Opinion

The AFI Fest has returned to Hollywood for live, in-person screenings and events, although there is also a virtual component for watching many of the feature, documentary, short, indie, studio, and foreign productions that Los Angeles’ largest annual film festival is presenting in 2021. Some of the screenings are accompanied by talent who introduce and/or speak about their films when they are shown at the TCL Chinese Theatres. Here are reviews of some of the films I have seen so far:

MEET THE PRESS FILM FESTIVAL AT AFI FEST

According to the AFI’s website: “In partnership with NBC’s Meet the Press, these short documentaries spotlight compelling stories about pressing issues facing our society with conversations moderated by NBC News journalists.” Meet the Press, of course, is the long running TV program where newsmakers are questioned by a moderator and a panel of journalists hold forth on topics of the day. Accordingly, all of the nonfiction films screened at AFI Fest in collaboration with Meet the Press are topical in nature – and many of them deal with the pressing topic of race, as America undergoes a long overdue racial reckoning.

Note: My apologies for misspelling Chase Meola’s last name. No offense was intended. To other readers, I am not minimizing the very real crime problems. As a retired professor, University District homeowner, and critic of the institutions involved, I do not speak directly for students. I am advocating for a serious, sound, honest, and responsible set of crime reduction and safety policies and their enactment by Ohio State, the City, and Columbus Police Department (CPD). We have not seen that. 

The tall, grey-haired, 60-year-old attorney Steven Donziger gave a final hug to his son last Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Donziger had spent over two years confined in his Manhattan apartment, restricted by a judge-ordered GPS ankle bracelet. And now his first destination would be the nearest jail, to which Steven, a supposed flight risk, drove himself.

After the years spent on house arrest throughout an intimidation lawsuit and facing an $800,000 bail bond – the highest in U.S. history for a misdemeanor – Donziger will now spend the maximum sentence of six months in a federal prison. The alleged crime was contempt of court, but the real crime was Donziger’s successful lawsuit against Chevron, which resulted in $9.5 billion in damages being allocated to Ecuadorians affected by their deadly pollution in the country.

Not a penny of that $9.5 billion, however, ever made it to the people of Ecuador. Instead, Chevron weaseled their way out of the damages and launched a billion-dollar show trial against the attorney that stuck up for the indigenous people of Ecuador.

Corporate cancer

Former Columbus City Council candidate Joe Motil continues his years of objecting to the City of Columbus providing developers with tax abatements if they set aside a small percentage of housing units for those with annual incomes from anywhere between $35,220 - $57,800. He spoke at the Columbus Development Department’s hour-long community question and comment meeting last night at Barack Recreation Center on their proposed Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) Residential Tax Abatement Policy Update Recommendations.                    

When you’re losing the game, summon the commies!

And conservative white America has been losing for quite some time — losing control of the future, that is. The good old days of unabated white supremacy aren’t coming back; racism can only maintain a public forum, and political relevance, if it’s wrapped in political correctness. In other words, racism can’t (openly) be racism anymore. That’s where Karl Marx comes in.

Excuse me, I mean Critical Race Theory: the enemy, the sower of hatred among children. CRT is an academic concept that almost no one had ever heard of, which has been turned into the scapegoat of the moment.

Those who are not familiar with how Israel, particularly the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, is actively and irreversibly damaging the environment might reach the erroneous conclusion that Tel Aviv is at the forefront of the global fight against climate change. The reality is the exact opposite. 

In his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Israel’s rightwing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pushed the Israeli brand of “innovation and ingenuity” to “promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gases”. 

A few days after the Nov. 2 election, the New York Times published a vehement editorial calling for the Democratic Party to adopt “moderate” positions and avoid seeking “progressive policies at the expense of bipartisan ideas.” It was a statement by the Times editorial board, which the newspaper describes as “a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values.”

The editorial certainly reflected “longstanding values” -- since the Times has recycled them for decades in its relentless attacks on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

**  The Times editorial board began its polemic by calling for the party to “return” to “moderate policies.”

The international uproar in response to Israel’s approval of a massive expansion of its illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian West Bank may give the impression that such a reaction could, in theory, force Israel to abandon its plans. Alas, it will not, because the statements of ‘concern,’ ‘regrets’, ‘disappointment’ and even outright condemnation are rarely followed by meaningful action. 

True, the international community has a political, and even legal, frame of reference regarding its position on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Unfortunately, however, it has no genuine political mandate, or the inclination to act individually or collectively, to bring this occupation to an end. 

The following is from the author of Boomtown Columbus, Ohio’s Sunbelt City and How Developers Got Their Way

Joe Motil’s article in the Free Press published November 1st makes some excellent points. He is absolutely correct on how Columbus City Council is a closed shop; a case for breaking and entering, though it is very hard to do. What concerns me most here is Joe’s reference to City Council’s incestuous relationship with the developers. How to resolve this subordination isn’t clear, except that discouragingly, the solution is unlikely to be local.

No, Blues in the Night is not the new theme song that the post-Election Day Democrats are singing. Rather, it is a show starring that distinctly African American art form, the Blues, directed by Ebony Repertory Theatre’s Wren T. Brown and conceived by Sheldon Epps. In the Tony and Olivier award nominated Night four singers croon and belt out 26 songs, many of them created by luminaries of the genre such as Duke Ellington (“I’m Just A Lucky So-And-So”), Bessie Smith (“Blues Blues”), Benny Goodman (“Stompin at the Savoy”) and the eponymous “Blues in the Night” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Happily, none of the music was lip synched and all the numbers were performed by a live quintet.