Frightened, Scared, and Terrified
Trans Rights are Human Rights
Since the convicted felon has come back into office, he has signed not one, not two, but three executive orders targeting transgender Americans. He has banned us from the military and targeted our healthcare. The irony is that he claims to support Israel. Newsflash: trans Israelis can openly serve in the IDF AND have access to publicly funded healthcare.
To say that I am beyond frightened, scared, and terrified is not an understatement. I’m still knee-deep in Jewish film festivals so I’ve been behind on writing book reviews. That said, I’m making good progress on America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands. I didn’t like Lindbergh at all going into the book and while I’m still not finished reading, I really don’t like him. It wasn’t just that he was an isolationist but he supported a negotiated peace that would have left the Nazis in charge in Germany. Make no doubt about it—this would have killed even more Jews across Europe and elsewhere.
Jewish film festivals select a good amount of films dealing with the Holocaust. Many of them are documentaries or narrative features. I’d love to see more films about Jewish joy because Holocaust films—no matter how important they are in reminding people—can still do a number on my headspace and that’s on top of a headspace and focus already impacted by the recent transphobic executive orders.
There were a few reviews that I didn’t get around to writing yet because of said EOs impacting my headspace and focus. Some of these films will screen in Atlanta next month so I’ll try to give it another go then. I didn’t get to watching much of the New York lineup yet because I’ve been extremely focused on the Miami lineup. There’s some overlap but way fewer films played New York than Miami. You can read all my Miami Jewish Film Festival reviews here.
As tends to be the usual case unless Sundance conflicts with my schedule, I once again covered a few films on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Liberation comes from Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Moriah Films. Resistance: They Fought Back aired on PBS following a brief theatrical run last year. The Last Ones of Auschwitz is currently streaming on YouTube after its Miami premiere.
I didn’t publish my review until this morning but I spent Monday night watching Never Alone. The Finnish film is about a Finnish Jewish businessman’s efforts to save Jewish refugees in Finland. We never really hear about Finland when discussing the Holocaust. They were an Axis ally because they had a common enemy of the Nazis in the Soviet Union. But anyway, Finland protected their Jewish citizens (around 2300) from the horrors. That’s not to say the same for non-Finnish Jewish refugees. They ultimately deported eight of the refugees with seven being killed at Auschwitz.
A few of my interviews have been recently published on Awards Focus:
Craig Henighan - Deadpool & Wolverine sound designer
Myron Kerstein - Wicked editor
Andrew Buckland and Scott Morris - A Complete Unknown editors
A few others are in the works and some more still need to be transcribed and scheduled. The year-end awards season cram did not help me when it came to finding time to transcribe. As for the beginning of the year, the fires immediately impacted my productivity, merely because of knowing too many people impacted.
His Holocaust Remembrance Day statement—which for unknown reasons wasn’t released until 10 PM at night—is either lying like the wind or he really sees trans people as being sub-human because he wouldn’t include this line otherwise: "And we declare the timeless truth that every human being is a child of G-d and inherently worthy of dignity and respect."
You know who saw Jews as sub-human? Nazis. The same dehumanization is happening again, only it is targeting a different segment of the population. I warned everyone that voting for him was a vote for the Project 2025 agenda but no, some people didn’t believe me. The same agenda also includes turning Jews into second-class citizens. This hasn’t happened yet but it won’t surprise me when it does. Evangelicals want all Jews living in Israel as it is.