Theatre, Film & Broadcast

‘Crip Camp’ Espouses Jewish Values

I recently watched the documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution on Netlix. It begins in 1971 at Camp Jened, a summer camp in the Catskills for people with disabilities such as blindness, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, parapalegia, dwarfism …etc. What made Camp Jened different from other camps was that the campers weren’t held to lower standards. They all swam and played baseball. Whatever it took to make them full participants in the camp experience, they did. And they all had a voice, speaking their minds in open fora that could last into the wee hours. For many of them, this meant being treated as equal human beings for the first time in their lives. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Entertaining God, Hollywood style

A sincere group of people in the movie making industry felt the need to rekindle ties to their Jewish heritage. Aware they had a special talent and perspective to bring to religious worship and celebration of God, they formed their own synagogue up north in Los Angeles. They chose an ordained rabbi from the movie business who was a producer and scriptwriter to be their spiritual leader. He graduated from the same high school as myself, Thomas Jefferson in Brooklyn New York. [Ira Spector]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Daily Zoom shul-hopping to recite Kaddish

The pandemic quarantine began in mid-March. One week later, my mother died in her sleep. She was 97 and lived in New York. I live in California. Our New York daughter “Zoomed” mom’s graveside funeral and we sat shiva online. So much of this time has been trying and sad. We miss our grandkids—even though we see them on FaceTime or Zoom almost every day. And we will forever regret not being able to say a proper good-bye to mom in person. [Irv Kass]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

The Roustabouts Reprise A Favorite

Ruff Yeager and Roxane Carrasco play Anton Myrvold and Sunita Savarkar, a middle-aged couple who are still playfully in love. Their home, designed by Sean Fanning, is the warm, inviting abode of an academic filled with books and natural wood tastefully accented with Indian artwork. Anton is a professor of physics who is up for a Nobel Prize for challenging the Theory of Dark Matter. Sunita is a political activist for women’s rights who divides her time between the US and her native India, getting into what the late Rep. John Lewis called “Good Trouble.” Joel Miller and Kate Reynolds play Gray and Britt, the young PhD students who are both being mentored by Anton. They make a handsome couple, but there’s a fellowship that they both want. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi’s reporting biased against Israel

When Ali Velshi speaks, change the channel. Better yet, MSNBC could arrange it so that Velshi can only speak at a street corner.Saturday morning, at 9:45, I experienced an absurd, surreal display of Velshi’s creepy concept of broadcast journalism. If Velshi lived in Russia, he would fit in well writing for Pravda. He offended Jews and other supporters of Israel. Velshi strung together a string of facts and brazen lies while neglecting to supply relevant context on a news program he hosted to conjure up a not-so-creative Israel-bash-a-thon. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Cinematic history of White nationalism

Although screen neo-Nazis continue to be portrayed as ideologues, mad scientists, or thugs, historical docudramas and psychosocial films constitute an increasing portion of the movies about neo-Nazis produced since 1980. This corpus of movies renders their main characters victims of familial, political, or socioeconomic circumstances rather than as stock villains. Their proliferation reflects the escalation of white supremacist rhetoric into recurring acts of right-wing terrorism in Europe and North America from the 1980s on. Depending on the national origin of these pictures, the specific catalysts for radicalization differ, but the images and themes of Holocaust denial, nativism, Nazi iconography, the skinhead look, and virulent racism embraced by actual and fictional white nationalists resemble each other because they network with each other via Internet propaganda, international contacts, joint training maneuvers, rock music, and social media. [Laurie Baron, Ph.D]

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International, Lawrence Baron, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Comics as an agent of social change

The San Diego Convention Center would normally be bustling this weekend with devoted fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror dressing up and geeking out. This year, the center lays as quiet as a tomb. Yet, leave it to clever and resourceful nerds to find a way. Comic-Con International has moved online with presentations and forums via Zoom. While there is a variety of panel discussions and workshops to choose from, I decided to focus on a handful that feature comics as agents of social change. (Eric George Tauber)

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Eric George Tauber, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Online Comic-Con lacks spontaneity, nerdiness

As my friend Nick and I walked around downtown on Friday, there was a sense of stillness in the air. Restaurants had mostly converted to serving only outside and while nearby beaches were packed there was still a sense of disconnection among individual families camped out on their blankets. Perhaps the strangest part was the San Diego Convention Center. If this were normal times, downtown would be Comic-Con central right now. People would queue in mile-long lines to see their favorite piece of media or stories come to life. The restaurants in the Gaslamp Quarter would be buzzing with hungry nerds. Hotels would be filled with tourists. Today I saw a lone man, dressed as Shazam, making chalk art outside the center. [Shor M. Masori]

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Shor M. Masori, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Watching granddaughter’s IDF ceremony in Covid19 time

“You are invited to watch the ceremony to mark the graduation of the soldiers who have completed the Officers’ Training Course.” That was the text of the official invitation emailed to me and other family members by one of our granddaughters, whose sister was one of the soldiers concerned. We were informed that we would be able to watch the ceremony live, as filmed by the IDF’s official photographer, on the official IDF site on the internet. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast