March 5, 2025 • 41 mins
We celebrate the 30th anniversary of the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival, highlighting an impressive lineup of films from March 30th to April 8th at B&B Theaters in Creve Coeur. Hosts Arnold Stricker and Mark Langston discuss the festival with John Wilson, the Director of Cultural Arts at the Jewish Community Center of St. Louis, and Wendy Sachs, director of the documentary 'October 8th.'
The discussion moves into the significance of the film, which addresses the surge of anti-Semitism following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Wendy shares her personal journey and the challenges faced in creating the documentary, shedding light on the coordinated efforts behind the rise of anti-Semitism and the importance of education and awareness.
John and Wendy emphasize the importance of using the festival and films like 'October 8' to educate the public, provoke meaningful conversations, and foster community engagement. The festival aims to provide a diverse cinematic experience that is both informative and entertaining, covering themes from historical to contemporary issues, comedy, and more.
[00:00] Introduction to the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival
[00:33] Meet the Hosts and Today's Special Guest
[01:01] Return to Civility: A Thoughtful Reminder
[02:14] Introducing John Wilson: Festival Director
[02:57] Wendy Sachs: A Multi-Hyphenate Talent
[04:41] The Making of 'October 8th': Wendy's Journey
[07:05] Challenges in Hollywood: The Struggle for Distribution
[11:27] The Coordinated Effort Behind Campus Activism
[13:37] Festival Highlights and Thematic Films
[18:56] Wendy Sachs on Selecting Documentary Participants
[21:36] Exploring Modern Anti-Semitism
[24:39] Introduction to the St. Louis Jewish Film Festival
[25:51] Highlighting Key Films and Themes
[30:13] Personal Reflections and Impact
[35:18] Call to Action and Education
[38:36] Conclusion and Farewell
Takeaways:
- The St. Louis Jewish Film Festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an exciting lineup of films that promise to stir up some serious conversation.
- Wendy Sachs, director of the documentary 'October 8th', shares her journey creating a film that tackles the rise of antisemitism in America, sparked by recent events.
- John Wilson, the festival director, emphasizes the importance of community engagement through cinema, aiming for viewers to leave with new perspectives and a sense of connection.
- The film festival features a variety of films, from serious documentaries to light-hearted comedies, ensuring there's something for everyone to enjoy and discuss.
Links referenced in this episode:
- stljewishfilmfestival.org
- october8film.com
- jccstl.com
- dredscottlives.org
- Episode with Benjamin Ginsberg on The New Anti-Semitism: The Left, the Right, and the Jews
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
The St. Louis Jewish FilmFestival celebrates 30 years and
they have a powerhouse lineup,folks. It will return to the new
home at the B and B theatersin Crevecoe for two weeks of cinema
excellence from March 30through April 8. And we're going
to talk to one of thedirectors of one of the films on
St. Louis in tune. Welcome toSt. Louis in tune, and thank you
(00:35):
for joining us for freshperspectives on issues and events
with experts, communityleaders, and everyday people who
make a difference in shapingour society and world. I'm Arnold
Stricker along with co hostMark Langston. Mark, this is going
to be a great show today.
I know it is. I'm lookingforward to it.
They're all great, but thisone is especially great because of
the 30th anniversary of theJewish Film Festival. We have a director
(00:58):
of one of the films going tobe talking to us today.
That's big league.
It is big league. And beforewe begin our return to civility is
if someone near you dropssomething, let them know or pick
it up for them. It could besomething they really need or that's
important to them. You alsocould save them the horrible panic
that happens when you get homeand can't find something.
(01:18):
Oh, there's nothing worse. Ithought I lost something the other
day and started backtrackingmy steps.
I have to do that also.
I even rented a truck from oneof those home improvement centers,
and I had them like, can Ilook through that truck?
Oh, wow.
I went home and I found it. Itwas in one of my chairs that I saw.
At least you found it.
(01:38):
I did, yes. Yeah, I did.
It's the ultimate shock iswhen you can't find your wallet or
the car keys. Oh, that's. Oh,my gosh. Do I need to cancel all
the credit cards?
I leave my keys in the carmore now because we've got that little
push button thing.
Oh, you want to have it stolen then?
Yeah, I guess that's what mywife Maria always says. What are
crazy. I know.
(02:00):
Well, it's like you have tocancel that out because you can look
him up on the Internet andfind out.
Where he lives with the keysin the little. Never mind. And. And
then I. I know. I was like,push the button to turn it off and
I'm out of there. Okay, Sorry.
Our guest in studio is JohnWilson. He's the Festival Director
for the 30th St. Louis JewishFilm Festival, and he is the director
(02:22):
of cultural arts at the JewishCommunity center of St. Louis. He's
also been a teaching artistand curriculum development teaching
teacher at stages in St.Louis. He also was a contract fight
director and we talked withhim about that when he was previously
on. It's not like he contractsfights out there for MMA or anything
like that. It's how he stagestheater fights for productions. And
(02:44):
he also was the professor oftheater and head of the School of
Visual and Performing Arts atthe University of Central Missouri.
John, welcome back to St.Louis in Tune.
It is so good to be here. Thisis my favorite thing to do once a
year, okay?
And Wendy Sachs, this is ourword of the day. It's. You know what
hyphenate means? You hyphenatea word. But hyphenate is a person
(03:05):
who is active in more than oneoccupation or sphere. She's a multi
hyphenate. She's astoryteller. She's a documentary
film director producer, Emmyaward winning network television
producer, writer, formerCapitol Hill press secretary, media
relations executive, and theauthor of the critically acclaimed
Fearless and Free How SmartWomen Pivot and Relaunch Their Careers.
(03:28):
She's been recognized bymakers, was named in 2017 Forbes
40 over 40 women to watch.She's the author of the Bible on
Balancing Career and Family.How she really Does It. Secrets of
a Successful Stay at Home Mom.An expert on career building, confidence
work issues. Been on the Todayshow, abc, Good Morning Morning America,
msnbc, cbs, fox, CNN HeadlineNews. She's a popular corporate and
(03:53):
conference speaker. She gaveher first TED talk in 2017. Harnessing
the power of Humiliation. I'vegot my first question beyond welcome
to St. Louis in Tune. Wendy ishow do you do it all? How do you
do it, girl?
She's a hyphenator.
You read me that bio and itsounds like I can't keep a job.
(04:14):
No, you've got so much timeand you're so talented that you're
able to move from one job toanother like.
That, from one thing to thenext. Just to clarify it, how he
really does it. It's aboutstay at work mom. Not stay at home
mom.
Stay at work mom. Yes, you'recorrect, mom.
That's right. Yeah. Work,life, balance. Hey guys, it's great
to be with you. And listen,I've done a lot of things in my career.
(04:37):
I think I've had a prettyinteresting career. I like to mix
it up for sure. But truly themost important project I've ever
done and what I would call mylife work is this film that is coming
out and that's going to be atthe St. Louis Jewish Film Festival,
if you. We called Octobereight. It's actually. We have a new
title from when it was firstsent out to the film festivals. It
(05:00):
was originally called October8th, the A being the number 8. And
we've changed the title. Wehave distribution now. We're going
to be in theaters across thecountry. We open on March 14th. But
truly, this film about theexplosion of antisemitism on college
campuses, on social media, andin the streets of America, the aftermath
of Hamas's attack on Israel onOctober 7, 2023, this is the project
(05:24):
of my life. I've pouredeverything I have into this, and
I basically haven't slept inthe past 16 months since October
7th.
And I get that. And tell us alittle bit of why you made the film
and what can people expect whoview the film.
Yeah, listen, I. I wasvisiting my daughter. She's a college.
She was a college junior. Iwas at the University of Wisconsin
(05:45):
on October 7, on 2023, and itwas game day. We were about to go
to a pregame party and we sawthe news of what was happening in
Israel. We saw the videos ofHamas terrorists kidnapping babies
and children and grandparentsand concert goers from the Nova Film
Festival and dragging theminto Gaza and literally murdering
(06:07):
them and live streaming theirhorrific footage on. On people's
Facebook pages and ontelegrams and. And then really the
next day, on October 8, we sawnew York Times Square, the celebration
of Hamas being celebrated asfreedom fighters rather than as terrorists.
And then what was happening onuniversity campuses, One thing after
(06:28):
another. And I just thoughtthat the world had lost its mind,
that. That there was no moralclarity anymore as to what was going
on when babies are beingkidnapped. And I started. I realized
I needed to document thismoment. And I got to work. And the
truth is that I've done thesefilms before on my own, and they're
a terrible business model tocreate a documentary film. I don't
(06:49):
recommend it to anyone. It'sblood, sweat and tears. It's really
hard to pull off and to finddistribution. But I wrote a treatment
for this film at the end ofOctober 2023, and I shopped it around
to do production companieswhere I had worked, and everyone
passed. No one wanted to takethis film on, really, for a number
of reasons. That's right.Yeah. There's really the climate
in Hollywood today towardanything about Israel or about anti
(07:13):
Semitism or about the Jewishcommunity has become really radioactive.
People are very afraid of itand afraid of being canceled for
Netflix and Amazon. Wherever Iwent, this is what I heard. And so
I thought, okay, I gotta dothis. And I got to work and I started
everyone and reached out tothe actress Deborah Messing, who
was using her Instagramplatform so unapologetically to speak
(07:37):
out against the terrorism andwho you were trying to remember the
hostages. There was a lot ofAmerican hostages that were kidnapped.
It was not just Israelis, itwas people from around the world,
but a lot of Americans. Andshe was so fearless when so many
other people in Hollywood wereafraid to speak up. And I reached
out to her and she became anexecutive producer on the film. She's
(07:58):
also appears in the film. Wehave comedian Michael Rapoport in
the film and a whole list ofvery high profile people, including
Sheryl Sandberg, ScottGalloway, members of Congress, and
some really inspiring collegestudents from, from universities
across the country.
Now let me ask you this. Whydo you think that is with Hollywood?
(08:19):
Why do you think that is withAmazon and all these other online
streaming places? Would noteven want to touch what you wanted
to do.
I think that there is theother side that is, that has been
supporting Hamas. To be honestwith you, this is not just supporting
campus activism or campusprocess. What we were seeing on college
(08:39):
campuses are not like VietnamWar era protests. They are well funded.
There is Hamas in America thathas been feeding this messaging for
decades on college campusesand playing fields. When we saw the
encampments at schools, atuniversities last spring, they all
had the same tents, right?This is all really orchestrated.
(08:59):
And I think that other side isso loud and so noisy and disruptive
and so threatening thatstreamers in the entertainment industry
and Hollywood, they're justafraid. They're afraid of the noise
on the other side. They'reafraid. And quietly they would say,
hey, we really love your filmand we really respect what you're
doing. This is very importantwork, but no one's going to buy it.
(09:22):
We're not going to make moneyoff of it. And we're afraid about
frankly just being canceledout there as a fear of cancel culture.
Is it Hamas or is it the Palestinians?
Not the Palestinians. Yeah, itis that. And to clarify, it is Iran,
it is Russia, it is China.They are the proxy for what we're
(09:44):
seeing. And the, the MuslimBrotherhood is financing the sjp,
which is Students for Justicein Palestine chapters on American
college campuses. So sjp,which should be getting to in the
film, is not just a studentgroup. The way there's Students for
Climate Change or Student forReproductive Freedom or any of the
other sort of Social justicecauses out there. SJP is a manifestation
(10:07):
of the Muslim Brotherhood,which is a terrorist organization.
And in the film, we show theconnectivity, we show the funding,
we show we. In fact, the bigreveal is a wiretap that was recorded
in the Marriott hotel room in1993 in Philadelphia where you hear
members of Hamas in Americatalking about their plans to infiltrate
(10:32):
American universities andAmerican media institutions and using
words like apartheid andcolonial settler and like they knew
how to speak to the left andthey knew how to speak to the right.
It was very manipulative andvery sophisticated and it's only
continued to grow. So there isa distinction between Palestinians
and Hamas? Absolutely. Butwhat we're seeing on college campuses
(10:56):
and what a lot of people don'trealize is that these students who
might think they're on theright side of the issue, who might
think that they are standingup to repression and to racism or
whatever they might be seeingout there, but in fact they're being
there, there's propaganda andthey're being controlled by, by terrorists.
When it starts with Iran andtheir proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and
(11:19):
it, and it funneled down.
You answered one of myquestions about the coordinated effort
and who's funding this andwho's organizing this. Were you surprised
at how fast these campus sitins and all of this unrest occurred
and how fast it grew, or wasit almost seems that people were
waiting for the moment or knewabout the moment was going to take
(11:41):
place and, and then they wereready to go with the signs. They
were ready. Some of them werehomemade signs, some of them were
pre done signs. It seems theywere professionally done signs and
things like that. Were you surprised?
I was surprised in the momentand then I started doing the research
and what we reveal in the filmis there was a toolkit that was pushed
out onto college campuses andthese sjp, these students were justice
(12:04):
from Palestine chapters acrossthe country. On October 8, there
was messaging, there was aGoogle document with the imagery,
with the messages and theneverything blew up. So they were
ready to go again. This goesback to this is sophisticated, this
is coordinated, and they'vebeen playing the long game. And so
I think what happened is a lotof people in the Jewish community
(12:28):
for sure woke up on, onOctober 8th. My tagline as the beginning
of this, of this project wasOctober 7th, Hamas attacked Israel.
On October 8th, American Jewswoke up. But it wasn't just the Jewish
community, it's Americans ingeneral who are seeing, wait, what
is going on here? When you seeHouthi flags Next to gay pride flags
(12:49):
on Columbia University'scollege campus. None of it makes
sense. None of this makessense. So these alliances that we've
seen are bizarre and the, theresponse is shocking. But at the
same time, when you start tounravel it and unpack it, you understand
that this was not organic,that this was. This is a long time
(13:10):
in the making.
This is Arnold Strick withMark Langston of St. Louis in Tune.
We're talking to Wendy Sack,she's director of the film October
8th. And you can go tooctober8film.com that film is going
to be shown at the St. LouisJewish Film Festival. And also with
us is John Wilson, festivaldirector. John, how does this film
work into the all of the filmsthat are going to be shown? Talk
(13:34):
a little bit about those otherfilms and is there a theme here?
So we've got 13 films thatwe're showing and we try and divide
the festival up thematically.Like we've got an April Fool's comedy
double feature. So it's justnothing but comedy on that day. And
the film, Wendy's film, is onApril 6th. And this is our October
(13:56):
7th retrospective. So at 3pmwe have a documentary, it's actually
an episode from a docu seriesout of Israel called Fighters. And
this is about the IDF soldierswho went into Gaza after October
7th. And we're getting to seewhat they had to face through their
body cam. We get to see thatfootage. Most of the soldiers that
(14:19):
we follow are injured, somepretty drastically. But it's a very
heartwarming film because it'sabout how their families and their
friends rallied around them.How many of them still want to serve
and go back when they'rehealthy. And then when our committee
saw October 8th, we knew thathad to be part of our October 7th
(14:41):
retrospective and it had to bethe feature film in the evening.
It is an absolute takedown ofprogressive left policies that have
been propagandistic,manipulative and have been influencing
our teenagers and young adultsfor decades. And Wendy did just the
(15:03):
most phenomenal job in thestorytelling of it. She lays it out
and makes it clear. And for mepersonally, this was a wake up call.
It was a wake up call for allof our Jewish community in St. Louis.
And it was a wake up call forall of the non Jewish people that
will come to the festival. Andwe just, we're putting this in the
(15:23):
grand screen. That's the 195seat theater at BNB and we think
it's gonna sell out. We thinkit's gonna do great. We're so excited
to have Wendy come and talk tous about the film. I think there's
gonna be a ton ofconversations to come from this.
So that day is very important.And we've got another couple days
where we focus on movies thattake place in Israel. We've got,
(15:46):
you know, like we always do,we have a couple of Holocaust theme
films and things like that. Sothis is my third festival, but it's
only the second festival thatI've curated, so I only have last
year to compare it to, butsounds ridiculous to say out of the
two festivals that I'vecurated, this is the best one. But
seriously, every single filmin this year's festival is worth
(16:09):
seeing. It's going to beoutstanding. We've got this opening
day triple header where we'refeaturing this film that was actually
made in St. Louis at EpsteinHebrew Academy. High schoolers interviewing
Holocaust survivors and justlike learning that story and understanding
why it is so important to keepthat story alive. And we've got the
(16:31):
creator of that project, NamesNot Numbers is a national project.
And so we've got Tova FishRosenberg coming in. We've got the
director of the film, MichaelPirro coming in. We've got Michael
Berenbaum, who's this likeworld renowned Holocaust museum curator
and author and professor. He'scoming in. We've got kids from Epstein
and the principal fromEpstein. And so we're have this huge
(16:53):
talk back after that film. Andthen we're going to end with Sir
Anthony Hopkins in One Life at7pm that night. And so it's just
every day has something foreveryone. And I think every day we
are achieving our objectivewith the film festival, which is
to get people to feel likethey're a part of a community, get
(17:15):
them connected to one another,increase their sense of empathy as
they learn about the humancondition and watching all of these
wonderful stories. And there'sa. There's a loneliness epidemic
in this country. And gettingout to festivals and getting out
to these communal events isone way to really improve people's
mental health and theiremotional health and just make them
(17:38):
feel like they're part ofsomething important.
Absolutely. I want toencourage folks, you don't have to
be Jewish to come to this filmfestival. You just have to have an
inquisitive, curious mind. Youmay not even like films, but these
are films. Having seen part ofWendy's film, the. These are films
you need to see becausethey're informative in what's going
(17:58):
on in Our culture today. Soit's at the BnB theaters in Cree
Core. There's an all accesspass that's available until March
9th. You can get individualtickets, they're $15. But you go
to STL jewishfilmfestival.orgSTL jewishfilmfestival dot org and
if you want.
To, you have to RSVP, I think,for each film that you want to see
(18:20):
too.
Is that correct?
Well, then you buy the allfestival pass.
I see.
You need to RSVP for thosefilms because we want to make sure
that we're accounting forevery single person that's a passholder,
that we have seats saved forthose that are coming to those specific
films. Because like a filmtheater, it's limited capacity.
Right, right.
And the passes are sellingfast. As of this recording, we're
(18:45):
reaching half capacityalready. And so this is the time,
right, to get in there, right? Yeah.
So by before midnight tonight.
Yeah, exactly. Wendy, how didyou pick the individuals that you
had in the documentary whotold their story?
That's a great question. Iwent to just people who I thought
(19:07):
of who were experts in theirfield and who a politically diverse
group of people. I. It wasintentional that I also found non
Jews, non Jewish experts to betalking to. I didn't want this blowhard
to go off the handle and startspouting their sort of ideology.
But instead I wanted peoplewho are really truly experts, from
(19:30):
the Treasury Department, fromJonathan Schanzer to Lorenzo Vidino,
the head of extremism atGeorge Washington University. Not
Joaquin, Italian Catholic. Andthen I was really looking for great
stories, is that it's acharacter driven film, that it's
not just a bunch of wonkyColes out there, an academic who
are just spouting fact.Because that would be a very boring
(19:53):
documentary. I was looking forstudent stories where there was a
real sort of story arc andstrong characters. So I interviewed
more than a dozen collegestudents and ultimately I think four
or five made it into the film.And these students are just exceptional.
They're inspiring. They pop oncamera, they just have these incredible
(20:14):
stories. So it was a realmixture. I was looking for some star
power. I was looking for somehigh profile people to raise the
profile of the film and toelevate it. But at the end of the
day, I'm a journalist and Iwanted to make sure that whoever
I put out there, we weretriple check checking all the facts
and that everything reallystood up. Really one of the big themes
(20:35):
of this film is extremism,Islamic jihadism, birth Democracy.
And I wanted voices who couldreally unpack what's going on and
what's at stake. And soCongressman Ricky Torres is one of
the characters in the film.He's, he's incredible. So is Musab
Yousef. He's a son of the cofounder of Hamas who really understands
(20:57):
what Hamas is like as he grewup with it and then became an informant
for the, for the IDF or theIsrael Defense Forces or for the
government, I guess, or theMossad. But he's an incredible voice
in the film also. So it was areal mixture of finding the most
incredible student voices outthere who have real mixed with a
diverse group of expert voices.
(21:19):
Yeah, he's done some thingswith Barry Weiss on the Free Press
that I've seen and verypowerful that. And Barry was very
powerful. Barry was in thefilm documentary, wasn't she? Barry
Weiss.
Barry Weiss is in. Barry Weissis in the film. Scott Galloway just
it's an incredible list ofnames. They're really who can speak
(21:41):
from, from politics to socialmedia to really what's unpacking
what antisemitism is today.Another theme of this film is that
anti Zionism is the modernform of anti Semitism.
Yep.
There used to be some gray inthere and that's just no longer the
case. What I want people to dois I didn't want to be preachy. I
(22:04):
didn't want this to be againtoo like an academic film. I wanted
to lift the hood up and unpackfor everyone what's happening out
there. Like how did we get tothis moment where Hamas is being
celebrated as freedom fightersrather than a terrorist? And that
is really one of the themes ofthe film and I think a big takeaway.
(22:53):
We're going to take a briefbreak and folks, if you missed part
of this, you can catch thisshow and other shows@stlntune.com
and please leave a review ifif you like what you hear. But we're
going to come back for thenext segment. You're listening to
St. Louis in tune with ArnoldStricker and Mark Langston on the
US Radio Network. The UnitedStates has a strong tradition of
(23:21):
welcoming newcomers andrefugees. The welcome Corps is a
new service opportunity forAmericans inspired to welcome those
seeking freedom and safety andin turn help strengthen their own
communities. Welcome Corps isa public private partnership that
is inspired by what Americansrepresent to so many around the world.
A beacon of hope and refuge.All it takes is a helping hand. Are
(23:42):
you ready to learn? Contactthe International Institute of St.
Louis@infoistl.org or call314-773-9090. That's infoistl.org
or call 314.773-9090. This isArnold Stricker of St. Louis in Tune
(24:04):
on behalf of the Dred ScottHeritage Foundation. In 1857, the
Dred Scott destroyed decisionwas a major legal event and catalyst
that contributed to the CivilWar. The decision declared that Dred
Scott could not be freebecause he was not a citizen. The
14th Amendment, also calledthe Dred Scott Amendment, granted
citizenship to all born ornaturalized here in our country and
was intended to overturn theUS Supreme Court decision on July
(24:26):
9, 1868. The Dred ScottHeritage foundation is requesting
a commemorative stamp to beissued from the US Postal Service
to recognize and remember theheritage of this amendment by issuing
a stamp with the likeness ofthe man Dred Scott. But we need your
support and the support ofthousands of people who would like
to see this happen. To achievethis goal, we ask you to download,
(24:47):
sign and share the one pagepetition with others. To find the
petition, please go todredscottlives.org and click on the
Dred Scott petition drive onthe right side of the page. On behalf
of the Dred Scott Heritagefoundation, this is been Arnold Stricker
of St. Louis in Tune. Welcomeback to St. Louis in Tune. This is
(25:10):
Arnold Stricker with MarkLangston. We have John Wilson, festival
Director of the 30th AnnualSt. Louis Jewish Film Festival. And
on the line, Wendy Sachs,who's director of the film October
8th. And this is going to bepart of the Jewish Film festival,
which is the 30th. And John,you've got the kind of the directory
of the films in front of you,as I do. And Mark does also. We've
(25:33):
talked a little bit about someof these films, but they're all big
hits. They're all big hitters.There's not a dud in the group.
No, there. There really isn't.We have you watched over 70 films?
Oh, my God.
And we narrowed it down tolike 30, 35 that we shared with our
selection committee and thenwe got these 13. So, like, the cream
(25:55):
really does rise to the top.And. And these are major distributors
from across the entire globepushing A plus content for festivals.
A lot of them have appeared inmovie theaters as well or on major
streaming platforms. And wehave some gems that most people would
not see. But, but a lot ofthese are like, these are the kind
(26:18):
of mainstream movies that yougo to the movies for.
And the Purpose of thefestival is.
We want to be able to have aplace where the community can come
and they can watch cinema. Wethink cinema is one of the most powerful
ways to engage withstorytelling. We feel like the ideas
about the human condition,whether you're learning that from
(26:40):
a documentary or you'relearning it from a drama or a comedy,
it really awakens that senseof empathy in all of us and allows
us to have a common sharedexperience. And then we get these
great talkbacks that happenafter the films as well. So we get
to dive deeper in, into thosefilms with our guests. And we are
(27:00):
trying to cure a place ofexcellence in cinema, but then also
community engagement.
And we've talked about someserious films about what happened
in October and also theHolocaust. But you also have some
comedy films that really.There's also one about Brian Epstein,
the manager of the Beatles.
(27:21):
And yeah, Midas man is amusical drama about his discovery
of the Beatles. And the. Thefour actors that, that play the Beatles,
they're amazing. How they looklike those like the members of the
Beatles when they wereyounger. It's amazing how they found
these guys and they must have.The character studies of these kids
must have gone through isamazing. They do a phenomenal job.
(27:43):
And it's a really cool storyseeing how that group got discovered
and came together actually inplaying on that same day. We call
it our true stories day onMonday, April 7th. We also have at
7 o'clock a film called Avenueof the Giants. I don't know if you
would ever say this phrase, afeel good Holocaust movie, but you
(28:08):
can say it about Avenue of theGiants and it's because it's a true
story about Herbert Hellerwho. He escaped the concentration
camps as like a 10 year oldand he kept this secret even from
his own family for 60 years.
Oh my gosh.
He never told a soul. And thenhe meets this young girl named Abby
(28:33):
and she's going through areally like tough crisis time in
her life and she's opening upto him and he feels like the only
way he can really connect withher is to start to tell her his story.
Wow.
And so these two start sharingtheir stories of pain and suffering.
But ultimately it becomes soredemptive because they both end
(28:56):
up pursuing healing andwholeness through just finally being
able to share what they'regoing through.
Wow.
And it's just, it's beautiful.It's a beautiful film. You mentioned
the comedies. So last year,one of the most popular films we
had was a film calledMatchmaking. And this was out of
Israel. It's just, it was sucha lovely film. Young romance. You've
(29:18):
got two different sects fromthe Orthodox community, Romeo and
Juliet. This year we'reshowing Matchmaking two. And you
don't have to have seenMatchmaking one to appreciate Matchmaking
two. If you did seeMatchmaking one, you absolutely don't
want to miss this film becauseall the same characters come back
and it's just as good. Likesometimes sequels are a little bit
(29:40):
of a risk. And this is just aswell written, just as well directed
and acted. It just picks upwhere the last film left off and
you just fall more and more inlove with these characters. And it's
just delightful. It is so fun.
Wow.
It's great. And following thatin the, in the evening is a film
called Bad Shabbos. And it'sjust basically about a. A Friday
(30:02):
night Shabbat dinner thatcould not go more wrong. And it gets
to the point where it's almostfarcical. It's just so bad. It is
so bad. But just great starsin that one and extremely well done.
That one's been taking a lotof awards at the film festival circuit
(30:24):
this year. So it's a top comedy.
These are some top films,folks. And for more information,
go to jccstl.com jccstl.comthe festival is March 30, April 1
and 3rd, and then April 6, 7thand 8. Wendy, I want to turn to you
for a. For a minute here.You've done a gazillion things in
(30:47):
your career and I know youwere saying that maybe that doesn't
speak highly of you becauseyou jumped jobs. And to me it speaks
that you were continuing togrow. And my question is, what drives
you? What drives you, girl?
You know what I think? Thispassion and a mission to change the
world, I know, as cheesy asthat is, but everything that I do,
(31:10):
there's some sort of purposebehind it. I think I'm a very purpose
driven person and that'skeeping me going. I like to mix things
up. I like to challenge myselfand I like to tell important stories.
Again, I think this projectright now, it's. Nothing has felt
more purposeful. It feelsexistential and truly personal.
(31:31):
Explain that. How is that, howhas that impacted you personally?
Because I had a question aboutthat. What, what has this film done
to you?
It's been transformative. Youknow, it's. The film is not about
October 7th as much as it isabout October 8th and afterward.
But at the same time, I filmedin Israel. I spent two weeks filming
(31:54):
in Israel in January, rightafter October 7th. A few months afterwards
I went to the kibbutzim, Iwent to the Nova site and I then
traveled back again in June.And you can't unsee those images.
They're horrific. And it feltas a Jewish American, someone living
in the diaspora, I know that Ihave the privilege of being an American.
(32:16):
And at the same time, it feltlike October 7th for me and I think
for many in the Jewishcommunity have been speaking for
diaspora Jewry. We felt thatit was a generational trauma unleashed.
I'm of a certain age whereI've grown up in the again privileged
in America and have not reallyfelt anti Semitism in a way that
we're feeling today. I startedfeeling it a few years ago and where
(32:40):
someone actually, I don'tthink I can curse on your air, so
I. I won't drop the F bomb,but someone used that expletive and
put the word do next to it andhung up on me, a woman. And I couldn't
believe it. And it was just asthat. Something has really shifted
in our culture in the past fewyears. And while I think that a lot
of antisemitism was simmeringunderground like an iceberg, you
(33:03):
see part of the. Most of thedensity of the iceberg is underneath
the ice. And then it allpopped up, it all exploded after
October 7th. And that's beenshocking and that's been personal
and that's driven a lot ofthis project of getting people to
understand what's going on andto see. Think in our culture. We've
(33:24):
seen Jews are really theminority of the minority as far as
sheer numbers, but we're nottreated as such. There's this belief
that Jews are white andwealthy and all privileged here in
America. And that's driven alot of what we've seen with DEI on
college campuses and in. Incorporations. And things really need
to change and we need to startreally paying attention to the hate.
(33:46):
The hate that the Jewishcommunity faces is. Is much greater
than any other religiouspopulation out there. And the data
all speaks to it. The hatethat we're seeing online is real.
It's scary. And what we seeonline has real world ramifications.
We thought of the tree of Lifeand Pittsburgh was going to time
(34:07):
after time. And I think thatis really been part of the inspiration
behind the film and behindeducating people. There's a long
tail to this project. It's notjust about the film festivals and
it's not just about. It'sGoing to be in movie theaters, which
it will be in AMC and reboottheaters and other theaters across
the country starting on March14th. But it's about getting this
(34:29):
into schools. And so we'reworking on creating a curriculum
to bring the film intoschools, into public schools across
the country because it'sreally needed.
We need to educate and that'sthe vantage point, educating the
public. Which is one reasonI'm glad that you and John are on
the show. That's one of thepurposes of the show is to help educate
(34:50):
the populace. We had BenjaminGinsburg on during the New Jewish
Book Festival and he wastalking about his book, the New American,
the Left, the Right and theJews and educating the public. It's
tough because people arewatching their own media venues.
People who watch Fox don'twatch cnn. People who watch CNN don't
(35:12):
watch Fox. They don't get abalanced kind of stream. They try
to get most of their news fromeither Twitter X or Instagram or
wherever they're getting itfrom Blue sky or however it is. They're
not using the God givenintelligence that they've been given
to balance facts and look atwhat is true, what is not true and
to investigate to the pointwhere to find out what the truth
(35:34):
really is. Because it getsback to that film. You can't handle
the truth.
Right.
And that's where people needto go. And I get it's more of a statement
from my end to you, but myquestion relates to what needs to
happen now. If somebody goesto the film, what do you want them
to come out of the film and doA couple of things.
(35:54):
I want them to push back onthe hate when they see that anti
Zionism or Zionist not allowedthat. That'd be a message that comes
up in the film. There was asign that was posted at the University
of California, Santa Barbara,UC Santa Barbara, targeting the president
of the student bodygovernment, Tessa Wechler. And as
(36:14):
soon as I saw that sign, whenI saw no Zionists allowed at the,
at the multicultural center atUC Santa Barbara, I couldn't believe
it. To me, when you see noZionist, you mean no Jew. And I want
people to understand what thatis. So when they're seeing this Zionism,
Zionist, Zionists are racist.Zionists are genocidal. That means
(36:35):
Jew. And that needs to be atakeaway from this film. And what
I do want people to do is alsorealize when they're, what they're
watching on social media, whatthey're getting online, the news
that they're being that'sbeing delivered to them and these
like little nuggets that arejust like clickbait. I want young
people to start thinking morecritically about what they're viewing
and really question the story.Where is it coming from? When they
(36:57):
see people protesting oncampus with Hamas paraphernalia and
upside down red triangles,which, by the way, is Hamas iconography
that's been hijacked and beentaken to American college campuses,
they need to understand that'sterrorism, that's a threat to democracy,
that it's not just about theJews in Israel. It's much bigger.
(37:18):
This is about the west, it'sabout democracy, it's about our freedom.
There are big issues at stake.And so it's much bigger than just
the Jewish community. It'smuch bigger than a growing wave of
antisemitism. It's about them, too.
John, I want to ask as well,said Wendy. I want to ask, when people
walk out of the festival, Iknow you talked about the goal of
(37:40):
the festival, what do you wantthem to be able to do when they're
walking out of those doors ofthe festival cinema?
I think after every single oneof these films, there's going to
be an opportunity to haveconversations that our audience would
not engage in otherwise. Sowhether that is with the family member
that came with came with themor the friend that came with them,
(38:01):
or even if they just came tothe festival films by themselves,
the knowledge and what theygot from that, they take back into
their home or into theircommunity. And it's going to promote
a number of conversations andit's going to talk about, you know,
we need to take a deeper lookat our marriage or we need to take
a deeper look at, you know,infusing our relationship with more
(38:23):
romance, or we need to take alook at what happened on October
7th and reorient our worldviewto match the truth of what that situation
was. They're going to learnhistory and that's going to help
them think differently, notonly about that history, but about
the present as well. And Iwant everyone to walk out either
having learned or feltsomething in a really dramatic way
(38:48):
and then be able to share thatwith one another. And hopefully they
walk out with a smile on theirface. Some films are going to walk
out.
Very somber Q and A, but Iwill take a Q and A.
They are going to end uphaving conversations that that just
drive their relationships even further.
Wendy, I want to thank you fortaking time to talk with us about
(39:09):
the film October 8th. Andfolks, you can go to october8film.com
October 8th film.com to checkmore about that. And if you want
to go to the Jewish film. Ishouldn't say if you want to go,
you need to go to the JewishFilm Festival. JCCSTL.com JCCSTL.com
will give you more informationon that. Wendy, I want to give you
an open invitation. You'rewelcome to come back at any time
(39:30):
that you want to talk aboutwhatever you want. And Mark wants
to say something.
I wanted to thank you so much.
I appreciate it. You gave meso much time. This has been such
a great interview. So thankyou both.
I want to make sure we havethe website right because it's spelled
H8. The number 8.
No, it's a new website now.
Okay.
New, new website. We revisedthe name when we got distribution.
They wanted to appeal to alarger audience.
(39:52):
Okay.
And so instead of the hate andit's a little confusing with the
A as the number eight, we arenow October 8th. Film dot com. Yeah,
the number eight. The numbereight. October. The number eight.
Film dot com.
Thank you for clarifying that.
Just wanted to make sure.
Yeah, okay, great, Wendy,thank you very much.
And can I say good luck on.Was it March 14? Did you say they're
(40:14):
going to start putting them in theaters?
In theaters, yeah.
That is fantastic.Congratulations on that. That is
really great to get it out to you.
Thank you so much to thegeneral public.
And I'm excited to come to St. Louis.
Yes.
Right before my birthday.
We're looking forward tohaving you, Wendy.
We'll have to have a birthcake fan. Little hats. Can we do
little hats? Noise makers. Okay.
(40:36):
Well, John and Wendy, thanksvery much, folks. That's all for
this hour. They thank you forlistening. We're going to post all
of this information on thepodcast page so when you listen,
you don't have to write itdown quickly. You can just go to
the website stluntune.com andclick on that website and that will
come. Those will come right upfor you. So if you enjoy this episode,
(40:57):
you can listen to additionalshows. As I mentioned@stlin tune.com
consider leaving a review onour website, Apple Podcasts, Podchaser,
or your preferred podcastplatform. Your feedback helps us
reach more listeners andcontinue to grow. Want to thank Bob
Berthisel for our theme music,our guests John Wilson and Wendy
Sachs and co host MarkLangston. And we thank you folks
for being a part of ourcommunity of curious minds. St. Louis
(41:19):
in tune is a production of theMotif Media Group and the US Radio
Network. Remember to keepseeking, keep learning, walk worthy
and let your light shine forSt. Louis. Listen, tune, I'm Arnold
Stricker.
The St. Louis Jewish FilmFestival celebrates 30 years and
they have a powerhouse lineup,folks. It will return to the new
home at the B and B theatersin Crevecoe for two weeks of cinema
excellence from March 30through April 8. And we're going
to talk to one of thedirectors of one of the films on
St. Louis in tune. Welcome toSt. Louis in tune, and thank you
(00:35):
for joining us for freshperspectives on issues and events
with experts, communityleaders, and everyday people who
make a difference in shapingour society and world. I'm Arnold
Stricker along with co hostMark Langston. Mark, this is going
to be a great show today.
I know it is. I'm lookingforward to it.
They're all great, but thisone is especially great because of
the 30th anniversary of theJewish Film Festival. We have a director
(00:58):
of one of the films going tobe talking to us today.
That's big league.
It is big league. And beforewe begin our return to civility is
if someone near you dropssomething, let them know or pick
it up for them. It could besomething they really need or that's
important to them. You alsocould save them the horrible panic
that happens when you get homeand can't find something.
(01:18):
Oh, there's nothing worse. Ithought I lost something the other
day and started backtrackingmy steps.
I have to do that also.
I even rented a truck from oneof those home improvement centers,
and I had them like, can Ilook through that truck?
Oh, wow.
I went home and I found it. Itwas in one of my chairs that I saw.
At least you found it.
(01:38):
I did, yes. Yeah, I did.
It's the ultimate shock iswhen you can't find your wallet or
the car keys. Oh, that's. Oh,my gosh. Do I need to cancel all
the credit cards?
I leave my keys in the carmore now because we've got that little
push button thing.
Oh, you want to have it stolen then?
Yeah, I guess that's what mywife Maria always says. What are
crazy. I know.
(02:00):
Well, it's like you have tocancel that out because you can look
him up on the Internet andfind out.
Where he lives with the keysin the little. Never mind. And. And
then I. I know. I was like,push the button to turn it off and
I'm out of there. Okay, Sorry.
Our guest in studio is JohnWilson. He's the Festival Director
for the 30th St. Louis JewishFilm Festival, and he is the director
(02:22):
of cultural arts at the JewishCommunity center of St. Louis. He's
also been a teaching artistand curriculum development teaching
teacher at stages in St.Louis. He also was a contract fight
director and we talked withhim about that when he was previously
on. It's not like he contractsfights out there for MMA or anything
like that. It's how he stagestheater fights for productions. And
(02:44):
he also was the professor oftheater and head of the School of
Visual and Performing Arts atthe University of Central Missouri.
John, welcome back to St.Louis in Tune.
It is so good to be here. Thisis my favorite thing to do once a
year, okay?
And Wendy Sachs, this is ourword of the day. It's. You know what
hyphenate means? You hyphenatea word. But hyphenate is a person
(03:05):
who is active in more than oneoccupation or sphere. She's a multi
hyphenate. She's astoryteller. She's a documentary
film director producer, Emmyaward winning network television
producer, writer, formerCapitol Hill press secretary, media
relations executive, and theauthor of the critically acclaimed
Fearless and Free How SmartWomen Pivot and Relaunch Their Careers.
(03:28):
She's been recognized bymakers, was named in 2017 Forbes
40 over 40 women to watch.She's the author of the Bible on
Balancing Career and Family.How she really Does It. Secrets of
a Successful Stay at Home Mom.An expert on career building, confidence
work issues. Been on the Todayshow, abc, Good Morning Morning America,
msnbc, cbs, fox, CNN HeadlineNews. She's a popular corporate and
(03:53):
conference speaker. She gaveher first TED talk in 2017. Harnessing
the power of Humiliation. I'vegot my first question beyond welcome
to St. Louis in Tune. Wendy ishow do you do it all? How do you
do it, girl?
She's a hyphenator.
You read me that bio and itsounds like I can't keep a job.
(04:14):
No, you've got so much timeand you're so talented that you're
able to move from one job toanother like.
That, from one thing to thenext. Just to clarify it, how he
really does it. It's aboutstay at work mom. Not stay at home
mom.
Stay at work mom. Yes, you'recorrect, mom.
That's right. Yeah. Work,life, balance. Hey guys, it's great
to be with you. And listen,I've done a lot of things in my career.
(04:37):
I think I've had a prettyinteresting career. I like to mix
it up for sure. But truly themost important project I've ever
done and what I would call mylife work is this film that is coming
out and that's going to be atthe St. Louis Jewish Film Festival,
if you. We called Octobereight. It's actually. We have a new
title from when it was firstsent out to the film festivals. It
(05:00):
was originally called October8th, the A being the number 8. And
we've changed the title. Wehave distribution now. We're going
to be in theaters across thecountry. We open on March 14th. But
truly, this film about theexplosion of antisemitism on college
campuses, on social media, andin the streets of America, the aftermath
of Hamas's attack on Israel onOctober 7, 2023, this is the project
(05:24):
of my life. I've pouredeverything I have into this, and
I basically haven't slept inthe past 16 months since October
7th.
And I get that. And tell us alittle bit of why you made the film
and what can people expect whoview the film.
Yeah, listen, I. I wasvisiting my daughter. She's a college.
She was a college junior. Iwas at the University of Wisconsin
(05:45):
on October 7, on 2023, and itwas game day. We were about to go
to a pregame party and we sawthe news of what was happening in
Israel. We saw the videos ofHamas terrorists kidnapping babies
and children and grandparentsand concert goers from the Nova Film
Festival and dragging theminto Gaza and literally murdering
(06:07):
them and live streaming theirhorrific footage on. On people's
Facebook pages and ontelegrams and. And then really the
next day, on October 8, we sawnew York Times Square, the celebration
of Hamas being celebrated asfreedom fighters rather than as terrorists.
And then what was happening onuniversity campuses, One thing after
(06:28):
another. And I just thoughtthat the world had lost its mind,
that. That there was no moralclarity anymore as to what was going
on when babies are beingkidnapped. And I started. I realized
I needed to document thismoment. And I got to work. And the
truth is that I've done thesefilms before on my own, and they're
a terrible business model tocreate a documentary film. I don't
(06:49):
recommend it to anyone. It'sblood, sweat and tears. It's really
hard to pull off and to finddistribution. But I wrote a treatment
for this film at the end ofOctober 2023, and I shopped it around
to do production companieswhere I had worked, and everyone
passed. No one wanted to takethis film on, really, for a number
of reasons. That's right.Yeah. There's really the climate
in Hollywood today towardanything about Israel or about anti
(07:13):
Semitism or about the Jewishcommunity has become really radioactive.
People are very afraid of itand afraid of being canceled for
Netflix and Amazon. Wherever Iwent, this is what I heard. And so
I thought, okay, I gotta dothis. And I got to work and I started
everyone and reached out tothe actress Deborah Messing, who
was using her Instagramplatform so unapologetically to speak
(07:37):
out against the terrorism andwho you were trying to remember the
hostages. There was a lot ofAmerican hostages that were kidnapped.
It was not just Israelis, itwas people from around the world,
but a lot of Americans. Andshe was so fearless when so many
other people in Hollywood wereafraid to speak up. And I reached
out to her and she became anexecutive producer on the film. She's
(07:58):
also appears in the film. Wehave comedian Michael Rapoport in
the film and a whole list ofvery high profile people, including
Sheryl Sandberg, ScottGalloway, members of Congress, and
some really inspiring collegestudents from, from universities
across the country.
Now let me ask you this. Whydo you think that is with Hollywood?
(08:19):
Why do you think that is withAmazon and all these other online
streaming places? Would noteven want to touch what you wanted
to do.
I think that there is theother side that is, that has been
supporting Hamas. To be honestwith you, this is not just supporting
campus activism or campusprocess. What we were seeing on college
(08:39):
campuses are not like VietnamWar era protests. They are well funded.
There is Hamas in America thathas been feeding this messaging for
decades on college campusesand playing fields. When we saw the
encampments at schools, atuniversities last spring, they all
had the same tents, right?This is all really orchestrated.
(08:59):
And I think that other side isso loud and so noisy and disruptive
and so threatening thatstreamers in the entertainment industry
and Hollywood, they're justafraid. They're afraid of the noise
on the other side. They'reafraid. And quietly they would say,
hey, we really love your filmand we really respect what you're
doing. This is very importantwork, but no one's going to buy it.
(09:22):
We're not going to make moneyoff of it. And we're afraid about
frankly just being canceledout there as a fear of cancel culture.
Is it Hamas or is it the Palestinians?
Not the Palestinians. Yeah, itis that. And to clarify, it is Iran,
it is Russia, it is China.They are the proxy for what we're
(09:44):
seeing. And the, the MuslimBrotherhood is financing the sjp,
which is Students for Justicein Palestine chapters on American
college campuses. So sjp,which should be getting to in the
film, is not just a studentgroup. The way there's Students for
Climate Change or Student forReproductive Freedom or any of the
other sort of Social justicecauses out there. SJP is a manifestation
(10:07):
of the Muslim Brotherhood,which is a terrorist organization.
And in the film, we show theconnectivity, we show the funding,
we show we. In fact, the bigreveal is a wiretap that was recorded
in the Marriott hotel room in1993 in Philadelphia where you hear
members of Hamas in Americatalking about their plans to infiltrate
(10:32):
American universities andAmerican media institutions and using
words like apartheid andcolonial settler and like they knew
how to speak to the left andthey knew how to speak to the right.
It was very manipulative andvery sophisticated and it's only
continued to grow. So there isa distinction between Palestinians
and Hamas? Absolutely. Butwhat we're seeing on college campuses
(10:56):
and what a lot of people don'trealize is that these students who
might think they're on theright side of the issue, who might
think that they are standingup to repression and to racism or
whatever they might be seeingout there, but in fact they're being
there, there's propaganda andthey're being controlled by, by terrorists.
When it starts with Iran andtheir proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and
(11:19):
it, and it funneled down.
You answered one of myquestions about the coordinated effort
and who's funding this andwho's organizing this. Were you surprised
at how fast these campus sitins and all of this unrest occurred
and how fast it grew, or wasit almost seems that people were
waiting for the moment or knewabout the moment was going to take
(11:41):
place and, and then they wereready to go with the signs. They
were ready. Some of them werehomemade signs, some of them were
pre done signs. It seems theywere professionally done signs and
things like that. Were you surprised?
I was surprised in the momentand then I started doing the research
and what we reveal in the filmis there was a toolkit that was pushed
out onto college campuses andthese sjp, these students were justice
(12:04):
from Palestine chapters acrossthe country. On October 8, there
was messaging, there was aGoogle document with the imagery,
with the messages and theneverything blew up. So they were
ready to go again. This goesback to this is sophisticated, this
is coordinated, and they'vebeen playing the long game. And so
I think what happened is a lotof people in the Jewish community
(12:28):
for sure woke up on, onOctober 8th. My tagline as the beginning
of this, of this project wasOctober 7th, Hamas attacked Israel.
On October 8th, American Jewswoke up. But it wasn't just the Jewish
community, it's Americans ingeneral who are seeing, wait, what
is going on here? When you seeHouthi flags Next to gay pride flags
(12:49):
on Columbia University'scollege campus. None of it makes
sense. None of this makessense. So these alliances that we've
seen are bizarre and the, theresponse is shocking. But at the
same time, when you start tounravel it and unpack it, you understand
that this was not organic,that this was. This is a long time
(13:10):
in the making.
This is Arnold Strick withMark Langston of St. Louis in Tune.
We're talking to Wendy Sack,she's director of the film October
8th. And you can go tooctober8film.com that film is going
to be shown at the St. LouisJewish Film Festival. And also with
us is John Wilson, festivaldirector. John, how does this film
work into the all of the filmsthat are going to be shown? Talk
(13:34):
a little bit about those otherfilms and is there a theme here?
So we've got 13 films thatwe're showing and we try and divide
the festival up thematically.Like we've got an April Fool's comedy
double feature. So it's justnothing but comedy on that day. And
the film, Wendy's film, is onApril 6th. And this is our October
(13:56):
7th retrospective. So at 3pmwe have a documentary, it's actually
an episode from a docu seriesout of Israel called Fighters. And
this is about the IDF soldierswho went into Gaza after October
7th. And we're getting to seewhat they had to face through their
body cam. We get to see thatfootage. Most of the soldiers that
(14:19):
we follow are injured, somepretty drastically. But it's a very
heartwarming film because it'sabout how their families and their
friends rallied around them.How many of them still want to serve
and go back when they'rehealthy. And then when our committee
saw October 8th, we knew thathad to be part of our October 7th
(14:41):
retrospective and it had to bethe feature film in the evening.
It is an absolute takedown ofprogressive left policies that have
been propagandistic,manipulative and have been influencing
our teenagers and young adultsfor decades. And Wendy did just the
(15:03):
most phenomenal job in thestorytelling of it. She lays it out
and makes it clear. And for mepersonally, this was a wake up call.
It was a wake up call for allof our Jewish community in St. Louis.
And it was a wake up call forall of the non Jewish people that
will come to the festival. Andwe just, we're putting this in the
(15:23):
grand screen. That's the 195seat theater at BNB and we think
it's gonna sell out. We thinkit's gonna do great. We're so excited
to have Wendy come and talk tous about the film. I think there's
gonna be a ton ofconversations to come from this.
So that day is very important.And we've got another couple days
where we focus on movies thattake place in Israel. We've got,
(15:46):
you know, like we always do,we have a couple of Holocaust theme
films and things like that. Sothis is my third festival, but it's
only the second festival thatI've curated, so I only have last
year to compare it to, butsounds ridiculous to say out of the
two festivals that I'vecurated, this is the best one. But
seriously, every single filmin this year's festival is worth
(16:09):
seeing. It's going to beoutstanding. We've got this opening
day triple header where we'refeaturing this film that was actually
made in St. Louis at EpsteinHebrew Academy. High schoolers interviewing
Holocaust survivors and justlike learning that story and understanding
why it is so important to keepthat story alive. And we've got the
(16:31):
creator of that project, NamesNot Numbers is a national project.
And so we've got Tova FishRosenberg coming in. We've got the
director of the film, MichaelPirro coming in. We've got Michael
Berenbaum, who's this likeworld renowned Holocaust museum curator
and author and professor. He'scoming in. We've got kids from Epstein
and the principal fromEpstein. And so we're have this huge
(16:53):
talk back after that film. Andthen we're going to end with Sir
Anthony Hopkins in One Life at7pm that night. And so it's just
every day has something foreveryone. And I think every day we
are achieving our objectivewith the film festival, which is
to get people to feel likethey're a part of a community, get
(17:15):
them connected to one another,increase their sense of empathy as
they learn about the humancondition and watching all of these
wonderful stories. And there'sa. There's a loneliness epidemic
in this country. And gettingout to festivals and getting out
to these communal events isone way to really improve people's
mental health and theiremotional health and just make them
(17:38):
feel like they're part ofsomething important.
Absolutely. I want toencourage folks, you don't have to
be Jewish to come to this filmfestival. You just have to have an
inquisitive, curious mind. Youmay not even like films, but these
are films. Having seen part ofWendy's film, the. These are films
you need to see becausethey're informative in what's going
(17:58):
on in Our culture today. Soit's at the BnB theaters in Cree
Core. There's an all accesspass that's available until March
9th. You can get individualtickets, they're $15. But you go
to STL jewishfilmfestival.orgSTL jewishfilmfestival dot org and
if you want.
To, you have to RSVP, I think,for each film that you want to see
(18:20):
too.
Is that correct?
Well, then you buy the allfestival pass.
I see.
You need to RSVP for thosefilms because we want to make sure
that we're accounting forevery single person that's a passholder,
that we have seats saved forthose that are coming to those specific
films. Because like a filmtheater, it's limited capacity.
Right, right.
And the passes are sellingfast. As of this recording, we're
(18:45):
reaching half capacityalready. And so this is the time,
right, to get in there, right? Yeah.
So by before midnight tonight.
Yeah, exactly. Wendy, how didyou pick the individuals that you
had in the documentary whotold their story?
That's a great question. Iwent to just people who I thought
(19:07):
of who were experts in theirfield and who a politically diverse
group of people. I. It wasintentional that I also found non
Jews, non Jewish experts to betalking to. I didn't want this blowhard
to go off the handle and startspouting their sort of ideology.
But instead I wanted peoplewho are really truly experts, from
(19:30):
the Treasury Department, fromJonathan Schanzer to Lorenzo Vidino,
the head of extremism atGeorge Washington University. Not
Joaquin, Italian Catholic. Andthen I was really looking for great
stories, is that it's acharacter driven film, that it's
not just a bunch of wonkyColes out there, an academic who
are just spouting fact.Because that would be a very boring
(19:53):
documentary. I was looking forstudent stories where there was a
real sort of story arc andstrong characters. So I interviewed
more than a dozen collegestudents and ultimately I think four
or five made it into the film.And these students are just exceptional.
They're inspiring. They pop oncamera, they just have these incredible
(20:14):
stories. So it was a realmixture. I was looking for some star
power. I was looking for somehigh profile people to raise the
profile of the film and toelevate it. But at the end of the
day, I'm a journalist and Iwanted to make sure that whoever
I put out there, we weretriple check checking all the facts
and that everything reallystood up. Really one of the big themes
(20:35):
of this film is extremism,Islamic jihadism, birth Democracy.
And I wanted voices who couldreally unpack what's going on and
what's at stake. And soCongressman Ricky Torres is one of
the characters in the film.He's, he's incredible. So is Musab
Yousef. He's a son of the cofounder of Hamas who really understands
(20:57):
what Hamas is like as he grewup with it and then became an informant
for the, for the IDF or theIsrael Defense Forces or for the
government, I guess, or theMossad. But he's an incredible voice
in the film also. So it was areal mixture of finding the most
incredible student voices outthere who have real mixed with a
diverse group of expert voices.
(21:19):
Yeah, he's done some thingswith Barry Weiss on the Free Press
that I've seen and verypowerful that. And Barry was very
powerful. Barry was in thefilm documentary, wasn't she? Barry
Weiss.
Barry Weiss is in. Barry Weissis in the film. Scott Galloway just
it's an incredible list ofnames. They're really who can speak
(21:41):
from, from politics to socialmedia to really what's unpacking
what antisemitism is today.Another theme of this film is that
anti Zionism is the modernform of anti Semitism.
Yep.
There used to be some gray inthere and that's just no longer the
case. What I want people to dois I didn't want to be preachy. I
(22:04):
didn't want this to be againtoo like an academic film. I wanted
to lift the hood up and unpackfor everyone what's happening out
there. Like how did we get tothis moment where Hamas is being
celebrated as freedom fightersrather than a terrorist? And that
is really one of the themes ofthe film and I think a big takeaway.
(22:53):
We're going to take a briefbreak and folks, if you missed part
of this, you can catch thisshow and other shows@stlntune.com
and please leave a review ifif you like what you hear. But we're
going to come back for thenext segment. You're listening to
St. Louis in tune with ArnoldStricker and Mark Langston on the
US Radio Network. The UnitedStates has a strong tradition of
(23:21):
welcoming newcomers andrefugees. The welcome Corps is a
new service opportunity forAmericans inspired to welcome those
seeking freedom and safety andin turn help strengthen their own
communities. Welcome Corps isa public private partnership that
is inspired by what Americansrepresent to so many around the world.
A beacon of hope and refuge.All it takes is a helping hand. Are
(23:42):
you ready to learn? Contactthe International Institute of St.
Louis@infoistl.org or call314-773-9090. That's infoistl.org
or call 314.773-9090. This isArnold Stricker of St. Louis in Tune
(24:04):
on behalf of the Dred ScottHeritage Foundation. In 1857, the
Dred Scott destroyed decisionwas a major legal event and catalyst
that contributed to the CivilWar. The decision declared that Dred
Scott could not be freebecause he was not a citizen. The
14th Amendment, also calledthe Dred Scott Amendment, granted
citizenship to all born ornaturalized here in our country and
was intended to overturn theUS Supreme Court decision on July
(24:26):
9, 1868. The Dred ScottHeritage foundation is requesting
a commemorative stamp to beissued from the US Postal Service
to recognize and remember theheritage of this amendment by issuing
a stamp with the likeness ofthe man Dred Scott. But we need your
support and the support ofthousands of people who would like
to see this happen. To achievethis goal, we ask you to download,
(24:47):
sign and share the one pagepetition with others. To find the
petition, please go todredscottlives.org and click on the
Dred Scott petition drive onthe right side of the page. On behalf
of the Dred Scott Heritagefoundation, this is been Arnold Stricker
of St. Louis in Tune. Welcomeback to St. Louis in Tune. This is
(25:10):
Arnold Stricker with MarkLangston. We have John Wilson, festival
Director of the 30th AnnualSt. Louis Jewish Film Festival. And
on the line, Wendy Sachs,who's director of the film October
8th. And this is going to bepart of the Jewish Film festival,
which is the 30th. And John,you've got the kind of the directory
of the films in front of you,as I do. And Mark does also. We've
(25:33):
talked a little bit about someof these films, but they're all big
hits. They're all big hitters.There's not a dud in the group.
No, there. There really isn't.We have you watched over 70 films?
Oh, my God.
And we narrowed it down tolike 30, 35 that we shared with our
selection committee and thenwe got these 13. So, like, the cream
(25:55):
really does rise to the top.And. And these are major distributors
from across the entire globepushing A plus content for festivals.
A lot of them have appeared inmovie theaters as well or on major
streaming platforms. And wehave some gems that most people would
not see. But, but a lot ofthese are like, these are the kind
(26:18):
of mainstream movies that yougo to the movies for.
And the Purpose of thefestival is.
We want to be able to have aplace where the community can come
and they can watch cinema. Wethink cinema is one of the most powerful
ways to engage withstorytelling. We feel like the ideas
about the human condition,whether you're learning that from
(26:40):
a documentary or you'relearning it from a drama or a comedy,
it really awakens that senseof empathy in all of us and allows
us to have a common sharedexperience. And then we get these
great talkbacks that happenafter the films as well. So we get
to dive deeper in, into thosefilms with our guests. And we are
(27:00):
trying to cure a place ofexcellence in cinema, but then also
community engagement.
And we've talked about someserious films about what happened
in October and also theHolocaust. But you also have some
comedy films that really.There's also one about Brian Epstein,
the manager of the Beatles.
(27:21):
And yeah, Midas man is amusical drama about his discovery
of the Beatles. And the. Thefour actors that, that play the Beatles,
they're amazing. How they looklike those like the members of the
Beatles when they wereyounger. It's amazing how they found
these guys and they must have.The character studies of these kids
must have gone through isamazing. They do a phenomenal job.
(27:43):
And it's a really cool storyseeing how that group got discovered
and came together actually inplaying on that same day. We call
it our true stories day onMonday, April 7th. We also have at
7 o'clock a film called Avenueof the Giants. I don't know if you
would ever say this phrase, afeel good Holocaust movie, but you
(28:08):
can say it about Avenue of theGiants and it's because it's a true
story about Herbert Hellerwho. He escaped the concentration
camps as like a 10 year oldand he kept this secret even from
his own family for 60 years.
Oh my gosh.
He never told a soul. And thenhe meets this young girl named Abby
(28:33):
and she's going through areally like tough crisis time in
her life and she's opening upto him and he feels like the only
way he can really connect withher is to start to tell her his story.
Wow.
And so these two start sharingtheir stories of pain and suffering.
But ultimately it becomes soredemptive because they both end
(28:56):
up pursuing healing andwholeness through just finally being
able to share what they'regoing through.
Wow.
And it's just, it's beautiful.It's a beautiful film. You mentioned
the comedies. So last year,one of the most popular films we
had was a film calledMatchmaking. And this was out of
Israel. It's just, it was sucha lovely film. Young romance. You've
(29:18):
got two different sects fromthe Orthodox community, Romeo and
Juliet. This year we'reshowing Matchmaking two. And you
don't have to have seenMatchmaking one to appreciate Matchmaking
two. If you did seeMatchmaking one, you absolutely don't
want to miss this film becauseall the same characters come back
and it's just as good. Likesometimes sequels are a little bit
(29:40):
of a risk. And this is just aswell written, just as well directed
and acted. It just picks upwhere the last film left off and
you just fall more and more inlove with these characters. And it's
just delightful. It is so fun.
Wow.
It's great. And following thatin the, in the evening is a film
called Bad Shabbos. And it'sjust basically about a. A Friday
(30:02):
night Shabbat dinner thatcould not go more wrong. And it gets
to the point where it's almostfarcical. It's just so bad. It is
so bad. But just great starsin that one and extremely well done.
That one's been taking a lotof awards at the film festival circuit
(30:24):
this year. So it's a top comedy.
These are some top films,folks. And for more information,
go to jccstl.com jccstl.comthe festival is March 30, April 1
and 3rd, and then April 6, 7thand 8. Wendy, I want to turn to you
for a. For a minute here.You've done a gazillion things in
(30:47):
your career and I know youwere saying that maybe that doesn't
speak highly of you becauseyou jumped jobs. And to me it speaks
that you were continuing togrow. And my question is, what drives
you? What drives you, girl?
You know what I think? Thispassion and a mission to change the
world, I know, as cheesy asthat is, but everything that I do,
(31:10):
there's some sort of purposebehind it. I think I'm a very purpose
driven person and that'skeeping me going. I like to mix things
up. I like to challenge myselfand I like to tell important stories.
Again, I think this projectright now, it's. Nothing has felt
more purposeful. It feelsexistential and truly personal.
(31:31):
Explain that. How is that, howhas that impacted you personally?
Because I had a question aboutthat. What, what has this film done
to you?
It's been transformative. Youknow, it's. The film is not about
October 7th as much as it isabout October 8th and afterward.
But at the same time, I filmedin Israel. I spent two weeks filming
(31:54):
in Israel in January, rightafter October 7th. A few months afterwards
I went to the kibbutzim, Iwent to the Nova site and I then
traveled back again in June.And you can't unsee those images.
They're horrific. And it feltas a Jewish American, someone living
in the diaspora, I know that Ihave the privilege of being an American.
(32:16):
And at the same time, it feltlike October 7th for me and I think
for many in the Jewishcommunity have been speaking for
diaspora Jewry. We felt thatit was a generational trauma unleashed.
I'm of a certain age whereI've grown up in the again privileged
in America and have not reallyfelt anti Semitism in a way that
we're feeling today. I startedfeeling it a few years ago and where
(32:40):
someone actually, I don'tthink I can curse on your air, so
I. I won't drop the F bomb,but someone used that expletive and
put the word do next to it andhung up on me, a woman. And I couldn't
believe it. And it was just asthat. Something has really shifted
in our culture in the past fewyears. And while I think that a lot
of antisemitism was simmeringunderground like an iceberg, you
(33:03):
see part of the. Most of thedensity of the iceberg is underneath
the ice. And then it allpopped up, it all exploded after
October 7th. And that's beenshocking and that's been personal
and that's driven a lot ofthis project of getting people to
understand what's going on andto see. Think in our culture. We've
(33:24):
seen Jews are really theminority of the minority as far as
sheer numbers, but we're nottreated as such. There's this belief
that Jews are white andwealthy and all privileged here in
America. And that's driven alot of what we've seen with DEI on
college campuses and in. Incorporations. And things really need
to change and we need to startreally paying attention to the hate.
(33:46):
The hate that the Jewishcommunity faces is. Is much greater
than any other religiouspopulation out there. And the data
all speaks to it. The hatethat we're seeing online is real.
It's scary. And what we seeonline has real world ramifications.
We thought of the tree of Lifeand Pittsburgh was going to time
(34:07):
after time. And I think thatis really been part of the inspiration
behind the film and behindeducating people. There's a long
tail to this project. It's notjust about the film festivals and
it's not just about. It'sGoing to be in movie theaters, which
it will be in AMC and reboottheaters and other theaters across
the country starting on March14th. But it's about getting this
(34:29):
into schools. And so we'reworking on creating a curriculum
to bring the film intoschools, into public schools across
the country because it'sreally needed.
We need to educate and that'sthe vantage point, educating the
public. Which is one reasonI'm glad that you and John are on
the show. That's one of thepurposes of the show is to help educate
(34:50):
the populace. We had BenjaminGinsburg on during the New Jewish
Book Festival and he wastalking about his book, the New American,
the Left, the Right and theJews and educating the public. It's
tough because people arewatching their own media venues.
People who watch Fox don'twatch cnn. People who watch CNN don't
(35:12):
watch Fox. They don't get abalanced kind of stream. They try
to get most of their news fromeither Twitter X or Instagram or
wherever they're getting itfrom Blue sky or however it is. They're
not using the God givenintelligence that they've been given
to balance facts and look atwhat is true, what is not true and
to investigate to the pointwhere to find out what the truth
(35:34):
really is. Because it getsback to that film. You can't handle
the truth.
Right.
And that's where people needto go. And I get it's more of a statement
from my end to you, but myquestion relates to what needs to
happen now. If somebody goesto the film, what do you want them
to come out of the film and doA couple of things.
(35:54):
I want them to push back onthe hate when they see that anti
Zionism or Zionist not allowedthat. That'd be a message that comes
up in the film. There was asign that was posted at the University
of California, Santa Barbara,UC Santa Barbara, targeting the president
of the student bodygovernment, Tessa Wechler. And as
(36:14):
soon as I saw that sign, whenI saw no Zionists allowed at the,
at the multicultural center atUC Santa Barbara, I couldn't believe
it. To me, when you see noZionist, you mean no Jew. And I want
people to understand what thatis. So when they're seeing this Zionism,
Zionist, Zionists are racist.Zionists are genocidal. That means
(36:35):
Jew. And that needs to be atakeaway from this film. And what
I do want people to do is alsorealize when they're, what they're
watching on social media, whatthey're getting online, the news
that they're being that'sbeing delivered to them and these
like little nuggets that arejust like clickbait. I want young
people to start thinking morecritically about what they're viewing
and really question the story.Where is it coming from? When they
(36:57):
see people protesting oncampus with Hamas paraphernalia and
upside down red triangles,which, by the way, is Hamas iconography
that's been hijacked and beentaken to American college campuses,
they need to understand that'sterrorism, that's a threat to democracy,
that it's not just about theJews in Israel. It's much bigger.
(37:18):
This is about the west, it'sabout democracy, it's about our freedom.
There are big issues at stake.And so it's much bigger than just
the Jewish community. It'smuch bigger than a growing wave of
antisemitism. It's about them, too.
John, I want to ask as well,said Wendy. I want to ask, when people
walk out of the festival, Iknow you talked about the goal of
(37:40):
the festival, what do you wantthem to be able to do when they're
walking out of those doors ofthe festival cinema?
I think after every single oneof these films, there's going to
be an opportunity to haveconversations that our audience would
not engage in otherwise. Sowhether that is with the family member
that came with came with themor the friend that came with them,
(38:01):
or even if they just came tothe festival films by themselves,
the knowledge and what theygot from that, they take back into
their home or into theircommunity. And it's going to promote
a number of conversations andit's going to talk about, you know,
we need to take a deeper lookat our marriage or we need to take
a deeper look at, you know,infusing our relationship with more
(38:23):
romance, or we need to take alook at what happened on October
7th and reorient our worldviewto match the truth of what that situation
was. They're going to learnhistory and that's going to help
them think differently, notonly about that history, but about
the present as well. And Iwant everyone to walk out either
having learned or feltsomething in a really dramatic way
(38:48):
and then be able to share thatwith one another. And hopefully they
walk out with a smile on theirface. Some films are going to walk
out.
Very somber Q and A, but Iwill take a Q and A.
They are going to end uphaving conversations that that just
drive their relationships even further.
Wendy, I want to thank you fortaking time to talk with us about
(39:09):
the film October 8th. Andfolks, you can go to october8film.com
October 8th film.com to checkmore about that. And if you want
to go to the Jewish film. Ishouldn't say if you want to go,
you need to go to the JewishFilm Festival. JCCSTL.com JCCSTL.com
will give you more informationon that. Wendy, I want to give you
an open invitation. You'rewelcome to come back at any time
(39:30):
that you want to talk aboutwhatever you want. And Mark wants
to say something.
I wanted to thank you so much.
I appreciate it. You gave meso much time. This has been such
a great interview. So thankyou both.
I want to make sure we havethe website right because it's spelled
H8. The number 8.
No, it's a new website now.
Okay.
New, new website. We revisedthe name when we got distribution.
They wanted to appeal to alarger audience.
(39:52):
Okay.
And so instead of the hate andit's a little confusing with the
A as the number eight, we arenow October 8th. Film dot com. Yeah,
the number eight. The numbereight. October. The number eight.
Film dot com.
Thank you for clarifying that.
Just wanted to make sure.
Yeah, okay, great, Wendy,thank you very much.
And can I say good luck on.Was it March 14? Did you say they're
(40:14):
going to start putting them in theaters?
In theaters, yeah.
That is fantastic.Congratulations on that. That is
really great to get it out to you.
Thank you so much to thegeneral public.
And I'm excited to come to St. Louis.
Yes.
Right before my birthday.
We're looking forward tohaving you, Wendy.
We'll have to have a birthcake fan. Little hats. Can we do
little hats? Noise makers. Okay.
(40:36):
Well, John and Wendy, thanksvery much, folks. That's all for
this hour. They thank you forlistening. We're going to post all
of this information on thepodcast page so when you listen,
you don't have to write itdown quickly. You can just go to
the website stluntune.com andclick on that website and that will
come. Those will come right upfor you. So if you enjoy this episode,
(40:57):
you can listen to additionalshows. As I mentioned@stlin tune.com
consider leaving a review onour website, Apple Podcasts, Podchaser,
or your preferred podcastplatform. Your feedback helps us
reach more listeners andcontinue to grow. Want to thank Bob
Berthisel for our theme music,our guests John Wilson and Wendy
Sachs and co host MarkLangston. And we thank you folks
for being a part of ourcommunity of curious minds. St. Louis
(41:19):
in tune is a production of theMotif Media Group and the US Radio
Network. Remember to keepseeking, keep learning, walk worthy
and let your light shine forSt. Louis. Listen, tune, I'm Arnold
Stricker.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com