Tag: cannes film festival

We are in the final – another film festival success for our project. For those of you who missed it I wrote “Make America Love Again”  after hearing Spike Lee – in a moment of inspiration find those words. They inspired me and I wrote the song that night.

I have asked myself repeatedly if this ambition – to create a new American Anthem is of any value given the bigger picture, given the reality of what is happening in the USA. Can I really make a difference?

My answer fluctuates between “no” and “maybe”. In the “no” is a sense of powerlessness, at the seeming immutability of racism in the police and institutions in the US and across the world. In the “maybe” is the knowledge that change only comes when individuals have ideas, connect with others and start to agitate for change. Emma Dabiri says “linking our struggles together is the work of coalition-building, a vision wherein many people can see their interest identified and come together for the common good. We can start to tell new stories rather than fall back on fault lines that were designed to divide us”.

Thus I can and do care, I do feel connected and solidarity with George Floyd and all the other victims of brutality and violence. I have been subjected to brutality and violence in my on life. I have been bullied and picked on, scared for my life. I was once asked if I had any connection to the Holocaust. I was angry, for every Jew the Holocaust experience is ingrained in every cell and so is the fear of being singled out, that it could so easily happen again.

There is a part of me constantly vigilant, on a dark night, in a crowded bar – wondering who is out to get me, how can I be safe. WHO WILL BE NEXT? WILL I BE NEXT? If this is only a small degree of the experience of the experience of being focused on for the colour of your skin it is still too much and sometimes unbearable. Cultural trauma lives on through the generations and in our fight against racism and injustice we are looking for healing on an individual and a societal level. In Spike Lee’s film Black Klansman Ron Stallworth says “If one black man, aided by a bevy of good, decent, dedicated, open-, and liberal-minded whites and Jews can succeed in prevailing over a group of white racists by making them look like the ignorant fools they truly are, then imagine what a nation of like-minded individuals can accomplish.”

I conclude that my efforts mean something, that they are worth it, that I can try in my own way to make a difference, to promote unity and solidarity. As Emma Abiri says “I am doing something not just saying something”. That is enough for me to keep at this for a very long time!

“Spike Lee – meet your thoughts in Cannes! Our  New American Anthem, ‘Make America Love Again” is Official Selection at Cannes World Film Festival”

Dear Spike Lee,

We have been selected for Cannes World Film festival. You will be the official Cannes Film Festival https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/ jury President! Thank you for inspiring our song and our project. This is the most important act of a lifetime and came from that extraordinary moment of inspiration I witnessed when you spoke to the BBC.

 Ron Stallworth speaks for me and millions of others when he says: “If one black man, aided by a bevy of good, decent, dedicated, open-, and liberal-minded whites and Jews can succeed in prevailing over a group of white racists by making them look like the ignorant fools they truly are, then imagine what a nation of like-minded individuals can accomplish.” – Ron Stallworth, Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime

For me it is poignant that he mentioned the Jews because I believe that we have a shared experience and a natural alliance. Most Jews will acknowledge the innate fear of a Klan that comes in every country, in many forms, in bars, supermarkets at school, college and the workplace.

Felix Kendrickson: You are going to take this lie detector test. Take a seat.
Flip Zimmerman: What is this? Is this your Jew den? Is this where you make your candles, you know, and your lampshades?
Felix Kendrickson: No, you’re going to take this lie detector test.
Flip Zimmerman: Open the damn door. This is some lame bullshit.
Felix Kendrickson: Lame or not, you’re taking this Jew lie detector test.

So we sometimes try and hide but the fear of being called out and attacked – and the experience of these things is always present.

In the dialogue between Ron and Flip:

Flip Zimmerman: Well, I’m not risking my life to prevent some rednecks from lighting a couple sticks on fire.
Ron Stallworth: This is the job. What’s your problem?
Flip Zimmerman: That’s my problem. For you, it’s a crusade. For me, it’s a job. It’s not personal, nor should it be.
Ron Stallworth: Why haven’t you bought into this?
Flip Zimmerman: Why should I?
Ron Stallworth: Because you’re Jewish, brother. The so-called chosen people. You’ve been passing for a WASP. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, cherry pie, hot dog, white boy. It’s what some light-skinned black folks do. They pass for white. Doesn’t that hatred you’ve been hearing the Klan say doesn’t that piss you off?
Flip Zimmerman: Of course it does.
Ron Stallworth: Then why you acting like you ain’t got skin in the game, brother?
Flip Zimmerman: Rookie, that’s my fucking business.
Ron Stallworth: It’s our business.

It is all our business and these are dark times. Barack Obama said he believes in the “possibility of America”. This is the message behind Make America Love Again. It is even more important today when both Ukraine and Taiwan face possible invasion. Only the USA stands powerful enough to protect us across the world, the same as during World War 2. There is much wrong with America but much can be right, but thank goodness America is there – right now.

Spike – thank you again…
https://40acres.com/