September 6, 2025 • 34 mins
This week on The Hollywood in Toto Podcast, we dive into the cultural chaos fueled by late-night TV — and Stephen Colbert is front and center. Once a platform for laughs and lighthearted satire, late-night has become a tool of political division, and Colbert’s angry, partisan monologues are leading the charge. We break down how Colbert and his peers have helped polarize the country — and why they may not even realize the damage they’ve done.
Later, we’re joined by director Nim Shapira to discuss his powerful new documentary, Torn. The film explores the emotional and political firestorm surrounding the hostage posters that appeared across New York City after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. Shapira unpacks how these simple images became flashpoints in debates over free speech, antisemitism, cancel culture, and the modern protest movement.
This is a must-listen episode for anyone concerned about media bias, Hollywood’s political agenda, and the growing rift in American pop culture.
Keywords: Hollywood, Stephen Colbert, late-night TV, political comedy, media division, cancel culture, free speech, antisemitism, October 7 attacks, Hamas, Israel, Nim Shapira, Torn documentary, hostage posters, NYC protests, culture war, biased media, entertainment news, conservative media, Hollywood in Toto.
--------------------------
"Torn" documentary.- https://www.torn-film.com
Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto
Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com
Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto
Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991
Later, we’re joined by director Nim Shapira to discuss his powerful new documentary, Torn. The film explores the emotional and political firestorm surrounding the hostage posters that appeared across New York City after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. Shapira unpacks how these simple images became flashpoints in debates over free speech, antisemitism, cancel culture, and the modern protest movement.
This is a must-listen episode for anyone concerned about media bias, Hollywood’s political agenda, and the growing rift in American pop culture.
Keywords: Hollywood, Stephen Colbert, late-night TV, political comedy, media division, cancel culture, free speech, antisemitism, October 7 attacks, Hamas, Israel, Nim Shapira, Torn documentary, hostage posters, NYC protests, culture war, biased media, entertainment news, conservative media, Hollywood in Toto.
--------------------------
"Torn" documentary.- https://www.torn-film.com
Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto
Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com
Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto
Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week on the Hollywood and Total podcast, Why is
Stephen Colbert so surprised that his audience wants President Trump dead?
And they're just following orders? And we talked to Nim Shapira,
the director of a powerful new film that captures one
of the most soul crushing trends we've seen in recent months.
(00:21):
Welcome to the Hollywood and Toto Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Entertainment news and reviews without the woke Hollywood narrative.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Free speech, free expression, Now that's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And here's your host, Award winning film critic Christian Toto.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well what did he expect? Stephen Colbert had to gently
chide his audience this week. Why Well, he was discussing
the rumors that President Donald Trump had died. Caused a
big sensation on social media. People were very very happy
that a possibility. Check out some of the TikTok videos.
It's rather amusing, And of course we learned that President
(01:06):
Trump is alive and well and nothing's wrong. Fake news
on steroids, you know, the drill. But when Stephen Colbert
shared the dues that no, President Trump isn't dead, his
crowd booed. They weren't happy. They had the sads. When
I came back.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
When I came back in the office, I was shocked
to learn that this weekend the biggest story was frenzied
social media rumors speculating whether Donald Trump had died. For
the record, donald Trump is very much alive, okay, and no.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We like our presidents alive. Stephen Colbert's moral compass is
due North. Good for him, and that's where the good
things to say about Stephen Colbert ended this particular conversation.
I don't know why this Stephen Colbert would be surprised
that his fans want Trump dead. I mean, Colbert has
spent the last decade saying that Trump is Hitler like
(02:06):
he's Hitler, Ad Jason, He's Hitler two point zero. He's
a monster, He's a demon. He's the worst thing that's
ever happened to the country. You spent ten years saying
variations of that. Chances are your audience is gonna want
him dead and you can't can't blame him. Sounds like
a horrible human being. According to Stephen Colbert, You're a monster. Now.
(02:26):
Stephen Colbert may believe all of that, and he may
want Trump dead as well. Who knows. I don't want
to get into his head. I'm not a psychologist, but
he knows he can't come right out and say it
for sure. That wouldn't be wouldn't be a good look
for him. But he also is pretty ignorant about the
role he's played in this state of affairs. And of
(02:47):
course he's not alone. Governor Tim Waltz recently bemoaned the
fact that Trump was still alive and looked forward to
the day, hopefully sooner than later, that there's a Trump
obituary in the paper, whether it's online or old school print.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Although I will say this, the last few days, you
woke up thinking there might be news, saying saying there
will be news sometime, just say no, there.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Will be news. Boy, did America dodge a bullet in
November when when we didn't elect that guy as vice president? Wow? Wow, knucklehead,
which he called himself during the debate. I think he
was being kind. He's an usher. Now, this particular episode
of the Hollywood and Total podcast is the second one
in a row where we're talking about projects that are
(03:34):
trying to bring people together. Now, listen, not every movie
should do that. I think could be ridiculous. Frankly don't
need that. But every once in a while there's a
pop culture project that does try to bring both sides together,
kind of lower the temperature and the cultural conversation. That's
a good thing.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Why can't we be friends?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Of course, last time around we talked about the rom
com the elephant in the room, a bet a very
liberal woman and a Trump voter, and well, could they
actually fall in love despite their differences? Well, this week
we'll be talking about a new film that asks a
lot of questions about the fallout from the October seventh attacks.
We'll get to that in a minute. And again, it's
the kind of conversation where, hey, is there any common ground? Here?
(04:15):
Is anything we can say to bring us all together? Now,
if Colbert and Company just did political satire from their
late night purchase, if they left aside the hatred and
the anger and the vitriol that they bring to the
table almost every monologue, and if they occasionally hit both
sides of the political aisle, I don't think we'd be
(04:35):
in the situation we are right now, with so much division,
so much hate. And of course they're just a small
part of the problem, but it isn't the world we
live in right now, and that's a shame. But there
is one silver lining because May twenty twenty six, Stephen
Colbert is going to be on the unemployment line and
I for one can't wait.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Get the road, Jack.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And now here's what's in the headlines. The Trump Rosie
o'donald feud actually got worse. Now in recent days, President
Trump came out and said or teased that he was
thinking about revoking Rosi o'donald's citizenship. Now, Rosie o'donald famously
moved to Ireland to get away from President Trump. He
still seems very much alive and living renfree in her head.
(05:28):
But let's be blunt. He's obviously trolling. I don't think
he's gonna do anything. But you know, when you're the president,
he can't do stuff like that. You can't stay stuff
like that. I'm sorry, not remotely cool, not gonna happen.
He's not gonna do it. He is trolling. But stop
with this silliness. Okay, It only feeds the haters and
just plugs into this whole mystique that people have about Trump.
(05:50):
Of course, Rosio O'Donnell in her response, actually took the
high road. I'm just kidding. She went crazier. She called
him a pedophile, said he paid a billion dollars to
pay off Jeffrey Epstein. You know the drill. So here
we are those two fighting once again. I guess it's
a distraction. I think that Rose o'donald needs some mental
health at this point in her career. But I think
(06:13):
both sides should maybe take a chill, calm down, talk
about other things. Maybe just take a walk in the
park and clear your head probably the best thing for everyone.
Oh and by the way, that whole queen of nice
shtick that Rose o'donald pulled off for years on our
talk show, what was the acting performance of a lifetime Wow,
the Oscar goes too well. The new sitcom The Paper
(06:35):
is available right now on Peacock via streaming. Of course,
the paper isn't the office, but it is office adjacent.
It's actually kind of a spiritual cousin of sorts to
that classic NBC sitcom with Steve Carrell. The new show
is following a newspaper, small newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, and
the trials and tribulations of trying to make a better product,
trying to actually be good journalists and just trying to
(06:58):
keep your head above water, and is very trouble time
for the media. Now, of course, the show is nowhere
near as good as The Office. The Office is one
of the best sitcoms of all time period of full
Stop doesn't even come close. Now. I think people will
have to check it out and see for themselves. There
are some minor chuckles here and there, the cast is
occasionally interesting, but the fascinating part to me is that
(07:19):
before the first episode was even available for streaming, Peacock
announced we were going to do a season two of
The Paper, So they must have a lot of confidence somewhere.
I watched four episodes. I didn't quite see it. It's
okay at best, and certainly doesn't compare to the original show,
but we'll have to wait and see, you know. The
one silver lining potentially here is that even The Office,
(07:40):
which had a few great episodes from the jump, including
Diversity Day, wasn't quite the Office The Office right away.
Michael Scott, the great character played by Steve Carell, it
was a little uncertain of being and they were just
feeling out how naughty he would be, how problematic he
would be, and I think after maybe when season two
kicked in, I think they kind of knew what they
had there. And of course the rest is sitcom history.
(08:02):
So buff to wait and see the paper every guests
remotely close for now not so much, but it is
streaming right now, all ten episodes on Peacock. Well, she
still won't apologize, and that's the best news this week.
Sidney Sweeney was walking the red carpet recently. She's got
a new movie coming fairly soon in November. It's called Christy.
It's about the famous boxer Christy Martin. It's a biopic.
(08:24):
It should be interesting, might even be in some Oscar consideration.
You never know, these kind of biopicks often are. And
someone asked her about the American Eagle ad that she
was in which made Jean's sales sore, And I guess
they were hoping that she would apologize or backpedal, or
do one of those I will be an ally stick
that we've seen for the last five, six, seven years. Nope,
(08:44):
didn't take debait, nothing, And that again is the best
news of the week, because you know, if she had backpedaled,
if she had apologized, if she had bent the knee
to the woke mob. Well, they would have taken another
scalp and it would have been a little bit tougher
to speak out and be true to yourself. In the
culture today, it's all about freedom. Man like this. So
good for Sidney Sweeney. She is our unofficial heroine of
(09:05):
the week.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
She did the right thing by saying nothing.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I've been trying to watch as many documentaries as possible
that are tied to the October seventh attacks, the after
effects of that particularly heinous event, and also just some
of the cultural modifications. And one of the maybe more
intriguing films I've seen in recent weeks is called Torn.
You go to tornhyphenfilm dot com for more information about
it now. The director is Nim Shapira, and what he
(09:41):
did was talk about the people who are tearing down
posters that featured images of hostages six of my family
members taken hostage by hamas.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I just tried to not think of the worst.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I started to spot these posters around. It meant the
world to me to see that other people cared about them. Jos,
you know, on the surface, this is barbaric, it's ghoulish.
I can't even imagine what would go through someone's mind
(10:18):
who wanted to tear down a poster. Some of these
posters were of little kids, of children, old people, innocent
people captured by Hamas. It is an atrocity, but is
there more to the story. Now? This isn't moral equivocation,
but we want to find out why the people who
are doing it are doing it, and this film does
the best job possible to get to the truth. Now,
(10:40):
it didn't get all the way. It struggled to get
some of the people on camera for an interview, and
we'll get into that in a minute with my conversation
with them. But it's also really a fascinating look at
this whole situation. It talks about free speech, it talks
about the protesters' rights, it talks about cancel culture. This
is a fascinating documentary. I really enjoyed it, and yes
(11:01):
there is a perspective here. The filmmakers do have some
things to share, but it's surprisingly balance given the material
in question, and it really is a must see. Torn
is available right now. It's in limited theatrical release New
York and la usual kind of roll out for a
smaller film. I hope it does build and grow from
there and we'll have more information about where you can
see it down the road. I'll be sharing that on
(11:22):
social media as well, so you can follow me on
social media at Hollywood, on TOTO, I am most active
on X and I'm be sure. Once I find out
more theaters or what other plans they have for the
film's release, I will let you know. But for now,
here's my conversation with Nim Shapiro, the director of Torn.
A fascinating movie, a great conversation, and a necessary film, Poy.
Wouldn't it be great if more film critics actually watched
(11:44):
it and reviewed it? Fela can dream, But for now
we have Nim, we have the movie. Do check out
the conversation and then the film itself. Well, then thanks
for joining the show. You know what you focused on
in Torn is a small is much larger puzzles, much
larger crisis. And at first Plush would think, well, I
(12:05):
don't know that would be worthy of a full documentary,
but clearly it is. There are so many issues involved here.
But as an artist, as a storyteller, tell us how
you got involved with this project and now how you
realized there was so much more to it than just
this one kind of confrontation in a way.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So first of all, thank you for having me. I
would say that when I first started working on the film,
I honestly didn't know it's going to be a feature film.
I just told myself, like, this is interesting and I
want to explore it. There are so many important documentaries
that are being made or were made in the past
(12:44):
two years, both about what has happened on October seven
in Israel and also about the ongoing war in Gaza
and the humanitarian crisis. So there are a lot of
important documentaries that are being made. And I was like,
what can I do in my tiny piece of home,
(13:05):
which is New York. And I really felt, you know,
the echolades or the ripples of the wall here in
in my neighborhood. First of seeing the people putting up
the posters, walking in those streets, it felt like someone
is seeing my grief, someone is seeing my pain. And
(13:26):
then very quickly after seeing so many people from different
backgrounds and ethnicities caring so much to rip down those posters,
and I recognize the streets like I know every I've
been living here for twelve years. I know each street
and each avenue by hout whether it's in Manhattan or
(13:49):
in Brooklyn, and it it. You know, not only the
posters were torn, My heart was torn. The social fabric
of the city was torn. And and that this is
when you know, friends or colleagues started unfollowing each other.
(14:11):
I also followed them. They unfollowed me. People stopped talking
to each other, seeing each other in the subway and
not talking to each other. And these are people that
you know, knew me and loved me for a decade,
or vice versa. Friends of mine that are on dating
apps were getting really horrible messages, even without you know,
saying anything, just harassed people. Friends of mine uninvited from
(14:37):
their friends' weddings. Students in high schools and in colleges
were ostracized. And yeah, it was it still is. I
would say I've gotten used to it, but I would
say the first few months were really, really rough emotionally.
(14:58):
I really hope that a thousands of miles away from
the actual wall, we don't have missiles and rockets on
our heads. The least we can do is sit down
and talk to each other. But it's not. It's not
the case. So when when I started working on the film,
first of all, I you know, I reached out to
Bend the Nisan Mints who created the posters, interviewed them
(15:22):
for I think five hours. They had a lot to say,
and then, you know, one character led to another. I
found I interviewed dozens of people. Ten of them made
it to the film. Each of them had We had
a sit down interview of about four or five hours,
(15:44):
and the mission was really, how do I make the
movie relevant whenever it comes out? Because this is, as
you said, it's about the posters, but so much more.
And it's a micro cousin of you know, when we
are polarized as a society, we are tribal unfortunately, and
(16:10):
and we are very siloed and echo chambered. So you're
looking at these posters as a study case for everything
that our society is dealing with in terms of conversation
and lack of conversation.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, you know, obviously your film is not celebrating the
people who are tearing down these posters by any stretch.
But having said that, you you let some of the
people speak, there is an empathy toward their point of view,
and I found that surprising, welcoming in a way, sometimes
(16:45):
uncomfortable for me. To watch. I mean, I you know,
entered the project thinking I just want you to you know,
these people for an how and a half to two hours,
But talk about that approach to it, because I thought
that was really I thought it was healthy.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
First of all, thank you, I am you know, my
biggest I wouldn't say regret, but it sendenced me a
lot that I couldn't get any pro Palestinian activists to
be a part of the film. I think that's also
part of the problem, like we don't want to talk
(17:21):
to each other. I did reach out to every person
that got doxed. That's how I had their details, and
I am I'm an American, I'm a former MI I
T fellow. So I said that in the email. But
that didn't convince them to come to come and be
(17:42):
a part of it. And they already some of them
already did interview, so they said, we said everything there
is to say. Some of them decided not to respond
at all. I don't blame them or judge them, like
some of them have been really under backlash, harassment, which
(18:03):
I don't support. But it was said that they didn't
want to take about in the movie. And then you
know there's a there's the hourglass and you see the
send kind of like pulling down, and like, I need
to finish the film. How do I bring that pov
into the film? So I knew that I'm going to
(18:23):
include every you know, either a reason or excuse in
air quotes, in air quotes or not in air quotes
people who ripped down the posters. I comped the Internet
and found hundreds of videos and chose the you know,
(18:44):
the ones that gave a reason. I also included every
video segment from either television or YouTube of those rippers
telling their stories. But it was also important for me
to create some sort of a dialogue, and because I couldn't,
(19:05):
this is how I came up with this creative solution,
which I'm very proud of. And you know, I didn't
know what's going to come out of my interviewees when
specifically Nina, who I'm giving her the piece of paper
to read, but I knew I want to give it
(19:26):
to her because unlike the other participants of my film,
which are hostage family members, she's an activist, but she
doesn't have she's more distant, distanced from the situation. And
it was clear that you know, she is on the
other side, so to speak. And yeah, I didn't know
(19:49):
what she's going to say, she didn't know what I'm
going to give her, and it was a really you know,
it was a really really you know, I want to
say poetic moment. I don't know, it was. It was.
I'm very proud of that of that sequence.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Can you give us a little background on her, just
for people haven't seen the film yet, just so it
can kill more.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Yes, so I The film features ten different New Yorkers,
young and old, Sephardic and Kenazi, libel and conservative, religious
and secular. Nina mcgilnik she's a New Yorker. She uh
(20:33):
is a mother of three, lives on the Upper West Side,
and she is she worked a lot in philanthropy today,
she's she writes a lot for her blog and Times
of Israel, and she reviews books. So she's very, very
articulate and and you know, I found her because I
(20:58):
saw footage of of her, a woman arguing with another
woman on the streets of New York and I was like,
I need to find this woman. And I was able
to find her, and this is how she made it
into the film. So yeah, she's very very passionate about
the posters, and I think in terms of a documentary
that follows a character, you can see a real arc
(21:22):
with her specifically because the posters were her outlet. She
put them up because she wanted to raise a wellness
of course for all the hostages, and specifically a hostage
named Noya Dan that very soon after October seven. It's
(21:44):
a teenage girl that was autistic, and you know, her
body was nowhere to be found, so people thought she
was kidnapped, but in the end she was murdered on
that day and her body was extremely mutilated. But specifically
with Noya Dan, she's autistic, and Nina has a son
(22:04):
who's autistic as well, and she felt very, very connected
to that specific hostage.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah. You know, one of the things that your film
does as well is it's really not political. There are
a couple of moments you could sort of maybe say, oh,
look at that, but talk about that. I mean, is
that just another hornet's nest you didn't want to get into?
Was it tempting They're going to add some political moments
because there's a lot to add, for sure, Yeah, potentially, I.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Have my head my brain, is there so many answers
I want to give you. First, going back to film school,
you know, we we you know you they teach you
about the New French way. They teach you about Godall,
and Godall said that every camera angle is political, so
you know, there is politics in the film. And of
(22:51):
course I'm of course I am Jewish Israeli American filmmaker,
so I have my I would say that in this film,
what I try to do is because we are so divided,
I tried to zigzag between narratives, and I tried to
(23:15):
you know, we're not just echo chambered, and every person
has their own feed that they're dooms, calling in and
seeing what they like or hate, and the algorithm feeds us.
We also read different news and watch different TV stations,
So I weaved into the film every TV station from
Al Jazeera to MSNBC to Fox News, and the same
(23:38):
with influencers Hassan Piker, who's from the Young Turks and
is a very prominent figure in the Properestilian space. And
also I'm blanking on her name, Linda Sarsoul, which is
also very much a figure in the proper Estinian space.
(24:01):
So because we're so siloed, because we're so echo chambered,
you know, we are. We're not preaching to the choir.
We are the choir that is being preached to by
by the algorithms. And we also watch different TV stations.
I brought in footage from all the way from MSNBC
(24:21):
to Fox News, I brought Al Jazeera and and I
tried to kind of like spice it up not just
from TV stations and footage from Instagram, but also you know,
the pro Palestinian influences like Linda Sossu and Hassan pak
(24:41):
who I disagree with them, and how they speak. You know,
it's the movie for me, is about bridge building and
talking about our narratives. I think that freedom of speech
is sacred, but there are limits to freedom of speech.
And it was important for me also to show how,
(25:04):
you know, the streets are already on fire. We don't
need to pour more oil or fuel onto the streets.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
You know. One of the things I've been covering in
recent months is a lot of the artists who are
either Jewish or outspoken, or maybe maybe one of the
two and not both, but they've been censored, They've been attacked.
Michael Rappaport Matters Yahoo an often named Brett Gellman, who's
also an actor. Have you faced any unusual situations as
(25:33):
this movie is heading toward its release data, I mean
anything above and beyond the usual. It's an indie film,
it's a documentary, and it's always you know, pushing a
bold rock hill to get it out there.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
I will never know if I was silently boycott or not.
I would tell you that previous projects of mine were
workshopped or got into Can Film Festival, Venice Film Festival IDFA,
and and yeah, it just said saddens me that the
(26:06):
film was mostly featured in Jewish film festivals because not
because these are not important. Like the way I see it,
the film has three types of audience groups. There's like
the Jewish film festivals and the Jewish audiences who you know,
the film is layered in a way that it's like
(26:26):
an ink blot or test, so people see different things
in it. So I had hard conversations with Jewish audience
members because I screened it in front of very liberal
Jewish and very conservative Jewish Jews. I screened it in
places that are I would say, are having a very
(26:55):
very hard time with being Jewish right now. Because they
want to distance themselves from what is happening. And I
spend it also in places that hosted Benville, who is
the Secretary of Interior Security in Israel, head of the police,
and he is a racist and the homophobe.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
So the.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Distance between these two groups of Jews in New York
is huge, and for me, I was like, I want
to show the movie to any type of audience because
that's that's what the conversation is about. Like I can't
talk about not engaging with the other side if I'm
not doing it myself. And so I went to those
(27:39):
places and these were hard conversations. I also spended it
in front of to Israeli audiences that talked about how
hostage families are being treated by the Israeli government, like
lack of respect or ministers and the Prime Minister doesn't
meet them so much. But I wanted to have the
difficult conversations also with the people in New York that
(28:02):
don't have skin in the game and already shows a side.
I wanted to have difficult conversations with the communities that
you know are You don't have to be pro Israeli
or pro Palestinian to watch the film like this, this
means to rock you're both a little bit and open
(28:26):
the flow for discussions. So my hope with the theatrical
release is that I will get more I would call
them general audiences, not because I don't care about the
other two groups that the movies calling to, but just
because these connections are important for me. And I did
(28:46):
screen it, you know, I just came back from Ura,
so we had an audience filled with both Jews and
moments I screened it in. When I screened it in
how about Kennedy School and in Stanford, we had international
students from all over the world South America specifically Venezuela.
(29:09):
We had people from Egypt and Jordan. We had people
from China, and we also had students that have been
into the encampments. But you know, it wasn't in the
In some of my biggest crowds, I had six hundred people.
These were more kind of like limited screenings of twenty
(29:31):
thirty people.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Gotcha. And through this whole process from making the film
to screening the film to the films about to be released,
we'll get to that in a second. Do you think
that you've changed anyway, either your views, your sort of
either your optimism or your pessimism about the conversations we
need to have.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
That you know, that's the one of the hardest questions.
I quote herclites from the from the Greek. The Greek,
I don't know wise men thousands of years ago that
said that you can't enter the same river twice because
(30:09):
you're not the same person and it's not the same river.
And I've seen the film so many times, and every
time I see it, and sometimes it's on a daily basis,
I feel different because the alty keeps changing. We still
have forty eight hostages in Gaza. There are thousands of
Israeli citizens that were killed. There are tens of thousands
(30:31):
of Palestinians that were killed, a lot of innocent people.
Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people
have been have lost their homes, both in Israel and
in Gaza. The situation is really bad. Like these like
(30:52):
these two years have been horrible for me. I think
it was the worst two years of my life. And
I will also tell you that in terms of hope,
the only thing that does give me hope is seeing
hundreds of thousands of Israeli is march to the streets,
(31:14):
sometimes on a daily basis, but always on a weekly basis,
and cry as how as they can to stop the
wall at any cost and to bring our brothers and
sisters home.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think one of the most
important things about your film is the free speech element,
and again the whole we need more conversation. We can't
shut things down. It's you know, it does so in
a very powerful way, and not in an obvious way too,
as one of the things really resided and enjoy the film.
Enjoy is sort of an odd word for your film.
It's so heavy and it's so important in many ways.
(31:49):
But of course this movie is coming to theaters. It's
going to be in theaters in New York in LA
starting September fifth. And if you want to find out
more about the film where it'll be screening next, just
go to horn dashfilm dot com. It's the website you'll
get all sorts of information about the filmmakers, about the project,
about some of your statements about this particular situation, but
(32:09):
also where it's going to be in theaters. I know,
you know, it's a smaller film, it's not going to
get a wide release. Sadly, but it will be out there,
it will be visible, and I recommend it highly. You know,
it's just a funny I just a week or two ago,
I just spoke about another film called The Elephant in
the Room, which is about as a rom com about
a liberal and a conservative trying to find a love connection.
(32:30):
It's oddly similar to this, and it's sort of like,
let's get together, let's not fight, let's not shut each
other down, let's at least have a conversation. So I
like to share that perspective on the show, even though
it's a right lining show. But thank you so much
for your time. It's a really wonderful film. I do
highly recommend people see it with a friend that have
a great conversation afterwards. I think that's almost impossible you
(32:51):
could see this film. I not want to talk about
it and explore some of the themes, but I wish
all the best and I hope more and more people
do chance.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
To see it.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Your character actor of the week is John C McGinley.
Well E said for the show this week, again, thank
you to Radio America for having me as part of
their great podcast lineup. I do hope you'll check out
Hollywood in Toto on YouTube if you're not watching it there.
We're also on Rumble and on iTunes those podcast providers.
If you're listening here, I think you've already figured out
the drill. But if you like it, if you subscribe
(33:22):
to the show, if they just tell a friend we
would appreciate it, that would be great. And one last plug,
please do check out Hollywoodintoto dot com. It is like
this show the right take in entertainment. We've got news
and reviews and commentary all the things that are going
on in pop culture. We really do try to focus
on stories not being covered elsewhere. It certainly is a
right leaning website with right leaning news and observations, but
(33:45):
we don't want to chase away our central left friends.
We hope they stop by. We hope we agree to
disagree with them, maybe leave a comment or two on
some of the stories, and yeah, that's just the way
it goes. We can we can have some conversations, we
can have some debates, but the end of the day,
let's have a beer or your favorite non alcoholic beverage
and just keep on talking. That would be glorious and
that would also be in line with my recent guests
(34:07):
including Nim Shapira and also Steve Olakara from the Bridge
Entertainment Labs project. I've just been really focusing on this
for a lot of reasons, some personal, some professional, But
I do hope you check out the work they're doing,
and I hope you check out the show and moving
forward with the new episodes. Well, everyone, have the best
week possible. Doctor's Orders
This week on the Hollywood and Total podcast, Why is
Stephen Colbert so surprised that his audience wants President Trump dead?
And they're just following orders? And we talked to Nim Shapira,
the director of a powerful new film that captures one
of the most soul crushing trends we've seen in recent months.
(00:21):
Welcome to the Hollywood and Toto Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Entertainment news and reviews without the woke Hollywood narrative.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Free speech, free expression, Now that's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And here's your host, Award winning film critic Christian Toto.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well what did he expect? Stephen Colbert had to gently
chide his audience this week. Why Well, he was discussing
the rumors that President Donald Trump had died. Caused a
big sensation on social media. People were very very happy
that a possibility. Check out some of the TikTok videos.
It's rather amusing, And of course we learned that President
(01:06):
Trump is alive and well and nothing's wrong. Fake news
on steroids, you know, the drill. But when Stephen Colbert
shared the dues that no, President Trump isn't dead, his
crowd booed. They weren't happy. They had the sads. When
I came back.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
When I came back in the office, I was shocked
to learn that this weekend the biggest story was frenzied
social media rumors speculating whether Donald Trump had died. For
the record, donald Trump is very much alive, okay, and no.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We like our presidents alive. Stephen Colbert's moral compass is
due North. Good for him, and that's where the good
things to say about Stephen Colbert ended this particular conversation.
I don't know why this Stephen Colbert would be surprised
that his fans want Trump dead. I mean, Colbert has
spent the last decade saying that Trump is Hitler like
(02:06):
he's Hitler, Ad Jason, He's Hitler two point zero. He's
a monster, He's a demon. He's the worst thing that's
ever happened to the country. You spent ten years saying
variations of that. Chances are your audience is gonna want
him dead and you can't can't blame him. Sounds like
a horrible human being. According to Stephen Colbert, You're a monster. Now.
(02:26):
Stephen Colbert may believe all of that, and he may
want Trump dead as well. Who knows. I don't want
to get into his head. I'm not a psychologist, but
he knows he can't come right out and say it
for sure. That wouldn't be wouldn't be a good look
for him. But he also is pretty ignorant about the
role he's played in this state of affairs. And of
(02:47):
course he's not alone. Governor Tim Waltz recently bemoaned the
fact that Trump was still alive and looked forward to
the day, hopefully sooner than later, that there's a Trump
obituary in the paper, whether it's online or old school print.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Although I will say this, the last few days, you
woke up thinking there might be news, saying saying there
will be news sometime, just say no, there.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Will be news. Boy, did America dodge a bullet in
November when when we didn't elect that guy as vice president? Wow? Wow, knucklehead,
which he called himself during the debate. I think he
was being kind. He's an usher. Now, this particular episode
of the Hollywood and Total podcast is the second one
in a row where we're talking about projects that are
(03:34):
trying to bring people together. Now, listen, not every movie
should do that. I think could be ridiculous. Frankly don't
need that. But every once in a while there's a
pop culture project that does try to bring both sides together,
kind of lower the temperature and the cultural conversation. That's
a good thing.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Why can't we be friends?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Of course, last time around we talked about the rom
com the elephant in the room, a bet a very
liberal woman and a Trump voter, and well, could they
actually fall in love despite their differences? Well, this week
we'll be talking about a new film that asks a
lot of questions about the fallout from the October seventh attacks.
We'll get to that in a minute. And again, it's
the kind of conversation where, hey, is there any common ground? Here?
(04:15):
Is anything we can say to bring us all together? Now,
if Colbert and Company just did political satire from their
late night purchase, if they left aside the hatred and
the anger and the vitriol that they bring to the
table almost every monologue, and if they occasionally hit both
sides of the political aisle, I don't think we'd be
(04:35):
in the situation we are right now, with so much division,
so much hate. And of course they're just a small
part of the problem, but it isn't the world we
live in right now, and that's a shame. But there
is one silver lining because May twenty twenty six, Stephen
Colbert is going to be on the unemployment line and
I for one can't wait.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Get the road, Jack.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And now here's what's in the headlines. The Trump Rosie
o'donald feud actually got worse. Now in recent days, President
Trump came out and said or teased that he was
thinking about revoking Rosi o'donald's citizenship. Now, Rosie o'donald famously
moved to Ireland to get away from President Trump. He
still seems very much alive and living renfree in her head.
(05:28):
But let's be blunt. He's obviously trolling. I don't think
he's gonna do anything. But you know, when you're the president,
he can't do stuff like that. You can't stay stuff
like that. I'm sorry, not remotely cool, not gonna happen.
He's not gonna do it. He is trolling. But stop
with this silliness. Okay, It only feeds the haters and
just plugs into this whole mystique that people have about Trump.
(05:50):
Of course, Rosio O'Donnell in her response, actually took the
high road. I'm just kidding. She went crazier. She called
him a pedophile, said he paid a billion dollars to
pay off Jeffrey Epstein. You know the drill. So here
we are those two fighting once again. I guess it's
a distraction. I think that Rose o'donald needs some mental
health at this point in her career. But I think
(06:13):
both sides should maybe take a chill, calm down, talk
about other things. Maybe just take a walk in the
park and clear your head probably the best thing for everyone.
Oh and by the way, that whole queen of nice
shtick that Rose o'donald pulled off for years on our
talk show, what was the acting performance of a lifetime Wow,
the Oscar goes too well. The new sitcom The Paper
(06:35):
is available right now on Peacock via streaming. Of course,
the paper isn't the office, but it is office adjacent.
It's actually kind of a spiritual cousin of sorts to
that classic NBC sitcom with Steve Carrell. The new show
is following a newspaper, small newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, and
the trials and tribulations of trying to make a better product,
trying to actually be good journalists and just trying to
(06:58):
keep your head above water, and is very trouble time
for the media. Now, of course, the show is nowhere
near as good as The Office. The Office is one
of the best sitcoms of all time period of full
Stop doesn't even come close. Now. I think people will
have to check it out and see for themselves. There
are some minor chuckles here and there, the cast is
occasionally interesting, but the fascinating part to me is that
(07:19):
before the first episode was even available for streaming, Peacock
announced we were going to do a season two of
The Paper, So they must have a lot of confidence somewhere.
I watched four episodes. I didn't quite see it. It's
okay at best, and certainly doesn't compare to the original show,
but we'll have to wait and see, you know. The
one silver lining potentially here is that even The Office,
(07:40):
which had a few great episodes from the jump, including
Diversity Day, wasn't quite the Office The Office right away.
Michael Scott, the great character played by Steve Carell, it
was a little uncertain of being and they were just
feeling out how naughty he would be, how problematic he
would be, and I think after maybe when season two
kicked in, I think they kind of knew what they
had there. And of course the rest is sitcom history.
(08:02):
So buff to wait and see the paper every guests
remotely close for now not so much, but it is
streaming right now, all ten episodes on Peacock. Well, she
still won't apologize, and that's the best news this week.
Sidney Sweeney was walking the red carpet recently. She's got
a new movie coming fairly soon in November. It's called Christy.
It's about the famous boxer Christy Martin. It's a biopic.
(08:24):
It should be interesting, might even be in some Oscar consideration.
You never know, these kind of biopicks often are. And
someone asked her about the American Eagle ad that she
was in which made Jean's sales sore, And I guess
they were hoping that she would apologize or backpedal, or
do one of those I will be an ally stick
that we've seen for the last five, six, seven years. Nope,
(08:44):
didn't take debait, nothing, And that again is the best
news of the week, because you know, if she had backpedaled,
if she had apologized, if she had bent the knee
to the woke mob. Well, they would have taken another
scalp and it would have been a little bit tougher
to speak out and be true to yourself. In the
culture today, it's all about freedom. Man like this. So
good for Sidney Sweeney. She is our unofficial heroine of
(09:05):
the week.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
She did the right thing by saying nothing.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I've been trying to watch as many documentaries as possible
that are tied to the October seventh attacks, the after
effects of that particularly heinous event, and also just some
of the cultural modifications. And one of the maybe more
intriguing films I've seen in recent weeks is called Torn.
You go to tornhyphenfilm dot com for more information about
it now. The director is Nim Shapira, and what he
(09:41):
did was talk about the people who are tearing down
posters that featured images of hostages six of my family
members taken hostage by hamas.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I just tried to not think of the worst.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I started to spot these posters around. It meant the
world to me to see that other people cared about them. Jos,
you know, on the surface, this is barbaric, it's ghoulish.
I can't even imagine what would go through someone's mind
(10:18):
who wanted to tear down a poster. Some of these
posters were of little kids, of children, old people, innocent
people captured by Hamas. It is an atrocity, but is
there more to the story. Now? This isn't moral equivocation,
but we want to find out why the people who
are doing it are doing it, and this film does
the best job possible to get to the truth. Now,
(10:40):
it didn't get all the way. It struggled to get
some of the people on camera for an interview, and
we'll get into that in a minute with my conversation
with them. But it's also really a fascinating look at
this whole situation. It talks about free speech, it talks
about the protesters' rights, it talks about cancel culture. This
is a fascinating documentary. I really enjoyed it, and yes
(11:01):
there is a perspective here. The filmmakers do have some
things to share, but it's surprisingly balance given the material
in question, and it really is a must see. Torn
is available right now. It's in limited theatrical release New
York and la usual kind of roll out for a
smaller film. I hope it does build and grow from
there and we'll have more information about where you can
see it down the road. I'll be sharing that on
(11:22):
social media as well, so you can follow me on
social media at Hollywood, on TOTO, I am most active
on X and I'm be sure. Once I find out
more theaters or what other plans they have for the
film's release, I will let you know. But for now,
here's my conversation with Nim Shapiro, the director of Torn.
A fascinating movie, a great conversation, and a necessary film, Poy.
Wouldn't it be great if more film critics actually watched
(11:44):
it and reviewed it? Fela can dream, But for now
we have Nim, we have the movie. Do check out
the conversation and then the film itself. Well, then thanks
for joining the show. You know what you focused on
in Torn is a small is much larger puzzles, much
larger crisis. And at first Plush would think, well, I
(12:05):
don't know that would be worthy of a full documentary,
but clearly it is. There are so many issues involved here.
But as an artist, as a storyteller, tell us how
you got involved with this project and now how you
realized there was so much more to it than just
this one kind of confrontation in a way.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
So first of all, thank you for having me. I
would say that when I first started working on the film,
I honestly didn't know it's going to be a feature film.
I just told myself, like, this is interesting and I
want to explore it. There are so many important documentaries
that are being made or were made in the past
(12:44):
two years, both about what has happened on October seven
in Israel and also about the ongoing war in Gaza
and the humanitarian crisis. So there are a lot of
important documentaries that are being made. And I was like,
what can I do in my tiny piece of home,
(13:05):
which is New York. And I really felt, you know,
the echolades or the ripples of the wall here in
in my neighborhood. First of seeing the people putting up
the posters, walking in those streets, it felt like someone
is seeing my grief, someone is seeing my pain. And
(13:26):
then very quickly after seeing so many people from different
backgrounds and ethnicities caring so much to rip down those posters,
and I recognize the streets like I know every I've
been living here for twelve years. I know each street
and each avenue by hout whether it's in Manhattan or
(13:49):
in Brooklyn, and it it. You know, not only the
posters were torn, My heart was torn. The social fabric
of the city was torn. And and that this is
when you know, friends or colleagues started unfollowing each other.
(14:11):
I also followed them. They unfollowed me. People stopped talking
to each other, seeing each other in the subway and
not talking to each other. And these are people that
you know, knew me and loved me for a decade,
or vice versa. Friends of mine that are on dating
apps were getting really horrible messages, even without you know,
saying anything, just harassed people. Friends of mine uninvited from
(14:37):
their friends' weddings. Students in high schools and in colleges
were ostracized. And yeah, it was it still is. I
would say I've gotten used to it, but I would
say the first few months were really, really rough emotionally.
(14:58):
I really hope that a thousands of miles away from
the actual wall, we don't have missiles and rockets on
our heads. The least we can do is sit down
and talk to each other. But it's not. It's not
the case. So when when I started working on the film,
first of all, I you know, I reached out to
Bend the Nisan Mints who created the posters, interviewed them
(15:22):
for I think five hours. They had a lot to say,
and then, you know, one character led to another. I
found I interviewed dozens of people. Ten of them made
it to the film. Each of them had We had
a sit down interview of about four or five hours,
(15:44):
and the mission was really, how do I make the
movie relevant whenever it comes out? Because this is, as
you said, it's about the posters, but so much more.
And it's a micro cousin of you know, when we
are polarized as a society, we are tribal unfortunately, and
(16:10):
and we are very siloed and echo chambered. So you're
looking at these posters as a study case for everything
that our society is dealing with in terms of conversation
and lack of conversation.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, you know, obviously your film is not celebrating the
people who are tearing down these posters by any stretch.
But having said that, you you let some of the
people speak, there is an empathy toward their point of view,
and I found that surprising, welcoming in a way, sometimes
(16:45):
uncomfortable for me. To watch. I mean, I you know,
entered the project thinking I just want you to you know,
these people for an how and a half to two hours,
But talk about that approach to it, because I thought
that was really I thought it was healthy.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
First of all, thank you, I am you know, my
biggest I wouldn't say regret, but it sendenced me a
lot that I couldn't get any pro Palestinian activists to
be a part of the film. I think that's also
part of the problem, like we don't want to talk
(17:21):
to each other. I did reach out to every person
that got doxed. That's how I had their details, and
I am I'm an American, I'm a former MI I
T fellow. So I said that in the email. But
that didn't convince them to come to come and be
(17:42):
a part of it. And they already some of them
already did interview, so they said, we said everything there
is to say. Some of them decided not to respond
at all. I don't blame them or judge them, like
some of them have been really under backlash, harassment, which
(18:03):
I don't support. But it was said that they didn't
want to take about in the movie. And then you
know there's a there's the hourglass and you see the
send kind of like pulling down, and like, I need
to finish the film. How do I bring that pov
into the film? So I knew that I'm going to
(18:23):
include every you know, either a reason or excuse in
air quotes, in air quotes or not in air quotes
people who ripped down the posters. I comped the Internet
and found hundreds of videos and chose the you know,
(18:44):
the ones that gave a reason. I also included every
video segment from either television or YouTube of those rippers
telling their stories. But it was also important for me
to create some sort of a dialogue, and because I couldn't,
(19:05):
this is how I came up with this creative solution,
which I'm very proud of. And you know, I didn't
know what's going to come out of my interviewees when
specifically Nina, who I'm giving her the piece of paper
to read, but I knew I want to give it
(19:26):
to her because unlike the other participants of my film,
which are hostage family members, she's an activist, but she
doesn't have she's more distant, distanced from the situation. And
it was clear that you know, she is on the
other side, so to speak. And yeah, I didn't know
(19:49):
what she's going to say, she didn't know what I'm
going to give her, and it was a really you know,
it was a really really you know, I want to
say poetic moment. I don't know, it was. It was.
I'm very proud of that of that sequence.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Can you give us a little background on her, just
for people haven't seen the film yet, just so it
can kill more.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Yes, so I The film features ten different New Yorkers,
young and old, Sephardic and Kenazi, libel and conservative, religious
and secular. Nina mcgilnik she's a New Yorker. She uh
(20:33):
is a mother of three, lives on the Upper West Side,
and she is she worked a lot in philanthropy today,
she's she writes a lot for her blog and Times
of Israel, and she reviews books. So she's very, very
articulate and and you know, I found her because I
(20:58):
saw footage of of her, a woman arguing with another
woman on the streets of New York and I was like,
I need to find this woman. And I was able
to find her, and this is how she made it
into the film. So yeah, she's very very passionate about
the posters, and I think in terms of a documentary
that follows a character, you can see a real arc
(21:22):
with her specifically because the posters were her outlet. She
put them up because she wanted to raise a wellness
of course for all the hostages, and specifically a hostage
named Noya Dan that very soon after October seven. It's
(21:44):
a teenage girl that was autistic, and you know, her
body was nowhere to be found, so people thought she
was kidnapped, but in the end she was murdered on
that day and her body was extremely mutilated. But specifically
with Noya Dan, she's autistic, and Nina has a son
(22:04):
who's autistic as well, and she felt very, very connected
to that specific hostage.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah. You know, one of the things that your film
does as well is it's really not political. There are
a couple of moments you could sort of maybe say, oh,
look at that, but talk about that. I mean, is
that just another hornet's nest you didn't want to get into?
Was it tempting They're going to add some political moments
because there's a lot to add, for sure, Yeah, potentially, I.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Have my head my brain, is there so many answers
I want to give you. First, going back to film school,
you know, we we you know you they teach you
about the New French way. They teach you about Godall,
and Godall said that every camera angle is political, so
you know, there is politics in the film. And of
(22:51):
course I'm of course I am Jewish Israeli American filmmaker,
so I have my I would say that in this film,
what I try to do is because we are so divided,
I tried to zigzag between narratives, and I tried to
(23:15):
you know, we're not just echo chambered, and every person
has their own feed that they're dooms, calling in and
seeing what they like or hate, and the algorithm feeds us.
We also read different news and watch different TV stations,
So I weaved into the film every TV station from
Al Jazeera to MSNBC to Fox News, and the same
(23:38):
with influencers Hassan Piker, who's from the Young Turks and
is a very prominent figure in the Properestilian space. And
also I'm blanking on her name, Linda Sarsoul, which is
also very much a figure in the proper Estinian space.
(24:01):
So because we're so siloed, because we're so echo chambered,
you know, we are. We're not preaching to the choir.
We are the choir that is being preached to by
by the algorithms. And we also watch different TV stations.
I brought in footage from all the way from MSNBC
(24:21):
to Fox News, I brought Al Jazeera and and I
tried to kind of like spice it up not just
from TV stations and footage from Instagram, but also you know,
the pro Palestinian influences like Linda Sossu and Hassan pak
(24:41):
who I disagree with them, and how they speak. You know,
it's the movie for me, is about bridge building and
talking about our narratives. I think that freedom of speech
is sacred, but there are limits to freedom of speech.
And it was important for me also to show how,
(25:04):
you know, the streets are already on fire. We don't
need to pour more oil or fuel onto the streets.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
You know. One of the things I've been covering in
recent months is a lot of the artists who are
either Jewish or outspoken, or maybe maybe one of the
two and not both, but they've been censored, They've been attacked.
Michael Rappaport Matters Yahoo an often named Brett Gellman, who's
also an actor. Have you faced any unusual situations as
(25:33):
this movie is heading toward its release data, I mean
anything above and beyond the usual. It's an indie film,
it's a documentary, and it's always you know, pushing a
bold rock hill to get it out there.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
I will never know if I was silently boycott or not.
I would tell you that previous projects of mine were
workshopped or got into Can Film Festival, Venice Film Festival IDFA,
and and yeah, it just said saddens me that the
(26:06):
film was mostly featured in Jewish film festivals because not
because these are not important. Like the way I see it,
the film has three types of audience groups. There's like
the Jewish film festivals and the Jewish audiences who you know,
the film is layered in a way that it's like
(26:26):
an ink blot or test, so people see different things
in it. So I had hard conversations with Jewish audience
members because I screened it in front of very liberal
Jewish and very conservative Jewish Jews. I screened it in
places that are I would say, are having a very
(26:55):
very hard time with being Jewish right now. Because they
want to distance themselves from what is happening. And I
spend it also in places that hosted Benville, who is
the Secretary of Interior Security in Israel, head of the police,
and he is a racist and the homophobe.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
So the.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Distance between these two groups of Jews in New York
is huge, and for me, I was like, I want
to show the movie to any type of audience because
that's that's what the conversation is about. Like I can't
talk about not engaging with the other side if I'm
not doing it myself. And so I went to those
(27:39):
places and these were hard conversations. I also spended it
in front of to Israeli audiences that talked about how
hostage families are being treated by the Israeli government, like
lack of respect or ministers and the Prime Minister doesn't
meet them so much. But I wanted to have the
difficult conversations also with the people in New York that
(28:02):
don't have skin in the game and already shows a side.
I wanted to have difficult conversations with the communities that
you know are You don't have to be pro Israeli
or pro Palestinian to watch the film like this, this
means to rock you're both a little bit and open
(28:26):
the flow for discussions. So my hope with the theatrical
release is that I will get more I would call
them general audiences, not because I don't care about the
other two groups that the movies calling to, but just
because these connections are important for me. And I did
(28:46):
screen it, you know, I just came back from Ura,
so we had an audience filled with both Jews and
moments I screened it in. When I screened it in
how about Kennedy School and in Stanford, we had international
students from all over the world South America specifically Venezuela.
(29:09):
We had people from Egypt and Jordan. We had people
from China, and we also had students that have been
into the encampments. But you know, it wasn't in the
In some of my biggest crowds, I had six hundred people.
These were more kind of like limited screenings of twenty
(29:31):
thirty people.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Gotcha. And through this whole process from making the film
to screening the film to the films about to be released,
we'll get to that in a second. Do you think
that you've changed anyway, either your views, your sort of
either your optimism or your pessimism about the conversations we
need to have.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
That you know, that's the one of the hardest questions.
I quote herclites from the from the Greek. The Greek,
I don't know wise men thousands of years ago that
said that you can't enter the same river twice because
(30:09):
you're not the same person and it's not the same river.
And I've seen the film so many times, and every
time I see it, and sometimes it's on a daily basis,
I feel different because the alty keeps changing. We still
have forty eight hostages in Gaza. There are thousands of
Israeli citizens that were killed. There are tens of thousands
(30:31):
of Palestinians that were killed, a lot of innocent people.
Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people
have been have lost their homes, both in Israel and
in Gaza. The situation is really bad. Like these like
(30:52):
these two years have been horrible for me. I think
it was the worst two years of my life. And
I will also tell you that in terms of hope,
the only thing that does give me hope is seeing
hundreds of thousands of Israeli is march to the streets,
(31:14):
sometimes on a daily basis, but always on a weekly basis,
and cry as how as they can to stop the
wall at any cost and to bring our brothers and
sisters home.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think one of the most
important things about your film is the free speech element,
and again the whole we need more conversation. We can't
shut things down. It's you know, it does so in
a very powerful way, and not in an obvious way too,
as one of the things really resided and enjoy the film.
Enjoy is sort of an odd word for your film.
It's so heavy and it's so important in many ways.
(31:49):
But of course this movie is coming to theaters. It's
going to be in theaters in New York in LA
starting September fifth. And if you want to find out
more about the film where it'll be screening next, just
go to horn dashfilm dot com. It's the website you'll
get all sorts of information about the filmmakers, about the project,
about some of your statements about this particular situation, but
(32:09):
also where it's going to be in theaters. I know,
you know, it's a smaller film, it's not going to
get a wide release. Sadly, but it will be out there,
it will be visible, and I recommend it highly. You know,
it's just a funny I just a week or two ago,
I just spoke about another film called The Elephant in
the Room, which is about as a rom com about
a liberal and a conservative trying to find a love connection.
(32:30):
It's oddly similar to this, and it's sort of like,
let's get together, let's not fight, let's not shut each
other down, let's at least have a conversation. So I
like to share that perspective on the show, even though
it's a right lining show. But thank you so much
for your time. It's a really wonderful film. I do
highly recommend people see it with a friend that have
a great conversation afterwards. I think that's almost impossible you
(32:51):
could see this film. I not want to talk about
it and explore some of the themes, but I wish
all the best and I hope more and more people
do chance.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
To see it.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Your character actor of the week is John C McGinley.
Well E said for the show this week, again, thank
you to Radio America for having me as part of
their great podcast lineup. I do hope you'll check out
Hollywood in Toto on YouTube if you're not watching it there.
We're also on Rumble and on iTunes those podcast providers.
If you're listening here, I think you've already figured out
the drill. But if you like it, if you subscribe
(33:22):
to the show, if they just tell a friend we
would appreciate it, that would be great. And one last plug,
please do check out Hollywoodintoto dot com. It is like
this show the right take in entertainment. We've got news
and reviews and commentary all the things that are going
on in pop culture. We really do try to focus
on stories not being covered elsewhere. It certainly is a
right leaning website with right leaning news and observations, but
(33:45):
we don't want to chase away our central left friends.
We hope they stop by. We hope we agree to
disagree with them, maybe leave a comment or two on
some of the stories, and yeah, that's just the way
it goes. We can we can have some conversations, we
can have some debates, but the end of the day,
let's have a beer or your favorite non alcoholic beverage
and just keep on talking. That would be glorious and
that would also be in line with my recent guests
(34:07):
including Nim Shapira and also Steve Olakara from the Bridge
Entertainment Labs project. I've just been really focusing on this
for a lot of reasons, some personal, some professional, But
I do hope you check out the work they're doing,
and I hope you check out the show and moving
forward with the new episodes. Well, everyone, have the best
week possible. Doctor's Orders
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