PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Arsène Tchakarian, Last Surviving Member Of French Resistance Unit, Fought Relentlessly For Liberty
Arsène Tchakarian, a French Resistance fighter who survived the execution of much of his unit in 1944, died August 4 at the age of 101. He was the last surviving member of the Groupe Manouchian, a communist Resistance faction composed mainly of immigrants and Jews that did substantial damage to the Nazi occupation of France…
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Culture “American History X” Director Tony Kaye’s Newest Film Will Star A Robot
Talk about your inclusion riders! Director Tony Kaye is hoping to bring greater representation for robots in film by casting an artificially intelligent actor in his newest feature, “2nd Born.” The idea, co-conceived by the film’s producer Sam Khoze, is designed to get the attention of the Screen Actors Guild, the motion picture actor’s union,…
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Film & TV “Memoir Of War” Brings Occupied France To Life
There are moments in “Memoir of War” where you’d be forgiven for experiencing déjà vu. I’ve seen this empty Paris cityscape before in Antonioni’s “L’Eclisse.” I’ve endured this long, tracking shot through a crowd in Godard’s “Weekend.” I’ve heard the consonant voiceover in Alain Resnais and Marguerite Duras’ “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” But if you look…
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Film & TV Yes, Sci-Fi Has An Anti-Semitism Problem — But Not The One You Think
Science fiction universes ought to aspire to “Star Trek’s” charge to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” So why do so many works of sci-fi seem content to timidly remain with the same ugly stereotypes we have here on earth?…
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Culture This Actor Tackles Jewish Stereotypes — By Performing Them
Superstitions are strange things that often produce even stranger talismans. In Poland, one common type of good-luck token comes in unsettling forms: Paintings, magnets and statues of Jewish people, dressed like Shalom Aleichem characters, counting out gold coins. It sounds like a throwback to a darker time, but, much like the mascot of the Cleveland…
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Art Israeli Illusionist Uri Geller Finds A 19th-Century Soap Factory Where He’s Building His Museum
Sometimes when you build a museum, the past finds you. A few weeks ago Uri Geller, the Israeli illusionist who made his name in the 1970s by using his mind to bend spoons on television, sensed something beneath the debris at the building site of his forthcoming museum, the Uri Geller Museum in Jaffa, Haaretz…
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Culture Nazi Symbols In Video Games? For First Time, Germany Says Yes.
Since a 1998 censorship ruling on video games, German gamers have played World War II-themed titles like “Call of Duty” without a swastika in sight. That may soon change. The Telegraph reports that the German video games industry body in charge of regulating content, the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body — known as the USK —…
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Culture No, That New ‘Anne Frank’ Production Doesn’t Cast Nazis As ICE. But It’s Still Provocative.
The story of Anne Frank humanizes a period of history defined by horrors that can often feel beyond the scope of our comprehension. Since 1955, the stage adaptation of Frank’s writings by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett has brought her story to life, serving as an object lesson in what it is to be human…
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