AFI FEST 2018: CAPSULE REVIEWS

By Ed Rampell

The American Film Institute’s annual film festival is arguably Los Angeles’ best and most comprehensive annual fete of feature, documentary, short, animated, domestic and foreign cinema. Here are capsule reviews of some of AFI Fest 2019’s myriad productions.

THE IRISHMAN: Film Review

Each year, business magazine and research company, Corporate Knights, ranks the top 100 most sustainable corporationsin the world. Companies are ranked based on efforts to reduce carbon and waste, revenue generated from clean products, and overall sustainability. Top U.S. honors in 2019 go to notables such as Prologis, Inc. (real estate investment trusts), McCormick & Company (food and beverage production), and Cisco Systems (communication equipment).

What the list demonstrates is that the world’s leading corporations are actively pursuing tangible, sustainable business practices. Enterprises in nearly every industry are adopting initiatives such as reducing waste, preventing pollution, using clean energy, conserving water, switching to sustainable materials, and facilitating plant growth. The result: companies are sowing sustainable business seeds for the future.

Democratic institutions are in danger

Today there is a deep split in public opinion in the United States. Democratic institutions are in danger from racism and neo-fascism. Progressives are fighting to save the values and institutions on which their country was founded. They are fighting to save America's soul.

Racism, discrimination and xenophobia

Progressives today would like to eliminate all forms of discrimination, whether based on race, religion, ethnicity, or gender. They are opposed by white nationalist groups, especially in rural areas and among white industrial workers and evangelicals, who fear that their own groups will soon be outnumbered by those who differ from them in ethnicity, race or religion.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019, 6:30 PM
Join the Columbus transgender and gender non-conforming community as we memorialize and celebrate those we lost this year.  More details to come. Please follow this event for updates.  Location:  King Avenue United Methodist Church, 299 King Avenue, Columbus 43201.  Facebook. 

An Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli military escalation was foreseeable because it factors neatly in Israel’s contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”. 

The answer came on November 12, when the Israeli military launched a major strike against Gaza, killing an Islamic Jihad Commander, Bahaa Abu al-Ata, along with his wife Asma.