Brian A. Kates, ACE

Sun, Nov 2 “The Front” screens at Borscht Belt Film Fest www.borschtbeltfilmfest.org/films2025 Zero Mostel’s McCarthy-era showbiz role resembles his real life story in a Catskills resort episode. I’m a guest panelist for this all-too-relevant, brilliant movie also ft Herschel Bernardi & Woody Allen

There is an all out (non-violent) civil war in the American Jewish community. It has been brewing for a long time, but it is starker than it has ever been.

There's a part of me that thinks that overturning Obergefell might be the only thing that could get the liberal white gays to actually take any material action against the fascist regime.

As a film editor, whose job is mainly about conveying subtext (if done well), I wonder about this a lot.

Christopher Columbus himself was a monster, but Columbus Day was instituted in 1892 to combat rising anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic bigotry after the lynching of eleven Italian-Americans. The same revanchists defending Columbus Day as "part of our US heritage" in 2025 would have opposed it in 1892.

Editing styles within the same movie serve different story purposes. Editor Brian A. Kates, ACE, discusses style choices on "Kiss of the Spider Woman."
Please, read or listen to the whole interview!
READ: bit.ly/AOTC-KOTSW-blog
LISTEN: bit.ly/AOTC-KOTSW-pod
@borisfx
@Facilis
@abramkat.bsky.social

Every major talent that works for ABC and Disney should refuse to show up for work until Jimmy Kimmel is reinstated.

Marvel movies need to shutdown. Ditto the sitcoms.

Collective boycott.

Corporations love money more than anything,& this will harm them and force them to do the right thing.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other - to disturb, even - is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice. As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn't have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to - painful as it may be at times - is the freeing agreement to disagree. Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world. The WA stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers.

WGA Statement on ABC’s Decision to Pull Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

NYC Weekend Watch: Chantal Akerman, Terence Davies, 70mm & More NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. Museum of Modern ArtA complete Chantal Akerman retrospective has begun; series on New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katri...

Complete Chantal Akerman and Terence Davies retrospective, and more films to watch in NYC this week.

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Jerusalem. Signs read "STOP BOMBING GAZA" "EVERY CHILD IS INNOCENT."

For Jeff Buckley Fans, It’s Never Over

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/s...

Crisis within CDC is spilling into real world, experts say "I’ve never heard as many colleagues saying things like 'CDC is dead’ as I have today," an agency employee told STAT.

someone should put together a "kennedy death count" for everyone who dies of a preventable disease and just plaster it everywhere www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...

The first large-scale Nazi book burning was on 6 May 1933, when Magnus Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin was attacked by Nazi students. It would take decades for science to recover the knowledge about trans-affirming healthcare that was destroyed that day.

It won’t fit in screen shots but linking here the full letter of resignation posted by one of the departing CDC officials, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and led efforts to fight COVID, monkeypox, and bird flu
x.com/dr_demetre/s...

Now that the academic purge is coming for Jewish Studies and Holocaust Studies, can we please stop pretending this has anything to do with "fighting antisemitism?"

Watch the official trailer for Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez 🕷️ 💋

The film will be released in theaters on October 10.

I hold a PhD from the University of Chicago, and I am generally proud of that fact. I am deeply horrified by how they are hollowing out on the world's great research universities.

it's crazy how we just take for granted now that the president is a deranged racist

You will not see a more tangible encapsulation of the genocide. A war of utter annihilation waged as a joint enterprise between the Israeli state on the ground and its allies in consistent support. The debt of reparations that the West owes to the Palestinian people at this point is incalculable.

It needs to be said that creating an absolutely stultifying culture is part of the march of authoritarianism, and that’s what we’re seeing right now. It limits the space for dissent, drives people into despair, and forces them to tune out and give up because there seems to be no escape otherwise.

they say they believe in things like "the free market" but then you see what's happening at CBS and it's very clear that they do not

The first trailer for It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley documents a life cut tragically short.

Watch ahead of a release next month: thefilmstage.com/its-never-ov...

WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for.

Stop using WeTransfer.

The Blogs: We are NYC rabbis who support Zohran Mamdani – Here’s why His platform reflects the Jewish call for justice and also offers a clear plan to address antisemitic violence. That's what real protection looks like

Glad to see this letter: blogs.timesofisrael.com/we-are-nyc-r...

Good thing the Democrats spent the last week melting down about Zohran Mamdani winning the NYC mayoral primary because otherwise more Americans might have known that the GOP was planning to fuck them to high hell and that wouldn't have been a good use of their time

oh wait

can you believe these things were said from the stage of the Glastonbury festival

Zohran looking out on a victory night crowd.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done.

My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it.

I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City.