community. The moves garnered mixed reactions from the campus, who pointed out what they saw as the irony of Emerson’s slogan: “Expression Necessary to Evolution.”