The sunny headquarters of the American Friends of the Salzburg Festival are conveniently right across the street from the festival’s performance halls. The association between the festival and the Friends has been long and close. Until this summer.

Festival officials are miffed with the Friends over that group’s decision to present “The Salzburg Festival: A Short History,” a new documentary by the British filmmaker Tony Palmer. The festival has disavowed the film, partly because of what festival directors consider Mr. Palmer’s overemphasized and sometimes inaccurate account of the festival’s intertwined relationship with the Nazis.