#jewish filmmaker

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Lisa Chodolenko

Director and screenwriter Lisa Chodolenko was born in 1964 in Los Angeles, California. Chodolenko's debut feature, High Art, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Her next feature, Laurel Canyon, premiered at Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Chodolenko is best known as director and writer of the 2010 film The Kids are All Right, which was nominated for multiple Oscars, including Best Picture. She later won an Emmy Award and a Director's Guild Award for her work on the miniseries Olive Kitteridge.

[opheliaintherushes]

Zone of Interest: one day I'll break the habit of casually inviting friends to see intense and esoteric Holocaust movies with me, but not today. Son of Saul was a blinkered onslaught; Zone of Interest is so restrained that glimpses are interpreted horrors until the second-to-last scene opens the curtains. Magnificent.

[rrrauschen]

Vladimir Korsh & Iosif Shapiro, {1936} Искатели счастья (Seekers of Happiness; A Greater Promise)

[frances-baby-houseman]

A thing I realized while watching the Fabelmans, which may or may not be good but absolutely 100% wrecked me, is that I am the same age now as my parents when they got divorced. I always think about how old I was (15), but never how old they were. I am really going through it these days, and I guess 40ish is the time for that.

[capableism]

13 The Musical Movie Missing Essential “Offensive” Songs

Evan Goldman is becoming a man in the Big Apple, or so he thought. After his parents divorce, he is forced to have his Bar Mitzvah in Indiana. 

Photo by Sudan Ouyang from  Unsplash

Musical Conventions

13 is unique with no adults in the cast; it is easier to suspend disbelief for the immature choices driven by dating. 13 has a song, 

Terminal Illness, which focuses on Archie, a character with muscular dystrophy. A progressive neuromuscular condition. Terminal Illness is about Evan using Archie's disability to secure R-rated movie tickets for a date. 

Authentic Teenagers

Archie is hormone-crazed for Kendra, the most popular girl in school, and Brett, the most popular guy. 

Evan purposefully tells Archie he can date Kendra if he uses the pity he receives from his muscular dystrophy to his advantage and gets Evan's mother to pay for the tickets to the Bloodmaster. 

While Evan is more focused on his Bar Mitzvah than Archie, the song and Archie are self-aware of disability. Evan: 

"Listen, I'm not making fun. Of your terminal Illness. But you hold the secret to getting my mom to say yes. No one says no to a boy with a terminal illness.  Who could refuse when you shuffle your shoes and say please? Use all the tricks that you learned in your cradle. You don't need to lay it on thick with a ladle. 'Cause no one says no to a boy with a fatal disease!”

Self Awareness

Archie is a charismatic character and, earlier in the musical, has a number of Get Me What I Need; he tells Evan that having a date with Kendra is his dying wish. Terminal Illness is a musical number that shows Evan views a disability as an advantage he can use, partly because Archie also uses it that way. 

 Nuances in "Offensive" Songs

During the number of Terminal Illnesses, the question "who could complain?" refers to this plan. Evan responds, "Except for you because you're dying. In the next stanza, Archie responds, "Except for you because you're Jewish and you always complain." Evan says, "It's true." Both responses are played for laughs. 

This song shows both boys are willing to use what they can to get a date. Throughout the musical, Archie makes jokes about his disability. It is played for laughs as self-deprecating humor. "No one makes fun of me on the special needs bus. That would be ironic.” 

The movie adaptation omits all of these small details about Archie and songs such as Terminal Illness most likely to modernize the musical to be less offensive. However these songs drive the musical plot forward that has a more realistic depictions of a person's early teenage years.

References

Hessenger, J. (2022). 13: The Musical Follows Broadway Tradition by Becoming a Terrible Movie. Paste Magazine. https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/13-the-musical-review

[utopia-studios-entertain-archive]

The Fabelmans

(Hi y’all! It’s been a while hasn’t it!)

Quick Stats: Film, semi auto-biographical, drama, for all ages, feel good topics, Jewish representation, content warning for anti-semitic topics.

“Young Sammy Fabelman falls in love with movies after his parents take him to see "The Greatest Show on Earth." Armed with a camera, Sammy starts to make his own films at home, much to the delight of his supportive mother. Aspiring to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, he soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.”

I want to start this by presenting a question. One that I believe everyone should ask themselves at least once in their lives, especially creatives. Anyone can answer it, but it does take some thought to find a true answer. 

How did you become the person you are today?

Many would answer the simple question at surface level. ‘I got from point A to point B because I worked towards a goal’ or ‘I just ended up here by chance.’ 

I want the personal answers. I want the ‘I am this person because of how I was raised’ and the ‘I was going down a bad path and so I decided to change it’. I want the answers that make one think, and understand. They don’t have to be grand or devastating. They can still be simple, but make them interesting. 

The first time this question was presented, I was a sophomore in college taking an acting class. We had to write monologues based on that question, and share them in front of everyone. That class single handily, despite all the anxiety and fear, altered the way I thought about myself and why I was there. (Enough about myself though.) 

I brought this question to the table because I was recently reminded of it when watching The Fabelmans by Steven Spielberg (Runtime 151 minutes). This brings a valid point to a forever ongoing conversation people have with themselves throughout their lives; and if you have seen the film you know what I am talking about. If you have not seen it yet, the conversation is exactly as I had described in the paragraphs above. 

This movie could honestly be titled “The Great American Drama: Real Life”, and not at all in a bad way. Many would loathe to sit through a film such as The Fabelmans because it is not here to satiate a hunger for instant gratification. A concept that we have all become so accustomed to. It is here for the viewer to sit, to think, to watch, and to understand. 

The film is empathic to all ages, from young children to late adults. It grips something that everyone should understand, and that is life itself. Someone does not have to be tragically dying for a story to be interesting. This is one of those stories where a kid is just growing up, and going through the struggles.

With that, here are two questions to be presented when watching the film. I believe they are about passion. Passion for what one loves, be it family or the arts or their job. Everyone has a passion in life, and even if you don’t believe you do; it’s there, you just have not discovered it yet. 

Question number one is as presented: What first ignited your passion?

For Sammy Fabelman it was the very first film his parents took him to see when he had to be six(?), maybe seven years old. It was Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 film, “The Greatest Show on Earth” in which it featured a story of the Ringling Brothers Circus. 

In the film there is a train crash. Something at the time that was incredibly fascinating. For our day and age people knew it was pulled off with model trains. But that was exactly what Sammy had asked for during Hanukah. His parents, especially his father, were happy to get the model train set, and by the end of the holiday everyone was excited to see it set up and running. 

Sammy, specifically, wanted to see it crash. A childlike wonder to see how things in the real world could possibly ever happen. His father scolded him with good intentions, but his mother proposed that he film it crashing only once. So if he ever had the urge to see it crash again he could watch the film instead of harming the toy. 

That single ignition of inspiration was Sammy’s answer to question number one. 

Question number two comes at the end of this ignition: What solidified your decision to follow your passion for the rest of your life?

Now, I won’t spoil the movie by answering that because this answer typically comes at the end of many stories. It is a question that both ends and begins a new era in people’s lives. Instead, I will argue that these are two questions we should answer ourselves. Maybe we don’t have the answer at this point in time, but one day we will. 

One day we all have our train crash moment that makes us want to tirelessly pursue the thing we are passionate about. Sammy’s father had it. Sammy’s mother had it. Everyone has a passion in their lives that they would, if they could, devote themselves to. 

Balancing passions and life, though, is an endless tightrope that we all walk. Whether it be a job we love or a pursuit of happiness such as filmmaking. Everyone battles to choose one over the other, but that only makes people miserable. 

One can starve their life, but where would people be without their families or friends; be them related or chosen? One can starve their passions instead, but what would the world be without them? We would make ourselves miserable if we chose one over the other. It will always be a constant balancing act. The Fabelmans is a perfect depiction of that balancing act.

[13thgenfilm]

"Can you help me film at Carnegie Hall this January?"  ❤️🎬 Read this personal message from director / producer Marc Smolowitz: 

👉 https://bit.ly/3hqcP8M

[skyedom]

The recent additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been steadily falling off anyhow thanks to Disney, so I wasn’t too surprised at this news.

However I’d like to also point out the absolute hypocrisy of this decision:

Sabra was an early character during the beginning eras of marvel, which unlike how black panther was made for the sole purpose of fighting back in a cause, Sabra was and additional character to diversify the many heroes from all over the globe. This component is the key part of Sabra. Taking that away on the mcu’s part not only opposes their modernized “representation motive” while also being antisemetic without making it seem as antisemitism.

As a film major I’m already super disappointed to the direction of modern releases and especially pissed off that Hollywood continues their double standards when it comes to Jewish representation within characters and the stories they inhabit. It’s everything inclusive except for Jews; they are simply not allowed to be in character spaces.

Stories are a part of what makes us human; removing one of many varieties of such defeats this purpose.

My point is, stories are for everyone, including for Jewish people!

So is making her RUSSIAN somehow less controversial than making her Israeli?? Really??

It is absolutely disgusting to erase a character's identity like this. I'm not a marvel fan, but as an Israel-born Jew I was looking forward to on-screen representation and would've loved to see Sabra on screen.

Definitely won't be watching now, what's even the point?

[thebusylilbee]

guys, Israelism (2023), a documentary made by jewish filmmakers that focuses on the insane zionist brainwashing jewish US americans go through throughout their entire lives and how difficult it is to even open your eyes to it when you grow up in that type of cultist and fascist environment, is now available for free on youtube ! I urge you to watch it !

[jewvian]

If we were real life friends I would go and watch Bottoms with you

I remember reading about it in an article of upcoming lgbtqia+ movies that are gong to be relesed in 2023-2024 and I got so excited!

Aww that's so kind of you anon! Like it would be really hard finding someone that's into that sort of movie irl so I do appreciate your offer lol 😜

It looks so good right?? Exactly the kind of fucked up humour I need in a movie lmao and also! The creator is so awesome, I've been following her career since shiva baby (a fantastic movie btw) and I'm really really excited to see what she's gonna bring us with this one!

Now all we gotta do is wait and hope for a close theater release lol

[karingottschalk]

We're Taking a Break to Continue Our Research on the Late, Great Australian Director of Photography & Cinematographer Robert Krasker, BSC

[brandyschillace]

The Forgotten History of the World’s First Transgender Clinic

I finished the first round of edits on my nonfiction history of trans rights today. It will publish with Norton in 2025, but I decided, because I feel so much of my community is here, to provide a bit of the introduction.

[begin sample]

The Institute for Sexual Sciences had offered safe haven to homosexuals and those we today consider transgender for nearly two decades. It had been built on scientific and humanitarian principles established at the end of the 19th century and which blossomed into the sexology of the early 20th. Founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, the Institute supported tolerance, feminism, diversity, and science. As a result, it became a chief target for Nazi destruction: “It is our pride,” they declared, to strike a blow against the Institute. As for Magnus Hirschfeld, Hitler would label him the “most dangerous Jew in Germany.”6 It was his face Hitler put on his antisemitic propaganda; his likeness that became a target; his bust committed to the flames on the Opernplatz. You have seen the images. You have watched the towering inferno that roared into the night. The burning of Hirschfeld’s library has been immortalized on film reels and in photographs, representative of the Nazi imperative, symbolic of all they would destroy. Yet few remember what they were burning—or why.

Magnus Hirschfeld had built his Institute on powerful ideas, yet in their infancy: that sex and gender characteristics existed upon a vast spectrum, that people could be born this way, and that, as with any other diversity of nature, these identities should be accepted. He would call them Intermediaries.

Intermediaries carried no stigma and no shame; these sexual and Gender nonconformists had a right to live, a right to thrive. They also had a right to joy. Science would lead the way, but this history unfolds as an interwar thriller—patients and physicians risking their lives to be seen and heard even as Hitler began his rise to power. Many weren’t famous; their lives haven’t been celebrated in fiction or film. Born into a late-nineteenth-century world steeped in the “deep anxieties of men about the shifting work, social roles, and power of men over women,” they came into her own just as sexual science entered the crosshairs of prejudice and hate. The Institute’s own community faced abuse, blackmail, and political machinations; they responded with secret publishing campaigns, leaflet drops, pro-homosexual propaganda, and alignments with rebel factions of Berlin’s literati. They also developed groundbreaking gender affirmation surgeries and the first hormone cocktail for supportive gender therapy.

Nothing like the Institute for Sexual Sciences had ever existed before it opened its doors—and despite a hundred years of progress, there has been nothing like it since. Retrieving this tale has been an exercise in pursuing history at its edges and fringes, in ephemera and letters, in medal texts, in translations. Understanding why it became such a target for hatred tells us everything about our present moment, about a world that has not made peace with difference, that still refuses the light of scientific evidence most especially as it concerns sexual and reproductive rights.

[end sample]

I wanted to add a note here: so many people have come together to make this possible. Like Ralf Dose of the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft (Magnus Hirschfeld Archive), Berlin, and Erin Reed, American journalist and transgender rights activist—Katie Sutton, Heike Bauer. I am also deeply indebted to historian, filmmaker and formative theorist Susan Stryker for her feedback, scholarship, and encouragement all along the way. And Laura Helmuth, editor of Scientific American, whose enthusiasm for a short article helped bring the book into being. So many LGBTQ+ historians, archivists, librarians, and activists made the work possible, that its publication testifies to the power of the queer community and its dedication to preserving and celebrating history. But I ALSO want to mention you, folks here on tumblr who have watched and encouraged and supported over the 18 months it took to write it (among other books and projects). @neil-gaiman has been especially wonderful, and @always-coffee too: thank you.

The support of this community has been important as I’ve faced backlash in other quarters. Thank you, all.

NOTE: they are attempting to rebuild the lost library, and you can help: https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/archivzentrum/archive-center/

[rrrauschen]

Alexis Granowsky, {1925} Еврейское счастье (Jewish Luck)

[komsomolka]

“I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation”.

Jewish American filmmaker Sarah Friedland speaks in solidarity with the Palestinian people on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and 76th year of occupation as she accepts the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for Familiar Touch.

[ashwantsafreepalestine]

“I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation”

Jewish American filmmaker Sarah Friedland speaks in solidarity with the Palestinian people on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and 76th year of occupation as she accepts the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for Familiar Touch.

@QudsNen

[holdoncallfailed]

We are Jewish artists, filmmakers, writers, and creative professionals who support Jonathan Glazer’s statement from the 2024 Oscars. We were alarmed to see some of our colleagues in the industry mischaracterize and denounce his remarks. Their attacks on Glazer are a dangerous distraction from Israel’s escalating military campaign which has already killed over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza and brought hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. We grieve for all those who have been killed in Palestine and Israel over too many decades, including the 1,200 Israelis killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the 253 hostages taken.  [...] We are proud Jews who denounce the weaponization of Jewish identity and the memory of the Holocaust to justify what many experts in international law, including leading Holocaust scholars, have identified as a “genocide in the making.” We reject the false choice between Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom. We stand with all those calling for a permanent ceasefire, including the safe return of all hostages and the immediate delivery of aid into Gaza, and an end to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of and siege on Gaza.  We honor the memory of the Holocaust by saying: Never again for anyone.

+ this comment from film critic david ehrlich