Raffi Sarkissian

Just a quick update from the Twin Cities. (Please forgive the unsolicited message). THINGS ARE NOT BETTER IN MINNEAPOLIS. The media is mostly moving on, Trump is focused on other stuff, BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE GROUND. More than 2,000 DHS thugs continue to roam the streets, abducting people 24/7, assaulting legal observers with impunity, and routinely denying 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights. Drones and helicopters are overhead every day. Hundreds and hundreds of terrified families have not left their homes since mid-December ... relying on the community to bring them food and help with rent and other necessities. (Those people are NOT violent drug cartel sex offending murderers, as DHS would tell you. Most are legal residents or citizens.) If anything, things have just become more stressful and intractable (think trench warfare as a suitable metaphor): The resistance is better organized and numerous, but DHS has become more clever and better at disguise... and the county sheriff's office is increasingly supporting them . Do not let anyone tell you that Homans (the new person in charge of the occupation) is making anything better. Do not let anyone tell you that 700 ICE agents leaving the city has made much of a difference; the remaining force (again, ~2,000) is still larger than the entire city's police force (which is legally unable to do anything). Please call your congressional reps ... especially if there is any chance the administration might listen to them.

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

New Mozilla Firefox version to allow AI features to be blocked Mozilla will allow Firefox users to entirely block current and future generative AI features on the browser.

Mozilla will allow Firefox users to entirely block current and future generative AI features on the browser after user feedback revealed many who wanted an AI-free browser experience.

10 Movies to Stream for Black History Month

Not only is it Black History Month. It’s also its 100th anniversary!!

To commemorate its centennial, I wrote a list of 10 Black films, one from each of the last 10 decades, to stream.

oh forgot to say: NSFW 😅

Here’s a link to it (should work). I’m still tinkering with small bits but overall it’s pretty much done.

Unfortunately it is a *very* commonly used song in the HR edits already but oh well. It’s my own take.

drive.google.com/file/d/1baTW...

No. Is there a central place anyone is collecting these edits/vids?

This one is good! As an academic who studies fan culture/practices partly, it does bug me that the Internet calls everything "edits" now. This is a very solid, full "vid" in the old school fandom terminology. 🤓

yes I've created one so far but it's not posted in full anywhere yet.

It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

This is amazing.

Minneapolis says no to ICE.

All Ethan Hawke collabs!

Is this the most "top heavy" slate of Best Pic nominees? #Oscars

Five of them received 9 or more nominations apiece with SINNERS breaking the all time record with 16 itself.

And every Best Pic nominee received at least 4 noms.

ok it's been 3 weeks and I'm still on one 🥴 so it's high time to move from consumption to production. 😅 🤓 😏

I’ve been psyching myself up for 2 days to see the new AVATAR tonight (after first day teaching). It starts in 20 minutes and I think I’m gonna bail, stay in, and plan a few heated rivalry fanvids that I’ll never actually complete.

😭

Awards season in one perfect photo.

I was determined to watch a movie tonight.

But heated rivalry reactions on TikTok had something to say about it.

a man and a woman are standing next to each other with the words " you can 't feel alive now you never " below them ALT: a man and a woman are standing next to each other with the words " you can 't feel alive now you never " below them

Midnight coincided within about a minute of hitting millennium midnight in my screenings of ENTRAPMENT tonight.

Happy New Year!

Set your goals high. They might be impossible. But doable.

A media studies Christmas! 🤓

25(ish) queer films from the 21st century from Brokeback Mountain to I Saw the TV Glow, some of the best of the first quarter of the new millennium

invited some wonderful folks like @woahitsjuanito.bsky.social, @willowcatelyn.bsky.social, @cadenmgardner.bsky.social, @jamestomxo.bsky.social, & @judysquirrels.bsky.social to help me make this list of 25(ish) queer films of the 21st century!
thecinemaattheendoftheworld.substack.com/p/25ish-quee...

While I waited for family to wake up, I watched ep 5 of Heated Rivalry (I was late to the party) and 😭 Merry Christmas to me.

First day it has eclipsed Moana 2 in daily gross!

After this point, Moana 2 ended up grossing an additional $144M. With a similar performance Zootopia 2 could end up with $375M+... out of reach from Lilo & Stitch but #4 of the year overall.

This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.

i asked chat gpt to fact check an article for me

The overarching theme from 2025 movies…

“Can men have it all?”

I have alot of mixed feelings after watching KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR (the 4.5 hours single-film cut) in the theater last night. For context, KILL BILL is an all time top 5 film for me.

The first half (volume 1) absolutely zips by 🤩 but weaknesses in second half more apparent.

Astounding (though not surprising) that when you go to the A24films online store, purchasing their actual films is the third option on their fourth tab, preceded by an onslaught of branded merch.

Almost EVERY SINGLE FACT in this AI overview is false..

Who stars in it
Who created it
The current name of the platform it’s on

One of the articles it is citing for its AI overview is from Australia Elle…

I honestly can’t tell if a human or AI error here is more likely.