#Luzer Twersky

[batterknowsbetter]

Luzer Twersky as Besht in Dovbush 2023 dir. Oles Sanin

[beardedmrbean]

When two young Brazilian women were reported missing in September 2022, their families and the FBI launched a desperate search across the US to find them. All they knew was that they were living with wellness influencer Kat Torres.

Torres has now been sentenced to eight years in prison for the human trafficking and slavery of one of those women. The BBC World Service has also been told that charges have been filed against her in relation to a second woman.

How did the former model who partied with Leonardo DiCaprio and graced the cover of international magazines come to groom her followers and lure them into sexual exploitation?

“She kind of resembled hope for me,” says Ana, describing her reaction on stumbling across Torres’ Instagram page in 2017.

Ana was not one of the missing women targeted in the FBI search - but she too was a victim of Torres’ coercion and would be key to their rescue.

She says she was attracted to Torres’ trajectory from impoverished Brazilian favela to international catwalks, partying with Hollywood A-listers along the way.

“She seemed like she had overcome violence in her childhood, abuse, all these traumatic experiences,” Ana told BBC Eye Investigations and BBC News Brasil.

Ana was in a vulnerable situation herself. She says she had suffered a violent childhood, moved alone to the US from southern Brazil, and was previously in an abusive relationship.

Torres had recently published her autobiography called A Voz [The Voice], in which she claimed she could make predictions as a result of her spiritual powers, and had been interviewed on reputable Brazilian media shows.

“She was on the cover of magazines. She was seen with famous people such as Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything I saw seemed credible,” she says.

Ana says she was particularly taken with Torres’ approach to spirituality.

What Ana didn’t know was that the inspirational story Torres told was based on half-truths and lies.

Torres’ ex-flatmate in New York, Luzer Twersky, told us that her Hollywood friends had introduced her to the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca, and she was never the same again.

”That’s when she kind of… started going off the deep end,” he says.

He said he also believed that she was working as a sugar baby - paid for romantic involvement with wealthy and powerful men who were also paying for the flat they shared together.

Torres’ wellness website and subscription service promised customers: “Love, money and self-esteem that you always dreamed of.” Self-help videos offered advice on relationships, wellness, business success and spirituality - including hypnosis, meditation and exercise programmes.

For an extra $150 (£120) clients could unlock exclusive one-to-one video consultations with Torres during which she would claim to solve any of their problems.

Amanda, another former client who lives in the Brazilian capital, says Kat made her feel special.

“All my doubts, my questions, my decisions: I always took them to her first, so that we could make decisions together,” she says.

But it appears that advice had a dark side. Ana, Amanda, and other former followers say they found themselves becoming increasingly psychologically isolated from friends and family and willing to do anything Torres suggested.

When Torres asked Ana in 2019 to move to New York to work as her live-in assistant, she agreed. She had been studying nutrition at university in Boston, but arranged to study online instead, and says she accepted the offer to look after Torres’ animals - and do her cooking, laundry and cleaning - for about $2000 (£1,564) a month.

When she arrived at Torres’ apartment, though, she quickly realised it did not match the curated perfection projected on the influencer’s Instagram.

“It was shocking because the house was really messy, really dirty, didn’t smell good,” she says.

Ana says Torres seemed unable to do even basic things without her, like taking a shower, because she couldn’t bear to be alone. She describes having to constantly be available for Torres, only being allowed to sleep for a few hours at a time, on a sofa covered in cat urine.

She says some days she would hide in the apartment building’s gym, grabbing a few hours’ sleep rather than working out.

“Now, I see that she was using me as a slave… she had satisfaction in it,” Ana says.

Ana says she was never paid.

“I felt like, ‘I’m stuck here, I don’t have a way out,’” she says. “I was probably one of her first victims of human trafficking.”

She had given up her university accommodation back in Boston, so she had nowhere to return to, and no income to pay for alternative housing.

Ana says when she tried to confront Torres, she became aggressive, triggering Ana’s painful history with domestic violence.

Eventually, after three months, Ana found a way to escape by moving in with a new boyfriend.

But that wasn’t the end of Ana’s role in Torres’ life. When the families of two other young Brazilian women reported them missing in September 2022, Ana knew she had to act.

By this point, Torres’ life had grown in scale. She was now married to a man called Zach, a 21-year-old she had met in California, and they were renting a five-bedroom house in the suburbs of Austin, Texas.

Repeating the pattern she had begun with Ana, Torres had targeted her most dedicated followers, trying to recruit them to come and work for her. In return, she had promised to help them achieve their dreams, capitalising on the intimate personal details they had shared with her during life-coaching sessions.

Desirrê Freitas, a Brazilian woman living in Germany, and Brazilian Letícia Maia - the two women whose disappearance would go on to spark the FBI-led search - moved to live with Torres. Another Brazilian woman, who we are calling Sol, was also recruited.

Posting on her social media channels, Torres introduced her “witch clan” to her followers.

The BBC has discovered at least four more women were almost persuaded to join Torres in the house but had pulled out.

Some of the women were too scared to appear in the BBC’s film - afraid of receiving online abuse and still traumatised by their experiences - but we have been able to verify their accounts using court documents, text messages, bank statements, and Desirrê’s memoir about her experiences - @Searching Desirrê, published by DISRUPTalks.

Desirrê says that in her case, Torres had bought her a plane ticket from Germany, having told her she was suicidal and needed Desirrê’s support.

Torres is also accused of persuading Letícia, who was 14 when she started life-coaching sessions with her, to move to the US for an au pair programme and then drop out to live and work with her.

As for Sol, she says she agreed to move in with Torres after becoming homeless and was hired to carry out tarot readings and yoga classes.

But it was not long before the women discovered their reality was very different to the fairytale they had been promised.

Within weeks, Desirrê says Torres pressured her into working at a local strip club, saying if she did not comply Desirrê would have to repay all the money she had spent on her: flights, accommodation, furniture for her room, and even the “witchcraft” Torres had performed. Desirrê says not only she did not have this money, she also believed at the time in the spiritual powers Torres claimed to have, so when Torres threatened to curse her for not following orders she was terrified.

Reluctantly, Desirrê agreed to work as a stripper.

A manager from the strip club, James, told the BBC she would work extremely long hours, seven days a week.

Desirrê and Sol say the women in the Austin mansion were subjected to strict house rules. They describe being forbidden from speaking to each other, needing Torres’ permission to leave their rooms - even to use the bathroom - and being required to immediately hand over all earnings.

“It was very difficult to, you know, get out of the situation because she holds your money,” Sol told the BBC.

“It was terrifying. I thought something could happen to me because she had all my information, my passport, my driving licence.”

But Sol says she realised she needed to somehow escape after overhearing a phone call in which Torres was telling another client she must work as a prostitute in Brazil as a “punishment”.

Sol was able to leave with the help of an ex-boyfriend.

Meanwhile, the guns Torres’ husband kept began to regularly feature on her Instagram stories, and became a source of fear for the remaining women.

Around this time, Desirrê says Torres tried to persuade her to swap the strip club for work as a prostitute. She says she refused and the following day Torres took her on a surprise day out to a gun range.

Scared, Desirrê says she eventually gave in to Torres’ demand.

“Many questions haunted me: ‘Could I stop whenever I wanted?’” Desirrê writes in her book.

“And if the condom broke, would I get a disease? Could [the client] be an undercover cop and arrest me? What if he killed me?”

If the women didn’t meet the earning quotas that Torres set, which had risen from $1,000 (£782) to $3,000 (£2,345) a day, they were not allowed to return to the house that night, they say.

“I ended up sleeping on the street several times because I couldn't reach that,” Desirrê adds.

Bank statements, seen by the BBC, show Desirrê transferring more than $21,000 (£16,417) into Torres’ account in June and July 2022 alone. She says that she was forced to hand over a substantially higher figure in cash.

Prostitution is illegal in Texas and Desirrê says Torres would threaten to report her to the police if she ever talked about wanting to stop.

In September, friends and family of Desirrê and Letícia back in Brazil launched social media campaigns to find them, having become increasingly concerned following months without contact.

By this time, they were barely recognisable. Their brunette hair had been dyed platinum blonde to eerily match Torres’. Desirrê says by this point all her phone contacts had been blocked and she obeyed the influencer's orders without question.

As the Instagram page @searchingDesirrê gained momentum, the story dominated news outlets in Brazil. Desirrê’s friends even worried she might have been murdered, and Letícia’s family put out desperate pleas for their safe return home.

Ana, having lived with Torres in 2019, said alarm bells rang as soon as she saw the news stories. She says she immediately guessed that “[Torres] was keeping other girls”.

More information and support about human trafficking and modern slavery is available via BBC Action Line.

Along with other former clients, Ana began to contact as many law enforcement agencies as possible, including the FBI, in an attempt to get the influencer arrested. Five months earlier, both she and Sol had reported Torres to the US police - but say they weren’t taken seriously.

In a video she recorded at the time for evidence, since shared with the BBC, a distressed Ana can be heard saying, “this person is very dangerous and she has already threatened to kill me”.

Then the missing women’s profiles on escort and prostitution websites were discovered. Suspicions of sexual exploitation, shared on social media, appeared to be confirmed.

Panicked by the media attention, Torres and the women travelled more than 2,000 miles (3,219 km) from Texas to Maine. In chilling Instagram videos, Desirrê and Letícia denied being held captive and demanded people stop searching for them.

But a recording, obtained by BBC News, gives an insight into what was really happening at this time. By now the US authorities were aware of the concerns about the women’s safety. Homeland security had tipped off a police officer who managed to FaceTime Torres to check on the women. But just before this starts, Torres can be heard saying on the video:

“He will start asking questions. Guys, they are full of tricks. He’s a detective, be very careful. For God’s sake, I’ll kick you out if you say anything. I’ll scream.”

In November 2022, the police finally convinced Torres and the two other women to attend a welfare check in person at Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Maine.

The detective who questioned Torres, Desirrê and Letícia - Detective David Davol - told the BBC he and his colleagues had been immediately concerned, noticing a number of red flags, including a distrust of law enforcement, isolation and their reluctance to speak without Torres’ permission.

“Human traffickers aren't always like in the movies, where you have… a gang that kidnapped people. It's far more common that it's someone you trust.”

By December 2022, the two women had been safely returned to Brazil.

Det Davol says, in his experience, human trafficking is on the rise. His observation is backed up by the UN, which says it is one of the fastest growing crimes, generating an estimated $150bn (£117bn) in profits a year worldwide.

He believes social media gives it a platform on which to thrive, making it much easier for traffickers to find and groom victims.

In April this year, our team was granted a rare court order to interview Torres in a Brazilian prison - the first media interview with her since her arrest. At that point, she was still waiting for the verdict of a trial against her relating to her treatment of Desirrê.

Smiling, Torres approached us with a calm and collected demeanour.

She was adamant that she was completely innocent, denying that any women had ever lived with her or that she had ever coerced anyone to take part in sex work.

“When I was seeing the people testifying, they were saying so many lies. So many lies that at one point, I couldn't stop laughing,” she told us.

“People are saying I am a fake guru, but at the same time, they are also saying that… ‘She is a danger to society because she can change people’s mind with her words.’”

When we confronted her with the evidence that we ourselves had seen, she became more hostile, accusing us of lying too.

“You choose to believe whatever you choose to believe. I can tell you I'm Jesus. And you can see Jesus, or you can see the devil, that’s it. It's your choice. It's your mind.”

As she got up to return to her cell, she issued a parting threat, claiming we would soon find out if she had powers or not. She pointed at me, and said: “I didn’t like her.”

The BBC can reveal that earlier this month Torres was sentenced by a Brazilian judge to eight years in prison for subjecting Desirrê to human trafficking and slavery. He concluded that she had lured the young woman to the US for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

More than 20 women have reported being scammed or exploited by Torres - many of whom the BBC has spoken to and are still undergoing psychiatric therapy to recover from what they say they experienced as a result of her treatment of them.

Torres’ lawyer told the BBC she has appealed her conviction and maintains her innocence.

An investigation into the allegations from other women is ongoing in Brazil.

Ana believes yet further victims may come forward, once they read about Torres’ crimes. This is the first time Ana has spoken publicly.

She says she wants people to recognise that Torres’ actions amount to a serious crime and not some “Instagram drama”.

In the closing pages of her book Desirrê also reflects on her experiences.

“I’m not fully recovered yet, I’ve had a challenging year. I was sexually exploited, enslaved and imprisoned.

“I hope my story serves as a warning.”

[gregor-samsung]

Félix et Meira (Maxime Giroux - 2014)

[film-punk]

Films watched in 2020 #19 - One of Us (Dir Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, US, 2017) 

[kawaiiathy]

“I really want to be part of a bigger world – be able to go to school, get a job in the secular world and have the choices that I want to make. I want my children to have every chance that anyone else has to grow up in a stable environment.”

- One of Us (Heidi Ewing / Rachel Grady, 2017)

[netflixia]

One of Us - Trailer

One of Us offers a look into the secretive world of Hasidic Judaism and those who wish to leave that community for a life among the non-religious, whatever the costs. One of Us streams only on Netflix October 20, 2017. 

[yesmoviesareforever]

[mundo-misterio]

Félix y Meira Film Review y Film Summary (2015)

Félix y Meira Film Review y Film Summary (2015)

Meira (Hadas Yaron) es una joven miserablemente infeliz que se siente cada vez más sofocada por su esposo ultraortodoxo Shulem (Luzer Twersky) y la comunidad jasídica cerrada donde residen en Montreal, además de su hija pequeña y la música pop. A quien escucha en secreto. como un alivio después de que Shulem deja su casa para asistir a las oraciones matutinas, su vida es tan gris y sin vida como…

[fuckyeahwomenfilmdirectors]

I wonder what do you think of One of Us (documentary) on Netflix? It is very interesting film and it is really unsettling about what happen to one of formerly Hasidic. One of that story make me so angry about justice system in NY.

I got this ask foreeeeeever ago so sorry about the delay Anon, but I finally got the chance to watch it last night as I desperately try to catch up on some of the films I missed in 2017. 

Anyway here is my mini review:

I am normally not very partial to documentaries because I very much enjoy visual eye candy whereas a lot of documentaries have a really strict visual formula that is kind of bland so even if I enjoy the subject matter, as pieces of art they don’t really stick out for me. There are of course some notable exceptions (Cameraperson springs to mind) but on the whole they aren’t my favourite genre.

One of Us is sliiiiightly above that style for me. The film is directed by Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing who are the directorial team best known for Jesus Camp which took a look at American Evangelicals. In One of Us they focus on the story of three New York Hasidic Jews who are at very points in their journey to leave the small ultra-orthodox community where leaving essentially means you will be cut off by your friends and family. The three subjects are Luzer Twersky, an actor who left the community over a decade before the start of the documentary, Etty, a 32 year old mother of seven who only left a year or so before the start of filming, and Ari Hershkowitz, a young man of 18 who is considering leaving roughly around the time when according to his community and culture he should be getting married and starting a family. All three of them have compelling stories, but the one that will stick in my mind, and the one who sticks in your mind too Anon, is Etty, who is going through a custody battle to try to protect her seven children from her abusive husband. 

I like reading director interviews after watching movies and I stumbled across an interesting one where either Grady or Ewing said that they don’t look for too much visual beauty in filming their documentaries because it feels distracting and manipulative. Ironically that was what was so compelling about Etty’s story. At the time of the filming she was terrified of the repercussions from her husband’s family and so had refused to allow her face to be filmed which leads to some really creative and beautiful shots of Ewing and Grady filming her from the back as she peeps out her window, her hands, and even filming her distorted reflection in the window of a subway car.   

It’s the perfect marriage of visual metaphor and practical restraints and the result is beautiful. 

The film is available through Netflix. 

[jmsa1287]

More New York Stories Told in the Warm 'High Maintenance' Season 2

a thing i wrote about the very good second season of “High Maintenance,” which starts tonight!

Times have changed since "High Maintenance" jumped from webseries to HBO. The Season 1 finale aired at the end of October, about a month before the world was rocked when Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Though the comedy is often a character study, featuring a plethora of diverse people who pop in-and-out of the life of weed dealer The Guy (played by Ben Sinclair, who co-created the show along with Katja Blichfeld), politics has always lingered behind the puffs of pot smoke.

Tensions are high in the sophomore season of "High Maintenance," which airs Jan. 19 on HBO, and political strife is presented front-and-center. The tough political climate is inescapable and that's made clear in the first episode of Season 2, "Globo." It chronicles The Guy delivering pot while the New Yorkers around him react to some world-altering news. Though it's never said what this breaking news actually is, it's made clear what's going on thanks to characters' distraught reactions to text messages and breaking news blasts they read on their phones.

"Oh shit. Something bad happened," The Guy's girlfriend (played by "Orange is the New Black" actress Yael Stone), says as she stares at her phone in the first moments of the episode.

"Fuck, no!" The Guy adds after checking his phone.

After a few more moments of silence the pair take a hit of a bong and The Guy is off to work. As it turns out, the bad news happens to be... good news for him. With the stresses of the world barring down on his clients, The Guy finds himself extra busy delivering weed to wound-up New Yorkers.

As in most episodes, the narrative eventually splinters and focuses on The Guy's clients or people in his clients' life. In "Globo," this includes a client's roommate - a man struggling to maintain his weight loss. The episode also follows two men and a woman who spends the day locked away in a hotel room having sex - completely unaware of the world-changing news - and a busboy who spends a lovely night on the subway with his son.

Like its first season on HBO, pot, and the selling of, is a backdrop to explore the lives of various New Yorkers from all walks of life. In the interesting second episode, "Fagin," the show follows an older out-of-state married couple visiting their cool and hip daughter in the Big Apple. The episode strikes that special tone that has resonated with "High Maintenance" fans - a celebration of humanity and relationships, especially relationships formed between unexpected people.

Played by the excellent Marcia DeBonis and Ray Anthony Thomas, the couple are fish out of water but remain in good spirits during their stay. Their Airbnb, which may be illegal, contains a python and their bed is only accessible by ladder. Things turn around, however, when they meet their daughter and her friends... and get high together. It's a wonderful bonding experience that allows the couple to let loose in the city.

"Namaste" is a wild ride that follows a realtor (played by the excellent "Orange is the New Black" star Danielle Brooks) as she hustles in her neighborhood and eventually calls up The Guy for a relaxer. The episode then spills over to a couple, who win an affordable-house lottery and move into a new apartment complex out of their price range. Things seem great at first but the culture shock highlights classism in this small pocket of New York.

"High Maintenance" explores culture clash again in "Derech," where an ex-Hasidic man (Luzer Twersky) strikes up a relationship with a writer, who may have ulterior motives. He eventually ventures outside his world and ends up at a nightclub where the story shifts narratives and follows a drag queen, one of The Guy's clients. The plot ends in a surprising way with one of the most exciting moments of the series.

In one of the most daring, and personal, episodes of the series, "Scromple" digs into The Guy and his personal life - a rare move for a show that takes the time to spotlight people not often seen on the small screen. Still, it's a rewarding episode: After The Guy gets into a car accident and is stuck at the hospital, "High Maintenance" introduces his sister (Kate Lyn Sheil), an out brand strategist who is struggling with her perceived addiction to pot. The Guy and his sister have an emotional chat while he's in the hospital, a truly moving moment that reveals more about The Guy's character.

These touching moments are bound together under the omnipresent strain of the current presidential administration. There are mummers, one-liners and suggestions that refer to Trump, but the show's characters never mention his name; it's a powerful device uniting a group of people under a common threat. And as "High Maintenance" heads into its solid and warm second season, the Trump administration is taking aim at the marijuana industry. In it's possible third season, "High Maintenance" could be a completely different show. If that's the case, Sinclair and Blichfeld have proven themselves that they'll be able to adapt.

"...[W]hat I wish for people to take away [from Season 2] is a reminder that change is inevitable," Blichfeld told Entertainment Weekly. "We can count on so few things, but we can all count on the fact that change is going to happen in big and small ways all the time, and it's going to be okay. Even when it feels painful, ultimately it's okay, and it's one of those realities of life and, you know... [laughs] It's okay! I just want people to feel like things are going to be okay."

[guyswiththickglasses]

Nerdy actor Luzer Twersky

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/this-week-in-comedy-podcasts-punch-up-the-jam-reviews-nookie/

This Week in Comedy Podcasts: Punch Up the Jam Reviews 'Nookie'

The comedy podcast universe is ever expanding, not unlike the universe universe. We’re here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists and especially enthusiastic people will pick their favorites. We hope to have your ears permanently plugged with the best in aural comedy.

Punch Up the Jam – Nookie (w/Jamie Loftus)

Mark: Limp Bizkit’s suckitude is undeniable. It doesn’t take a 70-minute podcast to reach this conclusion, but Punch Up the Jam hosts Demi Adejuyigbe, Miel Bredouw, and guest Jamie Loftus (Bechdel Cast) present a hilarious case. Though any of Limp Bizkit’s oeuvre would be ripe for dissection, they choose to suffer through 1999’s anthem for toxic masculinity, “Nookie.” Bob Dylan meets Coolio meets incel culture in this cacophony of horseshit every single one of us all once knew and loved as teenagers. It’s guaranteed that nobody in history has put as much time and effort into researching and breaking down “Nookie” as these three do, and that includes lead singer Fred Durst and guitarist Wes Borland — two people who, as Punch Up the Jam points out, were clearly going through some tender relationship issues before writing this angsty revisionist love letter. But, as the patriarchy dictates, those feelings are buried beneath confusing jazz riffs and ad-libs that will haunt your nightmares. Don’t worry, Miel and her brother Henry Bardot deliver a patented punch-up closer to the gentle folk ballad “Nookie” should have been. If there’s one thing to take away from this episode, it’s that Fred Durst was definitely a virgin when he wrote this song.

Spotify | Apple | Website

Apple | Website

Pop Rocket – “Who Is America?” w/“UnREAL” Creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro

Kathryn:  A stacked Friday version of Pop Rocket examines the “strong” men of our cultural moment. Guest Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, field producer on The Bachelor turned co-creator and producer of the Lifetime drama UnREAL, joins hosts Guy Branum, Karen Tongson, and Margaret Wappler. First they pay tribute to the late Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize–winning titan of food criticism. As a cultural tastemaker, Gold set out to review dishes and restaurants where real people eat and convinced Angelenos to be a little less afraid of their neighbors in the process. Next up is literal strongman the Rock. Does Dwayne’s single-handed rescue of the mid-budget comedy outweigh his support of the Bush administration to earn the Pop Rocket seal of approval? The ruling might surprise you. Lastly, the hosts dive deep on comedic heavyweight/brutalist prankster Sacha Baron Cohen and his new Showtime show, Who Is America? Their discussion takes much the same tack as your own inner monologue while watching the show: Is present-day political “gotcha” comedy smug and bloodless? Should we take pleasure in catching people with their pants down in 2018 now that some people are comfortable living with their pants down at all times? Or is it always funny to show someone’s ass? There’s no consensus, but former Bachelor producer Shapiro offers perhaps the most incisive description of the American experience today: “We create these monsters, and then we mock them for being monsters.”

Spotify | Apple | Website

High & Mighty – Prime w/Christine Blackburn

Tom: For a show that could easily coast on the humor of host Jon Gabrus alone, it’s always nice to see topics on High & Mighty seesaw between the silly and serious. This week our favorite fuccboi welcomes Christine Blackburn (Story Worthy) to talk about what it means to be in the prime of your life. Early on, Blackburn points out that there is no one definition or time period that constitutes when your prime is. In discussing how age, fitness, and finance can contribute to your prime, Blackburn challenges the notion that these nuances have to serve as the main puzzle pieces to happiness. In using her time as a flight attendant, for example, Blackburn says she didn’t feel the inner peace she was searching for, despite having youth, money, and the ability to travel. Given Gabrus started a podcast around the very notion of celebrating the good old days, even he shows signs of excitement that his best days, and true prime, have yet to come. If all this hippie-dippie talk doesn’t do it for you, tune in to hear why Gabrus thinks he would make the perfect spokesperson for Boar’s Head Premium Meats.

Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

My Neighbors Are Dead – Pet Sematary with Janet Varney

Marc: Adam Peacock’s podcast feels a little like a play where the lead actor comes out before the show, out of character, and chats with the audience before ducking behind the curtain to reemerge fully in character to give their performance. Except with My Neighbors Are Dead, the performances are usually ghoulish, weird, and funny. The latest guest to start out in front of the footlights is Janet Varney (The JV Club, Stan Against Evil, The Legend of Korra). She scratches the host’s itch about the recently completed edition of San Diego’s Comic-Con, which he has never visited but at which Varney has been a frequent presence. And she fills listeners in on her latest projects, including some interesting spoiler-free tidbits about the third season of IFC’s Stan Against Evil and a list of guest performers in a new project that she’s producing herself. Then it’s time for Varney to say good-bye to make way for Crimson, a creepy, Goth-y teen from Maine and her story of what went terribly wrong when she started burying some recently departed pets and relatives in a nearby graveyard. As poorly as everything has turned out, it doesn’t stop Crimson from mulling over ways to arrange her own burial in the cemetery.

Spotify | Apple | Website

MTowne: Where Murder Happens – The Rum of All Parts

Elizabeth: NBC has gotten into the podcast game with shows that give a behind-the-scenes look at hits like The Good Place, Late Night With Seth Meyers, and American Ninja Warrior. But for their latest podcast, the network went with a new format, creating a podcast that doesn’t comment on its companion show but rather is actually a part of it. MTowne: Where Murder Happens follows the second season of the sitcom Trial & Error and its new murder case. Hosted by the character of podcast producer Nina Rudolph (Amanda Payton), MTowne expands on the universe of the show and delves deeper into some of the quirkier aspects of the town of East Peck, such as its lady laws and multiple time zones. (There are even ads for local businesses.) The latest episode explores the town’s love of rum and its secret rumholes while adding context to the background of defendant Lavinia Peck-Foster (Kristin Chenoweth), who is accused of killing her clock-magnate husband. The podcast is a fun send-up of shows like Serial and S-Town, and as a viewer, it’s interesting to see how the show and podcast intertwine so perfectly.

Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

The Bechdel Cast – Wet Hot American Summer with Allison Raskin

Anna: Summer isn’t over yet! Hosts Jamie Loftus and Caitlin Durante bring guest Allison Raskin (Gossip) back to camp for a look at how the raunchy, broad 2001 comedy Wet Hot American Summer represents women. Actually, this cult favorite, set on the last day of camp in 1981, is a tad more progressive than you’d think. But does it pass the Bechdel test? (It needs two named female characters speaking to each other about something other than a man.) With an ensemble of adults playing sexually charged teens, there’s a lot to dissect: Janeane Garofalo’s well-liked Beth as the respected head of the camp; Marguerite Moreau’s sexually empowered Katie subverting the “nice guys deserve pretty girls” trope; Amy Poehler’s Susie as the only female character not tied to a romantic relationship; and Paul Rudd’s aggro-playboy Andy commenting on toxic masculinity — especially as played in a 32-year-old’s body. (Daily reminder: Paul Rudd was born in 1969.) Throughout, our hosts share their deep love for the only queer sex scene, which was also the only genuine one, not played for laughs. Overall, any progressive praise is relative to 2001. This cast is extremely white. Grab your bug spray for The Bechdel Cast’s final verdict.

Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

Other Podcasts We’re Listening To:

Keep It – Can’t Fight the Moonves (w/Marti Noxon) Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

Why Won’t You Date Me? – Sabrina Jalees Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

Quick Question – Hard Topics With Joy Lenz Listen: Apple | Website

WTF – Luzer Twersky Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

Absolute Worst Podcast – Murderers & S****y Sisters Listen: Apple | Website

New Player Has Joined – Diddy Kong Racing – Dani Fernandez (Flying Under The Radar) Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website

Got a comedy podcast recommendation? Drop us a line at comedypodcasts@vulture.com.

This week’s reviewers: Pablo Goldstein, Kathryn Doyle, Marc Hershon, Elizabeth Stamp, Mark Kramer, Tom Rainey, and Anna Marr.

Source: http://www.vulture.com/2018/08/this-week-in-comedy-podcasts-punch-up-the-jam.html

[gregor-samsung]

Félix et Meira (Maxime Giroux - 2014)

[cinephiled-com]

New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/interview-writerdirector-maxime-giroux-explores-montreals-hasidic-community-felix-meira/

Interview: Writer/Director Maxime Giroux Explores Montreal’s Hasidic Community in ‘Félix and Meira’

Last month I spoke with Luzer Twersky, a former member of the Hasidic community is currently starring in Félix and Meira, the story of an unconventional romance between two people who are living vastly different lives even though they live just a few blocks away from each other. Now that it’s opening in many more cities around the country, I had the chance to talk to writer/director Maxime Giroux about his poignant film.

Meira (Hadas Yaron, Fill the Void), a young Hasidic housewife and mother, and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a man mourning the recent death of his father, meet at a local bakery in Montreal’s Mile End district. What starts as an innocent friendship becomes more serious as the two wayward strangers find comfort in one another. Meira is married to the devout Shulem (Luzer Twersky) who cannot understand his wife’s interests in things as foreign to them as American blues music. As Felix opens Meira’s eyes to the world outside of her tight-knit Orthodox community, her desire for change becomes harder for her to ignore, ultimately forcing her to choose: she must remain in the life that she has always known or give it all up to be with Félix. Giroux’s film is a moving tale of self-discovery, a fascinating glimpse into the Hasidic community, and a modern love story set against backdrops both familiar and unknown.

Danny Miller: As I was telling Luzer Twersky a few weeks ago, I’ve always been fascinated by the Hasidic community even though I wouldn’t last very long in that world. Were you always interested in such groups as well?

Maxime Giroux: Oh yes, for sure. For many years I lived in this neighborhood in Montreal where there are many Lubavitcher and Satmar families. My film takes place in the Satmar community which is a lot more closed. I’m a goy and I didn’t know anything about these people! To be honest, as a French Canadian, I didn’t know a lot about Judaism in general. But I was always so curious and would try to talk to my neighbors but they were not very interested in talking to outsiders. I finally decided to make a film to learn more about them and I discovered they were about a lot more than wearing black clothes and not wanting to talk to me! It was a great adventure making this film.

Was it just a lucky act of fate that you found Luzer Twersky who grew up in the Satmar  community?

I always knew that the key for me was to have ex-members of the community involved in the film. Most of the movies that I’ve seen with Hasidic characters are so fake, I didn’t believe in the characters at all. I wanted to be very accurate so I started searching for ex-members. From the earliest days, everyone I met kept telling me that I have to meet this guy, Luzer Twersky — they were all talking about him! In the end, I don’t think this film would have been possible without Luzer.

And he isn’t the only ex-Hasid in the cast?

No, there are five of them.

Let me guess — the couple who at one point are taking care of Shulem and Meira’s child?

The woman, yes!

I had a feeling about her.

And the guy who plays her husband is a very famous Jewish klezmer-rap artist from Montreal named Socalled who sings in Yiddish. I was very interested in having people from Montreal’s Jewish community and exploring that as well.

I know that Hasidic people do not go to the movies but did you try reaching out to the Satmar community at all?

Yes, we tried to talk to some people, but you know, for them, they really don’t want this film to exist! We treated them with great respect in the film, I think, but in the end, they were never going to like this story.

Did you have any concerns about casting Israeli actress Hadas Yaron as Meira after she played a Hasidic woman in Rama Burshtein’s wonderful Fill the Void? 

I did, in the beginning, to be honest. I was worried that she had already played this character and I wanted someone who could already speak Yiddish. I searched for an ex-member of the community but even though I found some good actresses who ended up in the film in other roles, none of them were right for Meira. My producers, Sylvain Corbeil and Nancy Grant decided to ask Hadas to audition for the film without my knowledge. She really liked the script and didn’t feel it was the same character at all. They sent me her audition and within ten seconds, I knew she was Meira. Hadas is really an incredible actress.

She’s so great, and her Yiddish sure seemed authentic to me!

Luzer translated the entire script into Yiddish and worked closely with Hadas before they ever came to set. When we started shooting, they were just perfect together, acting in Yiddish. Even if you don’t understand the words they’re saying, you can tell when two actors have a really strong connection. Luzer is a great actor, too, and this was his first feature film. He has so much charisma. To be honest, it was more difficult for me to shoot the French Québecois scenes, that’s a tough language to work with!

I wonder if some American audiences will be confused about why Félix speaks to Meira in English at first. I assume it’s because most of the orthodox Jewish community in Montreal are not French speakers?

Yes. The women usually learn some French, but most of the men do not since they rarely interact with the Québecois community. They speak a little English but even that, not so well. When Luzer first left his community at the age of 22, he did not speak English very well even though he was born and raised in New York!

I was a little surprised by Félix’s initial interest in a Hasidic woman and that he’d go right up to her and try to have a conversation even though it’s forbidden for her to talk to him. It seemed rather brazen.

Ah, but you see, we French Canadians don’t know anything about that! I made Félix as naïve as I was when I was living among these people. For years I kept trying to talk to them and I would sometimes exchange a few words with some of the men but with the women it was impossible. Félix senses that Meira is probably not supposed to talk to him but he has no idea of the huge consequences of what he’s doing, he’s just super-naïve…just like I was!

When you were doing research for the film, did you spend time in the community?

Yes, my naivite served me well! At the beginning I was going into a lot of Hasidic synagogues in Montreal and New York and they were like, “What are you doing here?” I told them I just wanted to learn about them and what was happening there. I got thrown out a few times but other times they welcomed me in. I went to a Friday night Shabbat dinner with some Hasidic families in New York and for me it was like being on another planet. Really fascinating.

It’s odd because even though we’re rooting for Meira to find her way and we’re cringing at the restrictions she has to deal with, Shulem is such an interesting, complex character. There were times when I liked him more than Félix!

Oh, for sure, me, too!

That fight scene between Shulem and Félix is pretty amazing. 

That was a real surprise. I asked Luzer to just go for it — to not worry about being violent — the actor playing Félix was prepared for it. So when he came at him that way, I was shocked. At first I told Luzer, “No, you really need to punch him!” But Luzer said there’s no way his character would know how to do that, and that the way he attacks him is much more realistic. So I said, “Oh, right, do it the way you’d do it in real life.” And it’s far more effective and moving that way. Clumsy and realistic — I never could have written that.

When I spoke to him, he said he was often moving things around the set to make them more authentic for a Hasidic household.

Yes, and even the way he washes his hands and prays in the morning. You can research that stuff, but Luzer lived this life for 22 years and obviously knew how to do it all authentically. I think Shulem is the most surprising character in the film.

The scene where he meets with Félix and tells him to take care of Meira is achingly poignant even though I’m not sure that would happen in real life.

You know something? When we presented the film at the New York Jewish Film Festival, there were a lot of ex-members of the Hasidic community in the audience. After the film, one woman came up to me and said that she had an affair when she was Hasidic and decided to go with the other man. And her husband went to the other guy and asked him to take good care of her! I was very touched to hear that.

Wow.  I have to say that I really loved the ambiguous ending of the film. It reminded me of the ending of The Graduate where some people think Elaine and Benjamin are clearly going to be happy together for the rest of their lives and some think that they are both already regretting their decision.

You’re absolutely right, my inspiration was 100 percent The Graduate! It was very important for me to have an ending like that. With all the conversations I’d had with the ex-members of the community, it was clear that leaving was a very tough decision for them and that their lives after that were not without challenges. It was impossible for me to have some happy, carefree ending between Félix and Meira, nor did I want to have a dark ending. I wanted to leave it open and let the audience think about all the consequences that these people would be facing.

Félix and Meira is currently playing in many cities and will opening in more on Friday, May 8, 2015. Click here for a list of theaters.

[bluecollarfilm]

Felix and Meira (2015)

Félix and Meira is a story of an unconventional romance between two people living vastly different realities mere blocks away from one another. Each lost in their everyday lives, Meira (Hadas Yaron), a Hasidic Jewish wife and mother and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a Secular loner mourning the recent death of his estranged father, unexpectedly meet in a local bakery in Montreal’s Mile End district. What starts as an innocent friendship becomes more serious as the two wayward strangers find comfort in one another. As Félix opens Meira’s eyes to the world outside of her tight-knit Orthodox community, her desire for change becomes harder for her to ignore, ultimately forcing her to choose: remain in the life that she knows or give it all up to be with Félix.