portfolio

Tunisians On the Couch in “Arab Blues”

Arab Blues (Un divan à Tunis) 2019 comedy, drama, French and Arabic, with English subtitles Directed by Manele Labidi Running time 1 hour 28 minutes In Arab Blues, nearly ten years have passed since the self-immolation of Mohamed Read more…

In East Jerusalem, Palestinian Youth Struggle for Freedom

Determined to Stay by Jody Sokolower Interlink/Olive Branch Press 2021 ISBN 9781623718886 Part travelogue, part journalism, and part educational primer, Determined to Stay is Jody Sokolower’s contribution to the Palestinian right to self-determined existence. A social studies teacher based Read more…

The Semantics of Gaza, War and Truth

This Is Not A Movie: Robert Fisk and the Politics of Truth (2019), the work of Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, Yung Chang, is, overarchingly, a study of journalism’s position in today’s corporatized media, amid weaponized language and fake news, Read more…

An Armenian and An Armenian

The author’s grandfather Levon, circa 1965. TMR WeeklyColumn Armenian Eyes Mischa Geracoulis Though it had been on my reading list for years, I’d held off entering into Aram Saroyan’s Last Rites: The Death of William Read more…

Racialization and the US Census in Trump Era

Despite broad consensus that previously long-held beliefs about race that emerged from social, economic and political agendas rather than anthropological, historical or biological facts, and despite forward strides made in the American civil rights and Read more…

Another Asia Minor disaster

Greece is a microcosm of the world, complete with money problems and refugees. The EU should be doing more to aid those rendered most vulnerable by the crisis. Being of Armenian descent, I was born Read more…

Film Review: The Tree

Julie Bertuccelli’s (Since Otar Left, 2004) The Tree (adapted from Australian writer, Judy Pascoe’s 2002 novel Our Father Who Art in The Tree) is centered around a family homestead something akin to a hippie compound Read more…

Le Quattro Volte

Literally translated, “The Four Times” (stages may be more accurate in English) is Michelangelo Frammartino’s homage to the Calabria of his heritage and the homeland of 6th century BC Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. Frammartino poetically interprets Read more…

Blessed are the wagers of just war?

As the first US bombs began dropping in Libya, I received an invitation to attend the Huffington (as in, infamous Arianna’s ex) Ecumenical Institute’s symposium on war and peace. The invitation read: “In a world Read more…

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone

The tightly-made biopic traces the formation, deconstruction, and reconstruction of the Los Angeles band Fishbone.  Experimental and exceptional, Everyday Sunshine is a show of raw honesty and integrity of character that commands respect and admiration.  Read more…

Film Review: Masquerades

Clustering around the fictitious wedding between young, sweet, and narcoleptic Rym (Sarah Reguieg) and “a certain William Vancooten,” Masquerades lampoons Berber village life in mountainous Algeria. Although many of the characters are cartoonish, the cast Read more…

Film Review: Wah Do Dem

We first meet Max (Sean Bones), the twentysomething, almost hip, Generation Y guy, playing street soccer in his Brooklyn neighborhood— the significance of which is later revealed as integral to gripping a foothold in a Read more…

Book review: Jailhouse Lawyers

Book by Mumia Abu-Jamal; 2009, City Light Publishers, San Francisco, 280 pp. To borrow from an old African-American proverb, Mumia Abu-Jamal “speaks truth to power” in his latest book on jailhouse lawyering, the American legal Read more…