The AFI Fest has returned to Hollywood for live, in-person screenings and events, although there is also a virtual component for watching many of the feature, documentary, short, indie, studio, and foreign productions that Los Angeles’ largest annual film festival is presenting in 2021. Some of the screenings are accompanied by talent who introduce and/or speak about their films when they are shown at the TCL Chinese Theatres. Here are reviews of some of the films I have seen so far:

MEET THE PRESS FILM FESTIVAL AT AFI FEST

Note: My apologies for misspelling Chase Meola’s last name. No offense was intended. To other readers, I am not minimizing the very real crime problems. As a retired professor, University District homeowner, and critic of the institutions involved, I do not speak directly for students. I am advocating for a serious, sound, honest, and responsible set of crime reduction and safety policies and their enactment by Ohio State, the City, and Columbus Police Department (CPD). We have not seen that. 

On Friday, November 5, 2021, Ohio State further muddled the matters of campus and adjacent area crime and safety. Just before 10:00 am, the secretary of the so-far unknown “UDSC” emailed a list of homeowners, business owners, and landlords—with the recipients’ email addresses identified, a violation of privacy rights—to announce a Zoom meeting with the “University District Safety Team.” My sources in the OSU administration have never heard of this body. “We’d love to get your feedback on safety…. I do not have an agenda at this time.” I’ve written twice asking for identification, clarification, and statement of purpose. I have received no response. 

The tall, grey-haired, 60-year-old attorney Steven Donziger gave a final hug to his son last Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Donziger had spent over two years confined in his Manhattan apartment, restricted by a judge-ordered GPS ankle bracelet. And now his first destination would be the nearest jail, to which Steven, a supposed flight risk, drove himself.

After the years spent on house arrest throughout an intimidation lawsuit and facing an $800,000 bail bond – the highest in U.S. history for a misdemeanor – Donziger will now spend the maximum sentence of six months in a federal prison. The alleged crime was contempt of court, but the real crime was Donziger’s successful lawsuit against Chevron, which resulted in $9.5 billion in damages being allocated to Ecuadorians affected by their deadly pollution in the country.

Not a penny of that $9.5 billion, however, ever made it to the people of Ecuador. Instead, Chevron weaseled their way out of the damages and launched a billion-dollar show trial against the attorney that stuck up for the indigenous people of Ecuador.

Corporate cancer

Former Columbus City Council candidate Joe Motil continues his years of objecting to the City of Columbus providing developers with tax abatements if they set aside a small percentage of housing units for those with annual incomes from anywhere between $35,220 - $57,800. He spoke at the Columbus Development Department’s hour-long community question and comment meeting last night at Barack Recreation Center on their proposed Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) Residential Tax Abatement Policy Update Recommendations.                    

When you’re losing the game, summon the commies!

And conservative white America has been losing for quite some time — losing control of the future, that is. The good old days of unabated white supremacy aren’t coming back; racism can only maintain a public forum, and political relevance, if it’s wrapped in political correctness. In other words, racism can’t (openly) be racism anymore. That’s where Karl Marx comes in.

Excuse me, I mean Critical Race Theory: the enemy, the sower of hatred among children. CRT is an academic concept that almost no one had ever heard of, which has been turned into the scapegoat of the moment.