Dear Yuletide Writer
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you for writing a story for me!
This past year fannishly for me has mostly been dominated by one project: Warning: Might Lead to Mixed Dancing, a multifandom Jewish dancing vid with over a hundred fandoms. A lot of the fandoms in the vid were fairly obscure, and a lot were new to me. So I had the sort of archetypal Yuletide experience more often than usual this year- discovering a new piece of media, looking for more fanworks in the world, and not finding it. All of my requests this year are things I watched while making my vid, and wanted more fanworks beyond their two second representation in my vid. I'll be excited to see whatever you come up with.
But on that note, too, I should note that all of these fandoms are fandoms where Jewishness is central to their storytelling. I'm an Orthodox Jew and my Jewishness is a major component of my identity, so a story that engages with that part of the story in an insensitive way has the potential to hurt me. But I'll say this: Engage with the story in good faith and I'll be able to tell, and that's more important to me than me not being hurt. It's okay sometimes if fiction hurts. That, too, is a central theme of all of these fandoms. [I'll also put this out, since it's not obvious to everyone- the fact that I'm Orthodox does not mean you should feel restricted to telling stories where people behave in accordance with Orthodox morality. Heck knows I don't.]
הסודות | The Secrets (2007) - Naomi (Hasodot)
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: Israeli movie about two young observant Jewish women in a seminary in Safed, who fall in love with each other as they fall in love with the dangerous Kabbalistic secrets of the Ari.
Prompt: I'm interested in exploring any of Naomi's relationships with other characters, particularly the central love triangle. I think the ending is so fascinating, how Michelle and Yanki's relationship is predicated on Yanki understanding that Michelle's feelings for Naomi aren't going away, but that they don't have anything do with her feelings for him. Something of Anouk's past returning to trouble Naomi and Michelle again would also be interesting. But what I would most like to see continued exploration of Naomi's relationship to the sacred texts of Judaism. Naomi going deeper into Kabbalah, going deeper into Shas, constructing a life centered around text. Naomi as a Rabbi, or Maharat, or Yoetzet Halacha, or Talmud professor, or serving scripture and the Jewish people in some other capacity. Naomi exploring Sufism or Zen Buddhism or other religious mystical traditions, from a position grounded in her knowledge of Kabbalah.
A Serious Man (2009) - Rabbi Nachtner (A Serious Man) Rabbi Marshak (A Serious Man) Rabbi Scott Ginsler
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: The slow downfall of a Conservative Jewish father in 1960s Minnesota; as his faith is tested, he desperately seeks answers in all directions.
Prompt: I love the tripartite folk tale that is the three Rabbi storyline, and would love any story that gives me more of them- other characters consulting the various Rabbis, the three Rabbis interacting with each other, the three Rabbis reflecting on the events of the story from a position down the line. The Marshak's funeral. Internecine shul politics. Interacting with the dybbuk storyline, or the tornade storyline. Anything else you can imagine.
לעבור את הקיר | The Wedding Plan (2016) - Michal (The Wedding Plan)
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: A Chasidic woman in Israel has her engagement suddenly broken off, and in a leap of irrational faith she decides to keep all of her wedding bookings and just find a new fiancee to plug in, in the next three months.
Prompt: I find the romance at the end of this story a little frustratingly abrupt, but if you could show their arc afterward I might be convinced, so I'd like to see what married life looks like for Michal. More than the romance, I love the female friendships in this story, and any look at any of those friendships would be great. Also, Michal and Yoss continuing as friends after she gets married would be interesting to me, they have such a sharp chemistry.
The Hebrew Hammer (2003) - Any
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: Parody of '70s blaxploitation movies starring an overly Jewish private investigator as he races to save Chanukah.
Prompt: This is one of those totally open-ended Any requests. This story is set in such a brilliantly weirdly slanted world and I'd like to see more stories that embrace the wackiness of it.
This entry was originally posted at https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/231485.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are
comments.
Thank you for writing a story for me!
This past year fannishly for me has mostly been dominated by one project: Warning: Might Lead to Mixed Dancing, a multifandom Jewish dancing vid with over a hundred fandoms. A lot of the fandoms in the vid were fairly obscure, and a lot were new to me. So I had the sort of archetypal Yuletide experience more often than usual this year- discovering a new piece of media, looking for more fanworks in the world, and not finding it. All of my requests this year are things I watched while making my vid, and wanted more fanworks beyond their two second representation in my vid. I'll be excited to see whatever you come up with.
But on that note, too, I should note that all of these fandoms are fandoms where Jewishness is central to their storytelling. I'm an Orthodox Jew and my Jewishness is a major component of my identity, so a story that engages with that part of the story in an insensitive way has the potential to hurt me. But I'll say this: Engage with the story in good faith and I'll be able to tell, and that's more important to me than me not being hurt. It's okay sometimes if fiction hurts. That, too, is a central theme of all of these fandoms. [I'll also put this out, since it's not obvious to everyone- the fact that I'm Orthodox does not mean you should feel restricted to telling stories where people behave in accordance with Orthodox morality. Heck knows I don't.]
הסודות | The Secrets (2007) - Naomi (Hasodot)
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: Israeli movie about two young observant Jewish women in a seminary in Safed, who fall in love with each other as they fall in love with the dangerous Kabbalistic secrets of the Ari.
Prompt: I'm interested in exploring any of Naomi's relationships with other characters, particularly the central love triangle. I think the ending is so fascinating, how Michelle and Yanki's relationship is predicated on Yanki understanding that Michelle's feelings for Naomi aren't going away, but that they don't have anything do with her feelings for him. Something of Anouk's past returning to trouble Naomi and Michelle again would also be interesting. But what I would most like to see continued exploration of Naomi's relationship to the sacred texts of Judaism. Naomi going deeper into Kabbalah, going deeper into Shas, constructing a life centered around text. Naomi as a Rabbi, or Maharat, or Yoetzet Halacha, or Talmud professor, or serving scripture and the Jewish people in some other capacity. Naomi exploring Sufism or Zen Buddhism or other religious mystical traditions, from a position grounded in her knowledge of Kabbalah.
A Serious Man (2009) - Rabbi Nachtner (A Serious Man) Rabbi Marshak (A Serious Man) Rabbi Scott Ginsler
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: The slow downfall of a Conservative Jewish father in 1960s Minnesota; as his faith is tested, he desperately seeks answers in all directions.
Prompt: I love the tripartite folk tale that is the three Rabbi storyline, and would love any story that gives me more of them- other characters consulting the various Rabbis, the three Rabbis interacting with each other, the three Rabbis reflecting on the events of the story from a position down the line. The Marshak's funeral. Internecine shul politics. Interacting with the dybbuk storyline, or the tornade storyline. Anything else you can imagine.
לעבור את הקיר | The Wedding Plan (2016) - Michal (The Wedding Plan)
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: A Chasidic woman in Israel has her engagement suddenly broken off, and in a leap of irrational faith she decides to keep all of her wedding bookings and just find a new fiancee to plug in, in the next three months.
Prompt: I find the romance at the end of this story a little frustratingly abrupt, but if you could show their arc afterward I might be convinced, so I'd like to see what married life looks like for Michal. More than the romance, I love the female friendships in this story, and any look at any of those friendships would be great. Also, Michal and Yoss continuing as friends after she gets married would be interesting to me, they have such a sharp chemistry.
The Hebrew Hammer (2003) - Any
tl;dr if you haven't seen it: Parody of '70s blaxploitation movies starring an overly Jewish private investigator as he races to save Chanukah.
Prompt: This is one of those totally open-ended Any requests. This story is set in such a brilliantly weirdly slanted world and I'd like to see more stories that embrace the wackiness of it.
This entry was originally posted at https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/231485.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are
comments.