Correction: "Black auteurs" not "Black amateurs," although some were amateurs as well. See 19 year old Matty Rich's Straight Out of Brooklyn. Don't go out of your way to find it because it's not such a great movie, but the Brooklyn sights and sounds are very much in line with the theme of this thread.

There is a phenomenon called the hip-hop-ization of America. Much like the Viet Namization of America which took place in the 60s and 70s introducing street drugs, broken families and the ubiquitous word M-Fer into albeit begrudging but popular acceptance, there seems to be a built-in release valve in our society which allows mounting pressures from within the suppressed underculture to alleviate tension by spreading forth into the mainstream. It's not a conscious thing. It's a law of nature, just like weather; high pressure systems move into low pressure systems. Indeed, from all the racial and cultural cross-fertilization from VietNamization, it was the low pressure system that picked up ghetto values, lexicon and mores, not the other way around. Today, you can go to any mall in America and see white suburban kids behaving and talking like black ghetto kids. These white kids never met these black kids, so it isn't the black kids that they could possibly be emulating. It's that the cultural icons, the default models of ghetto-life have been mainstreamed and are now teaching all children, white, black, Asian Pacific Islander, and Other.
Ironically, of course, the relase valve never really takes the pressure off the underclass, because the seapage that reaches the mainstream is invariably then given slick commercial packaging and bounced right back to where it came from - except that those with whom the garbage originated must now pay a corporation to buy back shrink-wrapped versions of that which had spurted from their very own homes.)

Anyway, this is all derech agav... The point is that religous Jews are no less susceptible, and to the the contrary, even more subject to these influences. Perhaps becaue we live in inner cities, perhaps because Jews (even ultra-orthodox ones) are psychologically, even if not politically, liberal. Who knows? What I do know is that when a white suburban kids starts emulating Notorious B.I.G., it's pretty obvious. He has the clothes, the CDs, all the external acoutrements. Kids in Crown Heights wear white and black, they don't buy the CDs (at least not b'reish gli). Where they import the culture is right into their minds and hearts. Did you ever see a Crown Heights born Lubavitcher play the dozens? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dozens They'll tear you up. Go substitute for a day at Ohelei Torah and tell me you don't leave feeling like Sydney Poitier in To Sir, With Love.
Tony Montana | 06.26.06 - 11:41 am | #

what is the the dozens? and how does Sydney Poitier feel in To Sir, With Love?
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 06.26.06 - 4:01 pm | #

I gave the link to Wikipedia right there for the dozens.

How does Sydney Poitier feel in To Sir, With Love? Do you not know the movie? He's a genteel Carribean black man who teaches a rag-tag bunch of white slum kids from the London Docks. But he makes mentchen out of them in the end. BTW - speaking of classroom movies, someone told me that the Algermeiner ADMU"R's favorite movie is Dead Poets' Society. In the movie, Robin Williams teaches the kids the Walt Witman poem, O Captian My Captain. Hence, the name for his tape series on the Rebbe. (Of course, his Tanya series is called, Tail of Two Souls, but I don't think he necesarily got that from reading Dickens.)

Stream of consciouness kicking in... If you want to see some films about the hashpo'oh of rav and talmid (afterall the moshol is used in chasidus for many things), I recommend:
To Sir, With Love (inspiring)
Dead Poets' Society (tear jerker)
Summer School (screwball comedy)
The Principal (Jim Belushi kicks a$$)
Stand and Deliver (corny, but nice)
Mr. Holland's Opus (the Jew, Richard Dreyfus, also a tearjerker)

Not classroom settings, but teacher-student no less:

Karate Kid (exhilerating)
Circle of Iron (mystical, shot in Israel)


Do NOT see:

Teachers (the Jew, Judd Hirsch)

PS - If you do not regularly watch movies, please do not go out and watch one based on these comments. But if you do watch movies, then turn off your freakin' Garfield movie and watch one of these.

PPS - If the blogger desires, I will make public my list of top films of all time.
Tony Montana | 06.26.06 - 5:43 pm | #

I thought captain was Sholom Keller. What tape? Can you point to the tape?
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 06.26.06 - 8:41 pm | #

I am not too interested in the movies. I am interested n interpretation of particular movie as metaphor. If you feel you need to put out the list do so but I would prefer if you talk about a movie in depth, this interest me more than a list…
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 06.26.06 - 8:58 pm | #

How do you define pressure? Why would black culture be more pressurized? There is a room to interpret exactly the opposite. Certainly one can not consider vise to be indicative of pressure?
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 06.26.06 - 9:09 pm | #

In order:

Captain, My Captain
Jacobson: http://www.judaism.com/display.a...ality& etn=JJECG
Whitman: http://www.bartleby.com/142/193.html

Movies: If you are intrigued with the theme of moral ambiguity, let's shift gears from Deep Cover to the Jew, Jules Feifer (of New Yorker cartoon fame) and his screenplay Little Murders, starring the Jew, Elliot Gould. This is a riotous romp through chilling, existential horrors. It is both hilarous and disturbing. Donald Sutherland's monologue as the New Age pastor is to be enshrined. It is hard to find this movie but it is well worth the search. If you, Tzemach, watch it, we can discuss it at length on blog or off. But there is definitely a lot to reflect upon. BTW - if you are in the mood to get REALLLLLY depressed about the hell of seeking moral firm ground, especialy as it involves sex, go watch Jules Feifer's other screenplay, directed by the Jew, Mike Nichols and starring the Jew, Art Garfunkel and the goy, Jack Nicholson, Carnal Knowledge. But please don't say I didn't warn you when you want to commit suicide after you're done. You're better off watching Little Murders which is anyways more artistic and entertaining.

Regarding black pressure: James Baldwin said that "to be Black in America is to be in a constant state of rage ..." Please, don't tell me those guys aren't totally frustrated all the time. Next time you're walking throug Roxbury, go poke one in the chest and see how he reacts.
Tony Montana | 06.27.06 - 1:23 am | #

Rage is not a cultural pressure. BTW were BLACKS responcible for the Viet Namization too?
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 06.27.06 - 6:31 am | #