#toronto leftists

[miiaspeaks]

A million times better than that trump pic imo. picture of the year.

from bloomberg

[avi-on-jumblr]

A grocery store in Toronto was targeted today (January 3 2024). It was set on fire, the windows were broken, and "free Palestine" was graffitied on the doors. The grocery store's name is "International Delicatessen Foods", and so its acronym IDF was part of its signage, which was likely the factor in the antisemitic attack. That, and/or the fact that the owner is Jewish.

According to officials, police and firefighters were called to the scene at about 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday. When firefighters arrived, they saw smoke coming from the rear. Fire crews entered the building and quickly extinguished the blaze. Gray said officers found the graffiti on the outside of the building at the same time that the fire was discovered. She said police suspect the incident was motivated by hate and believe it was committed "with bias or prejudice." "We're very early on in the investigation and I must highlight when I say it's organized, they didn't just happen upon this business. Let's be not silly here. These people have targeted this business and so that means they've been here before," she said.

[kharmii]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8XSE8gg63Y/?igsh=MW1vZmNwMXFkcG5jaw==

Just when I thought the Pro Palestine zealots couldn’t stoop lower, here they are, taking fake decapitated heads and kicking them like Hamas did to the murdered Israelis.

These people are sick in a way that actually can’t be cured. All of them would 100% become murderers, or already are honestly. This is not normal behavior. It’s depraved in a way that’s not only shocking to witness, but should wake EVERYONE’s self-protection instincts the fuck up.

Toronto is one of those shitholes up in Canada full of native homeless people dying of fentanyl in droves, -there's a Twitter somewhere that documents people dying in real time- while the powers that be flood it with 'cultural enrichers' who provide so much enrichment that people desiring an easier cost of living have to leave for an area not controlled by leftists.

It has always been said in political circles that SJW leftists are the most vicious nasty close-minded hateful people who accuse you of what they themselves are capable of. If you react to their antics with any other than a perpetual thousand-yard stare, then you get accused of being a 'potential right-wing domestic terrorist', even though incidents of right-wing shit-stirring are almost non-existent. Even when conservatives protest, they are less likely to leave behind piles of trash and property damage.

We're fighting a war that only the left is allowed to participate in. Everyone else has to stand around passively and endure whatever violence and browbeating they choose to hand out. Any pushback gets you labeled a violent bigoted Nazi (again, them accusing you of being what they are). The media-academia-law is on their side, so the only defense you have is to identify who the political zealots are and steer clear.

Side note: Matt Walsh did a video yesterday about lawfare against Elon Musk. He made the point that it's all women who make hostile work environment claims.

In my personal experience -maybe it's just me- women are more likely to harass you in the workplace. They are the ones making the snide comments or engaging in outright bullying. I've only ever been sexually harassed by other women. It's true I have a workplace stalker, but he has never ever made an inappropriate comment to me sexual in nature. None of them have touched me, but a few have gone into graphic detail about their sex lives or made lewd jokes, all the while giving me knowing looks expecting some sort of reaction. I'd stare at them deadpan like....I can't even guess what I'm supposed to say about this.

That pretty much sums up the leftwing experience. You can't even guess how to react because they believe that both morality and reality are fluid -the way they perceive gender- so there's no reliable sense of right and wrong or justice and fairness or concrete reality. We're held hostage by the whims of the Narcissistic dominant culture made up of emotionally driven toddlers who might say they are 3/4 male and 1/4 female on any given day.

In that context, it makes perfect sense to make a mockery of how Hamas murdered some random people at a music festival who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. They can side with murdering terrorists because they are brown and therefore not subject to the same sort of judgement you or I would face if we were to murder random people and kick around their severed heads.

[ashtonderoy]

What I think a Communist should be? A Criticism of Lenin.

Written by Ashton Deroy I’m a Communist! In an abstract way…. I will be imbedding this with links on Communist articles of interest. Last worked on 8/9/2023 at 7:06PM I don’t really care for this garbage though. Marxism does not call for you to worship at the feet of your Dictator. That was just how a Law School Drop out chose to interpret it. When he absorbed Progressive philosophy? Then…

[maryannmccarra-fitzpatrick]

#Toronto

#Canada

#DEI

#Ideologues

#KikeOjoThompson

#KikeOjo

#KikeThompson

#KOJO

#WelcomeToTheStruggleSession

Personnel connected with #KOJOInstitute of Toronto drove this man to suicide.

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/07/24/toronto-principal-killed-himself-after-being-singled-out-during-dei-training-n566788

https://kojoinstitute.com/blog/

[nostalgicamerica]

The vast majority of Canadians I've interacted with over the last 40 years have been amazing. Genuinely nice, friendly, and all-around good people.

Granted, the majority have been from west of Manitoba; who knows what the Canucks from the eastern half of Canada are like? I suspect they are no different, though.

My considered opinion is that it is the large (leftist) population centers like Ottowa, Toronto, Montreal, etc. that are the rotten apples in the Canadian barrel.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me FRIDAY NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The Democratic Party Pizzaburger Theory of Electioneering is: half the electorate wants a pizza, the other half wants a burger, so we'll give them all a pizzaburger and make them all equally dissatisfied, thus winning the election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

But no one wants a pizzaburger. The Biden administration's approach of letting the Warren/Sanders wing pick the antitrust enforcers while keeping judicial appointments in the Manchin-Synematic universe is a catastrophe in which progressive Dem regulators (who serve one term) are thwarted by corporatist Dem judges (who serve for life):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

The Democrats – like all parties in two-party systems – are a coalition; in this case, a "progressive" liberal-left coalition with liberals serving as senior partners, steering the party and setting its policies. These corporate dems like to color themselves as "neutral" technocrats with "realistic, apolitical" policies that represent what's best for the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This sets up the left wing of the party as the starry-eyed, unrealistic radicals whose policies are unpopular and will lose elections. But for a decade, grassroots-funded primary challenges have made it possible to test this theory, by putting leftist politicians on the ballot in front of voters, especially in tight races with far-right Republicans (that is, exactly the kinds of races that the corporate wing of the party says we can't afford to take chances on).

The 2022 midterms included enough races to start testing these theories – and, unlike traditional midterms, these races enjoyed high voter turnout, thanks to the unpopularity of GOP positions like abortion bans, book bans and anti-trans laws. Jacobin teamed up with the Center for Working-Class Politics, Yougov and the Center for Work and Democracy at ASU and analyzed those races:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11134429/CWCP-Report-2024.pdf

Their conclusion: candidates from working-class backgrounds who campaigned on economic policies like high-quality jobs, higher minimum wages, a jobs guarantee, ending offshoring and outsourcing, building infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back to the US won with a 50% share of the vote in rural and working-class districts. Dems who didn't lost with a 35% share of the vote:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-18-how-actually-existing-democrats-run-for-office/

In other words, in the kinds of districts where Trumpist politicians are beating Democrats, running on "left populist" policies beats Trumpist politicians.

That's the good news: if Dems recruit leftist, working class politicians and put them up for office on policies that address the material reality of voters' lives, they can beat fascist GOP candidates.

Now for the bad news: the Democratic establishment has no interest in getting these candidates onto the ballot. Working-class candidates, by definition, lack the networks of deep-pocketed cronies who can fund their primary campaigns. Only 2.3% of Dem candidates come from blue-collar backgrounds (if you include "pink-collar" professions like nursing and teaching, the number goes up to 5.9%):

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters

All of this confirms the findings of Trump's Kryoptonite, an earlier Jacobin/CWCP research project that polled working-class voters on preferences for hypothetical candidates, finding that working-class candidates with economically progressive policies handily beat out Republicans, including MAGA Republicans:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08125102/TrumpsKryptonite_Final_June2023.pdf

Since the Clinton-Blair years, "progressives" have abandoned economic populism ("It's not a burning ambition for me to make sure that David Beckham earns less money" -T. Blair) and pursued a "third way" that seeks to replace half the world's of supply white, male oligarchs with diverse oligarchs from a variety of backgrounds and genders. We were told that this was done in the name of winning elections with "modern" policies that replaced old-fashioned ideas about decent pay, decent jobs, and worker power.

These policies have delivered a genocide-riven world on the brink of several kinds of existential catastrophe. They're a failure. The pizzaburger party didn't deliver safety, nor prosperity – and it also can't deliver elections.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/#bread-and-butter

[reasonsforhope]

"In short: Nine million Canadian women of reproductive age will have the full cost of their contraception covered as part of a major health care reform, the government says.

The reform includes the most widely used contraceptive methods, such as IUDs, contraceptive pills, hormonal implants and the day after pill.

What's next? The government must still win the approval of Canada's provinces, which administer health care."

"Canada will cover the full cost of contraception for women, the government says as it highlights the first part of a major health care reform.

The government will pay for the most widely used contraceptive methods, such as IUDs, contraceptive pills, hormonal implants or the day after pill, for the nine million Canadian women of reproductive age, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Sunday at a press conference in a pharmacy in Toronto.

"Women should be free to choose the contraceptives they need without cost getting in the way. So, we're making contraceptives free," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on X, formerly Twitter.

The announcement fleshes out the first part of a bill unveiled in February that, once completed, would mark the biggest expansion of Canada's publicly funded health care system in decades.

This new regime will also cover the cost of diabetes medication for some 3.7 million Canadians.

The cost of the new system and timing of the launch have not been announced...

The government must now win the approval of Canada's provinces, which actually administer health care, for this new system. Alberta and Quebec have already said they would opt out.

The pharmacare plan — as it is called locally — follows protracted negotiations between Mr Trudeau's Liberal minority government and a small leftist faction in parliament.

The New Democratic Party agreed to prop up the Liberals until the fall of 2025, on the condition that the government immediately launch the drug program."

-via ABC News Australia, March 31, 2024

[toronto-intifada]

(The Grind) asked three Palestinians in Toronto about their connection to Palestine, their experiences and reflections on the past year, and their thoughts on the future.

[thegayhimbo]

At this point, it's hard to tell if people like this are profoundly stupid, extremely lazy, deeply antisemitic (while trying to pretend they're not), or a combination of all three. 🙄

Since we're here, and this bozo wants examples of Antisemitism from the Left because they can't be arsed to do any research for themselves, here are some examples since the October 7th attack:

A Spike in Antisemitic Hate Crimes in London since the October 7th attack

Rise in Antisemitism in New York City

A man punching a woman for possibly being Jewish

Free Palestine users harassing a 97 year old Jewish Holocaust Survivor on TikTok (as well as bullying other Jews on social media)

Pro-Palestine protestors in Toronto attacking Jews

Threats to kill and rape Jewish students at Cornell University

Paris Subway Passengers screaming "Fuck The Jews......We are Nazis and Proud"

Twitter/X screenshots of Antisemitism from the Left

Leftist Tumblr users coming onto an Israeli LGBT woman's blog telling her "she deserves to die" (and other vile comments)

London Holocaust Library being defaced with Pro-Palestine slogans, and a Jewish Cemetery being defaced with a Nazi swastika and the ceremonial hall being set on fire

Bomb threats and attacks on Jewish synagogues

More reported cases of antisemitism

The latest cases of antisemitism (as of this week)

Jewish Students Assaulted (and Jewish Student Center Vandalized)

MSNBC calling out the rise in antisemitism on college campuses

Multiple attacks on Jews where people were either screaming "Kill the Jews" or "Gas the Jews" or defacing Holocaust memorials and other vile antisemitic acts

The infamous video of University Presidents who couldn't answer a simple "yes or no" question about whether calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes bullying and harassment

I could list other examples and links I have on file of Antisemitism from the Left (and I'm sure others can highlight examples I either didn't cover or might not know about), but I've made my point: If whenmagicfilledtheair actually gave a crap about this, they would have put in the work to look up these cases up for themselves. They are willfully turning a blind eye because it's convenient for them to do so.

whenmagicfilledtheair is antisemitic and doesn't want to own up to that. This also applies to others on the Left right now who are being downright sociopathic in their treatment of Jews.

[technofeudalism]

i made a long post about how traditional media coalescing around Trump is scarier than social media for me and i included some news/media sources i recommend at the bottom. here they are (plus some additions) in a shorter post so that it is easier to share.

the objective is to build a network of local, national and global sources that you can count on. preferably completely independent and free from editorial or corporate oversight.

note: all media is flawed, including the ones below. never rely on one source. do not immediately accept something as the truth from any single source. everyone is capable of accidentally getting a detail wrong, or even deliberately misleading. the fact is that even reading something as inflammatory as Fox News can give you information you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else, the key is not to take any of it at face value.

Dropsite News - ran by Ryan Grim, Jeremy Scahill

The Intercept - sadly running out of money, alleged CIA ties

Democracy Now! - more center-left, better domestically

Jacobin - wide variety, sometimes shitty takes, Alex Press is great

The Grayzone - this one is controversial (mainly just to liberals) and they make no qualms about being committed to reporting from an anti-imperialist view of the world

Black Agenda Report - perspective from Black leftists. founded by Glen Ford (RIP), a Black Panther and accomplished investigative journalist

Hasan Piker - hate him, love him, neutral, doesn't matter. he's the largest independent political commentator on the left (by far), covering news and misinformation 9 hours a day. you can think he has shit takes, but he's still a reliable source and has been insanely accurate with his opinions

The Majority Report - been around forever, Sam Seder & Emma Vigeland are amazing, once home to the incredible Michael Jamal Brooks (RIP)

International Viewpoint - monthly English-language magazine of the Fourth International

Left Voice - socialist news site and magazine

It's Going Down - news, opinion, podcasts and reporting from an anarchist viewpoint

Sludge - investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics

Socialist Alternative - democratic socialist news organization.

Socialist Project - Toronto-based organisation that supports the rebuilding of the socialist Left in Canada

The Progressive - leftist magazine operating since 1909

Truthdig - independent source for original reporting from a progressive viewpoint

Workers World - marxist news organization run by Workers World Party

Breakthrough News - untold stories of resistance from poor and working-class communities

Labor Notes - media and organizing project amplifying union activism

Ben Norton @ Global Political Economy

Erin Reed

Caitlin Johnstone (AUS)

do not rely on "media bias" sources like Ground News. they are part of the problem with making false equivalencies between left and right. this insightful blog post published a few days ago proves my point: "The data collected here shows that left-leaning stories tend to have far better sourcing than right-leaning ones, and are less politically polarized. The process for selecting, grouping, and summarizing these stories does not seem to take these differences into account, and there is little transparency into how that process works. This leads the platform to publish dodgy stories from the right, with the appearance that they are just as valid as high-fact reporting from the left or the center."

[thelongestway]

All right, my Leftist Tumblr friends. I was looking stuff up for work and stumbled across something I think you will all greatly enjoy.

I think it's time to introduce y'all to Ivan Franko, one of the most famous Ukrainian poets. His stuff is pretty relevant to you all right now.

This particular one, "The Spirit of Revolt", is from 1880.

If you're wondering about the page numbers, it's because 54 has music.

Source: Franko, Ivan. Ivan Franko: Poems and Stories. Translated by John Weir. Ukrainska Knyha, Toronto, 1956.

Or, alternatively, have a different translation:

Source: Franko, Ivan. Ivan Franko: The Poet of Western Ukraine. Selected Poems. Translated by Percival Cundy. New York, 1948.

[encyclopediamorbidica]

can you elaborate on the "claimed to be limited in her capacity to racially oppress while uplifting white artists in black artforms that she refuses to actually engage with or understand" I don't think I've heard of taxxon doing that before, and am curious what exactly she has said, and what black artform she is specifically doing that with.

i get it, patty says a lot of shit off the cuff that makes it extremely hard to find the more alarming stuff.

for examples of her uplifting white artists in Black art forms, she has run defense for tom macdonald of all people. initially she just wonders how he ended up making the switch to right-wing grifting, before later coalescing her thoughts about him into "it sucks that he's a grifter now because his petulant white boy centrist rap was actually good because at least then he was honest"

when pressed for recommendations, she admits she knows next to nothing about the genre and actually manages to come out with a fairly influential Black artist, but immediately fucks it up by admitting that Ka was the first rapper she "enjoyed for being rap" because she used to "enjoy it solely as beats and voice acting" which. girl what the fuck.

she's reduced the beef between kendrick and drake to just "pop culture elevating genuine excellence" because she has no clue about the actual history behind it, likening the event to "kendrick's metallica black album era" as if it spawned from a desire for kendrick to simply one-up drake at his own game and not, you know, call attention to the fact that drake was a culture vulture middle class actor from toronto who pivoted to rap by lifting most if not all of his style and persona from american rap culture while also abusing women both publicly and privately as well as engaging in extremely suspicious conduct with minors like millie bobby brown (gee, i wonder why patricia wouldn't be interested in that part).

as for her stating that she's limited in her capacity to racially oppress, she literally just said that shit. when she started to get pushback about it, she claimed that she didn't mean her initial statement to absolve her of being complicit in white supremacy, which is accurate, but goes on to say that anyone who came to the conclusion that, from her vague ass intial statement, she was was just trying to wash her hands of being called out for her racism were being transmisogynistic for expecting her to understand that 1) intersectionality doesn't work like that and 2) being trans and disabled doesn't make her any less racist.

as a hip-hop oldhead, i can understand how all of this can read as me just being Big Mad that she isn't caught up on The Culture, but these posts betray one of many patterns of behavior where patricia doesn't engage w Black art and artists if it doesn't appeal to her specific tastes. her wide, sweeping statements about what she considers "good" rap and her more nitpicky delving into white artists in this art form come across as her making active choices only to engage with extremely surface level mainstream representation that floats downriver, couching her opinions of it in this doublespeak of wanting to look like a good leftist while also refusing to understand the ways in which she contributes to and is able to benefit from being an outsider to these spaces.

no one expects her to know or care about rap, and so she doesn't, outside of a very small amount of dabbling. no one expects her to enjoy rap as it exists, and so she doesn't, choosing to break it down into individual elements so that it's palatable enough for her to be willing to listen. no one expects her to be invested in rap history, and so she isn't.

[mrs-stans]

Donald Trump might make the Oscar cut – but with Sebastian Stan playing him

TORONTO — In the Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” famed New York lawyer Roy Cohn lays out three important rules to Trump, his young disciple: “Attack, attack, attack” is the first; “Admit nothing, deny everything” is the second; and “No matter what, claim victory and never admit defeat” is last.

For anybody who’s watched cable news in, oh, the last decade, that all seems pretty familiar. Trump became a cultural figure, first in business and then on NBC's competition show "The Apprentice" before taking the Oval Office. The controversial new movie charts the future 45th president’s rise in the 1970s and ‘80s, but includes echoes of his political era throughout. (“Make America Great Again” even makes an appearance.)

The Oscars also have rules, though it’s an unwritten one that comes to bear here: Play a real-life figure and you’ve got a decent shot at a nomination. Which is a boon for “Apprentice” stars Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, who give outstanding performances as Trump and Cohn, respectively.

“The Apprentice” (in theaters Oct. 11), which had a surprise screening at the Toronto International Film Festival Thursday, starts with a young Trump working for his father Fred's real estate company. Donald dreams of opening a luxury hotel in Manhattan, but starts out going door to door collecting rent. He meets Cohn, who first helps the Trumps in court and then becomes a mentor to young Donald, who listens intently as Roy rails about civil rights, makes hateful remarks and says leftists are worse than Nazis.

Trump takes to heart Cohn’s advice ― there are only two kinds people in the world, “killers and losers” ― his hotel business takes off and turns him into a Manhattan power player. There’s a turn, however, and the movie focuses on how Donald’s confidence and cruelty takes hold. He cheats on wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova), rapes her in one of the film's most disturbing sequences, and shuns Cohn after he becomes sick and eventually dies from AIDS.

The most fascinating aspect of “Apprentice” is watching its leads change their characters and body language to drive home that cinematic shift. Stan starts out playing Trump as an awkward, lonely sort before taking on more of the mannerisms that we’ve seen on our national political stage in recent years. (Even though he doesn’t quite look like Trump, the voice and inflections are spot on.) Strong is initially a scary and discomforting presence before gradually turning more sympathetic as his disease sets in and Trump worries he’ll get sick just being around his former friend.

Granted, it’s not normal for a biopic about a presidential candidate, and a high-profile film-festival one at that, to arrive less than a month before the election. It likely won’t sway voters either way, whether they see Trump as monarch or monster, and Trump’s more likely to threaten legal action than show up to the Oscars. But the movie’s worth paying attention to because of its powerful acting, from Stan, Strong and Bakalova. (In a packed best-actor lineup, one of Stan’s biggest rivals will be himself, since he’s also phenomenal in this month's “A Different Man.”)

One of the best scenes, in which Trump and an ailing Cohn let each other have it with all the venom they can muster, wraps up a lot of the core themes in a movie filled with meta commentary. Trump’s screwed over Cohn, and the lawyer tells him “you were a loser then and you’re still a loser” and that he’s “lost the last traces of decency you had.”

“What can I say, Roy,” Trump snarls. “I learned from the best.”

[whileiamdying]

With Searing Political Drama ‘I’m Still Here,’ Walter Salles Delivers an Urgent Warning: ‘A Country Without Memory Is a Country Without a Future’

By Brent Lang

There was something about the Paiva family’s house that Walter Salles never forgot. It was a few blocks from the beach in Rio de Janeiro. The doors and gates were always unlocked, the windows open to let in sunlight and ocean breezes. It was filled with music and dancing, parties and people, debates and ideas. But that all changed in 1971 when Rubens Paiva, a former leftist congressman turned engineer, was hauled away by the police or the military (it wasn’t initially clear) to be interrogated, tortured and, eventually, murdered. That left his wife Eunice and their five children to pick up the pieces and search for answers something in short supply since Brazil was seven years into a military dictatorship that would last for 14 more.

“There was such a vitality to the house. It was a place we all wanted to drift through,” says Salles, who was a teenager when he would visit the family. “Then one day when we went by, it was completely closed and there was police guarding it. You can imagine the shock.”

Salles grew up to become one of Brazil’s greatest filmmakers, spending much of his career dramatizing his country’s slow, often slouching, move towards democracy in films like “Central Station.” But “I’m Still Here,” which documents that harrowing period in the lives of the Paivas, may be his most personal yet, as it deals with people he grew up knowing so intimately. What he’s pulled off is nothing short of a triumph, as well as an urgent reminder of the dangers of authoritarianism. The film debuted to raves at the Venice Film Festival, with critics citing Fernanda Torres’ performance as Eunice as Oscar-worthy. It screens at this year’s Toronto Film Festival before Sony Pictures Classics releases the movie domestically this fall.

Though the movie deals with an explosive subject matter, Salles took an understated approach to the production. He resisted in close-ups, push-ins or other camera moves that would have heightened the tension in a melodramatic way. “I wasn’t trying to amplify emotions,” he says. “I wanted to be truthful.”

And he takes time getting to Rubens’ disappearance, following the parents and the kids over summer days spent on the beach, evenings at the ice cream shop and social occasions where Eunice’s famous soufflés were in demand. “You had to allow the life to breathe in,” Salles says. “In the beginning, I want to invite you to be sensorially in a family.”

The goal was to make it clear how much joy was snuffed out when Rubens was “disappeared.” To help the actors get into the proper emotional state, he shot the picture chronologically. It was a logistical nightmare for a movie shot on location, since shifts in weather or availability often necessitate filming things out of sequence. “It allowed me to get into my character’s skin,” says Torres. “You had this sunny part of the movie with children and parties and friends. Then it’s all taken away and you are filled with this sense of loss. I felt like I, Fernanda, had experienced that.”

Salles encouraged Torres to underplay Eunice’s grief and anxiety, reminding her that her character needs to keep it together for the sake of her young children. “She remains in silence,” Torres says. “She cannot just panic. She doesn’t have time for self-pity. But there’s something profound about her actions. When something violent was happening to her, she stayed calm. She smiled. She didn’t show she was suffering.”

The Paivas begin the film comfortably middle class, but Rubens’ disappearance plunges them into economic uncertainty. Without a death certificate (something Brazilian authorities took decades to grant the family), Eunice had no access to her family’s money and was forced to sell everything and start over. She went back to school and became a human rights attorney.

“Her journey blended with the journey of Brazil as it sought to redefine itself,” Salles says. 

That journey continued during the seven tumultuous years that Salles labored on the script and then in cobbling together the film. It was a period that saw Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing aspiring strongman, win the presidency, only to lose office in a tight contest four years later against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In scenes eerily reminiscent of the Jan. 6 riots, Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Brazilian government buildings, radicalized by his claims of election fraud.

“We started this project thinking that we were retelling a story from the past, but we came to realize that it was also a reflection on our present,” Salles says. “We have to remind ourselves of what happened. Cinema can be a powerful instrument to push against those forces — to help us avoid oblivion. A country without memory is a country without a future. “

[secreteviltwin]

york university in toronto just axed its women and gender studies program which is a big deal because york u is the canadian academic capital of annoying leftists. i know these departments have devolved into circuses but it's really sad to see them disappearing after 2nd wave feminists fought so hard to establish them. having a place in academia gives feminists the resources and authority to direct institutional change and now we are watching it all evaporate...