By Nate Feldman
This is my revised edition of Nate's Frightenin Films, Episode 1. In this episode, I play two songs, Halloween Night and Haunted House. I also show the first scene of a story I am working on, Doomsday USA. In this scene, Josh, the main character, introduces his camp where humans and monsters build relationships with one another.
By Nate Feldman
The Future is a 2023 Israeli film starring Reymond Amsellem and Samar Qupty. Set somtime in the future, the Israeli Minister for Space and Tourism has been assassinated by Yafa (Qupty), a young Palestinian woman who has been arrested by the authorities. This event occurs as Israel is planning a mission to the moon.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nurit Bloch (Amsellem) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is part of a department that has created an algorithm which predict a person's future actions. This invention has been created specifically in mind to predict who is going to commit acts of terrorism. It is for that reason that she is perplexed by Yafa's actions. Yafa does not seem like the type of person to engage in political violence, and they were unable to foresee her as an assassin.
For that reason, Nurit brings Yafa to her home to begin a series of interrogations to get to the bottom of her motives. This initiates a series of dialogues between the two which slowly creates a slightly better understanding between the two.
A subplot of the film is Nurit's ongoing relationship with Maor (Dar Zuzovsky), a younger woman who she wants to be a surrogate mother for a child of hers. But, something that begins to trouble her is the idea of raising a child in a country where violence seems to be a part of both its present and future.
This film is a beautifully acted story which has even more meaning in the wake of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has intensified significantly since October 7 of last year.
By Nate Feldman
In the last couple of months, Columbia University has been an epicenter of protests against Israel by Pro-Palestinian students that have engulfed the country in response to the ongoing war in Gaza. Nevertheless, despite the tensions on campus, there is a Journalism course taught by Ari Goldman, a self-described Zionist Jew, and Greg Khalil, a Palestinian. CBS news did an interview with the two about their course and their views both on the conflict and the need for empathy when discussing it with people of differing opinions. For more information, watch Palestinian professor and Jewish professor co-teach class at Columbia University.
