It's World Refugee Week and still Pride!
Some watch and listen recommendations for these times.
So I figured sporadically I’d drop in to my OG newsletter and share some things. Rest assured, I am still watching TV and film at what is probably an aggressive pace, even if I’m mostly writing about podcasting and social impact these days.
What has interested me most in the past five or so years, though, is the increase of fictional TV and film stories focused on social issues. These shows appear to be told in a more nuanced way than what might have been done in the past with the “special episode”.
If you are too young to remember when Saved By the Bell did an episode about the abuse of caffeine pills, I don’t know what to tell you.
Anyways, I’m not going to bore you with more of my thoughts on this, but if you are interested in media for social change, check the newsletter I did recently on the topic, and subscribe to Sounds Like Impact if you want to up your podcast listening or just find out how you can get involved with various social issues. I also interview some really interesting people if you are more of the reading than listening type.
In the email subject I mentioned it’s World Refugee Week (World Refugee Day was on the 20th). Inbetween-ish podcast has been putting out great content on their Instagram like the post below (click to swipe the carousel).
Recently I had been thinking of the migrants that died this month trying to cross the Mediterranean, and I recalled how harrowing the journey was for the Syrian refugees in a biopic I recommended here before called The Swimmers (Netflix). And biopic as in yes, the people at the center of the film are real and the movie is a dramatization of their very real experience. I really encourage you to watch the film if you haven’t yet.
In that same write up I also recommended Mo (Netflix), a dark comedy based on the life of comedian and Palestinian refugee Mo Amer.
Those are two of my recommendations for this week, as well as this podcast episode from Inbetween-ish called “Let’s talk about refugees — with Baharak.”
Are there any shows or movies about the refugee experience that you recommend? If so, drop a comment so others can discover.
And lest I forget, Happy Pride 💜. A current documentary on my list for this weekend is the The Stroll on Max (fka HBO Max). At the beginning of the month I watched The Legend of the Underground (also on Max), a documentary about what queer people are enduring in my father’s home country of Nigeria. Paris Is Burning is a classic, but expand your documentary game friends.
Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. 🤗