Dear Festividder 2022
Oct. 22nd, 2022 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretDear Festividder,
Thanks so much for offering to make a vid for me! I'm so excited to see whatever you come up with. I often write on my exchange letters that what I want more than anything out of a fanwork exchange is to be surprised, so feel free to make a big swing and take a risk. Make the vid you want to make and I'm sure good things will happen.
Below find some thoughts on the fandoms to serve as potential inspiration, not in any way as requirements.
Hallmark Hanukkah Movies (Umbrella)
Movies that fall under the umbrella:
Hitched for the Holidays
Double Holiday
Holiday Date
Love, Lights, Hanukkah
Eight Gifts of Hanukkah
Hanukkah on Rye (not out yet, but will be out before golive and I am sure will be as um, special, as the rest)
[Mistletoe and Menorahs is a Lifetime movie, but you are welcome to include it as well.]
My fullthroated defense of the forthcoming Hanukkah on Rye: "Will it be terrible? Sure. Will the gender politics be embarrassingly retrograde? Absolutely. Will the representation of Judaism be frustratingly shallow? Of course. Will you be questioning the chances of their romance enduring at the end of the movie? Almost certainly! But boring? Not a chance."
The same is true of all these movies. Nearly all of them are essentially Christmas movies, and their deepest concern is how a Jew can navigate the thready waters of the 'holiday season'. Somehow, they always make me wonder why a Jew would want to... Double Holiday informed its viewers that during Christmas season, you're not allowed to make dinosaur shaped cookies! I love these movies because they are terrible, because I am fascinated with the ways in which Hallmark is trying to grapple with representing Jewish life without actually understanding it.
I'm not sure that makes a good vid, though. But there are enjoyable through-lines in these movies that sort of emerge from the Christmas movie structure! These are almost entirely romantic comedies that are really family dramas, and I should say that I am considerably more interested in a vid about the family feelings than a vid about the romantic feelings. In these movies, family makes the Jewish characters feel connected to a tradition that stretches back centuries or millennia, even as modern life makes them feel isolated and unmoored. That's a fundamental qualitative difference as compared even to the most traditional Christmas movies. I'm interested in a vid that explores the tug of family obligation and its rewards, in a Jewish context.
Only Connect (UK TV)
I don't know what I want, I only know it's my favorite TV show and I'd love a vid that showed off how cool it is. I love how Only Connect stretches your mind and teaches you about the world. I love that it teaches you how things unexpectedly connect to each other, I love how geek-funny it is, I love the low-stakes but serious competitiveness. The silliness of "Oooh, gamesmanship" gives me such a thrill.
Favorite teams of mine include the Board Gamers in series 8, The Wayfarers in Series 11, the Escapologists and the Meeples in Series 13, and the Time Ladies in Series 14. Also it's early to declare new favorites for this season, but the Peacocks were an absolute delight in their lone appearance. But there are lots of other good teams, I don't need a vid that focuses on a particular team. A vid that focused on the show in general or on Victoria would also be great.
An Emmy for Megan
Look, all I'm saying is that the bare minimum requirements for a Festivid are: " You should make at least one vid of at least 60 seconds length, by the submission deadline, for one of the fandoms your recipient requested. " You should definitely meet all of those requirements. A Festivid forseekingferret!
The Good Fight
I love this show because the last few years the world has gone to hell, and no show has matched reality as well as The Good Fight. The way it integrates genre storytelling with apocalyptic chaos is frequently breathtaking.
Marissa Gold is my baby and I love her to death. I've had mixed feelings about Diane throughout the series, and I'm not super into Diane/Kurt (I liked their relationship better in TGW, fwiw). I like Liz a lot, and Adrian, and Julius, and Jay, and Lucca, and Carmen. I did not like Blum and I was meh on Maia but especially didn't like Maia's storyline with Blum. And I've loved all of the Ri'chard we've seen so far.
I'm really interested in the background violence in this season and I'm really anxious about where it's headed. I'd love a vid that explores the border regions between the legal system and extra-legal actions that The Good Fight has been increasingly interested in as the show has progressed- what do you do if you believe in the idea of justice and law, when the legal system persistently fails to be just?
בננות | Cupcakes (2013)
This is a goofy, heartwarming movie that nails its Eurovision parody. I love all the characters and I love how they mesh together in spite of themselves. I love the dancing, I love the costumes, I love how it situates itself within the Israeli context so knowingly and funnily and yet never loses the fact that it cares about the characters and wants good things for them.
A Serious Man
The Coen Brothers' greatest movie in my superbiased opinion.
A Serious Man is so full of meaningful doubt, of trying to live a faithful life in a seemingly faithless world. It's great. It's also defined by a stunning realism. So many of the characters feel like people I know, they're annoying or loveable in exactly the way real people are. When I forced my father to watch it, he said afterward "I KNOW Sy Ableman. No, I know TWENTY Sy Ablemans." They got the fabrics in the synagogue right. They got the look of the lawns right.
Favorite parts of the movie are basically everything, but particularly the folktale elements- the Yiddish drama at the start, the Three Rabbis. I'd love a mood piece, a character study, a Jefferson Airplane groove, a klezmer kick... Whatever strikes you.
Thanks so much for offering to make a vid for me! I'm so excited to see whatever you come up with. I often write on my exchange letters that what I want more than anything out of a fanwork exchange is to be surprised, so feel free to make a big swing and take a risk. Make the vid you want to make and I'm sure good things will happen.
Below find some thoughts on the fandoms to serve as potential inspiration, not in any way as requirements.
Hallmark Hanukkah Movies (Umbrella)
Movies that fall under the umbrella:
Hitched for the Holidays
Double Holiday
Holiday Date
Love, Lights, Hanukkah
Eight Gifts of Hanukkah
Hanukkah on Rye (not out yet, but will be out before golive and I am sure will be as um, special, as the rest)
[Mistletoe and Menorahs is a Lifetime movie, but you are welcome to include it as well.]
My fullthroated defense of the forthcoming Hanukkah on Rye: "Will it be terrible? Sure. Will the gender politics be embarrassingly retrograde? Absolutely. Will the representation of Judaism be frustratingly shallow? Of course. Will you be questioning the chances of their romance enduring at the end of the movie? Almost certainly! But boring? Not a chance."
The same is true of all these movies. Nearly all of them are essentially Christmas movies, and their deepest concern is how a Jew can navigate the thready waters of the 'holiday season'. Somehow, they always make me wonder why a Jew would want to... Double Holiday informed its viewers that during Christmas season, you're not allowed to make dinosaur shaped cookies! I love these movies because they are terrible, because I am fascinated with the ways in which Hallmark is trying to grapple with representing Jewish life without actually understanding it.
I'm not sure that makes a good vid, though. But there are enjoyable through-lines in these movies that sort of emerge from the Christmas movie structure! These are almost entirely romantic comedies that are really family dramas, and I should say that I am considerably more interested in a vid about the family feelings than a vid about the romantic feelings. In these movies, family makes the Jewish characters feel connected to a tradition that stretches back centuries or millennia, even as modern life makes them feel isolated and unmoored. That's a fundamental qualitative difference as compared even to the most traditional Christmas movies. I'm interested in a vid that explores the tug of family obligation and its rewards, in a Jewish context.
Only Connect (UK TV)
I don't know what I want, I only know it's my favorite TV show and I'd love a vid that showed off how cool it is. I love how Only Connect stretches your mind and teaches you about the world. I love that it teaches you how things unexpectedly connect to each other, I love how geek-funny it is, I love the low-stakes but serious competitiveness. The silliness of "Oooh, gamesmanship" gives me such a thrill.
Favorite teams of mine include the Board Gamers in series 8, The Wayfarers in Series 11, the Escapologists and the Meeples in Series 13, and the Time Ladies in Series 14. Also it's early to declare new favorites for this season, but the Peacocks were an absolute delight in their lone appearance. But there are lots of other good teams, I don't need a vid that focuses on a particular team. A vid that focused on the show in general or on Victoria would also be great.
An Emmy for Megan
Look, all I'm saying is that the bare minimum requirements for a Festivid are: " You should make at least one vid of at least 60 seconds length, by the submission deadline, for one of the fandoms your recipient requested. " You should definitely meet all of those requirements. A Festivid for
seekingferret!The Good Fight
I love this show because the last few years the world has gone to hell, and no show has matched reality as well as The Good Fight. The way it integrates genre storytelling with apocalyptic chaos is frequently breathtaking.
Marissa Gold is my baby and I love her to death. I've had mixed feelings about Diane throughout the series, and I'm not super into Diane/Kurt (I liked their relationship better in TGW, fwiw). I like Liz a lot, and Adrian, and Julius, and Jay, and Lucca, and Carmen. I did not like Blum and I was meh on Maia but especially didn't like Maia's storyline with Blum. And I've loved all of the Ri'chard we've seen so far.
I'm really interested in the background violence in this season and I'm really anxious about where it's headed. I'd love a vid that explores the border regions between the legal system and extra-legal actions that The Good Fight has been increasingly interested in as the show has progressed- what do you do if you believe in the idea of justice and law, when the legal system persistently fails to be just?
בננות | Cupcakes (2013)
This is a goofy, heartwarming movie that nails its Eurovision parody. I love all the characters and I love how they mesh together in spite of themselves. I love the dancing, I love the costumes, I love how it situates itself within the Israeli context so knowingly and funnily and yet never loses the fact that it cares about the characters and wants good things for them.
A Serious Man
The Coen Brothers' greatest movie in my superbiased opinion.
A Serious Man is so full of meaningful doubt, of trying to live a faithful life in a seemingly faithless world. It's great. It's also defined by a stunning realism. So many of the characters feel like people I know, they're annoying or loveable in exactly the way real people are. When I forced my father to watch it, he said afterward "I KNOW Sy Ableman. No, I know TWENTY Sy Ablemans." They got the fabrics in the synagogue right. They got the look of the lawns right.
Favorite parts of the movie are basically everything, but particularly the folktale elements- the Yiddish drama at the start, the Three Rabbis. I'd love a mood piece, a character study, a Jefferson Airplane groove, a klezmer kick... Whatever strikes you.