The documentary addresses Ye’s relationship with the media – whether he’s crazy, or just crazy like a fox.
Monday also saw MRC announce the cancellation of a documentary worth $2 million already. “The Myth of Ye”It claimed that the company had produced and funded the production and was hoping to make as much as $10,000,000 in distribution revenue. Director Zach Heinzerling sought to explore the relationship between the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye, and the media – whether he is used by the press, or uses them for his own purposes. Whether he’s crazy, or just crazy like a fox.
The topic would seem extremely timely except for the fact that MRC’s leadership decided they would not be part of amplifying anything Ye had to say. Instead, MRC co-founders Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, along with Chief Business Officer Scott Tenley, scrapped the project — even though Ye had no stake in it whatsoever (a rationale that Netflix cited on Monday to defend keeping its “Jeen-Yuhs”Docuseries available on the streaming service
“It was a decision we had to make,” Wiczyk told WaxWord. “It was a business and moral decision and forced us to think about it. It gave us a platform to speak, we felt we have to do our part. We have been very troubled over the last couple of years over this ‘second lie,’ anti-Semitism 2.0, this rhetoric that is putting a wedge between Jewish people and Black people,”He continued. “The lie that if you support Israel you must be a racist.”
Wiczyk, who is Jewish (though I hesitate to share that fact because why should it matter), and Satchu (who is Muslim, which again is a fact that I hesitate to share because it also doesn’t matter) have been watching with concern the rise of both anti-Semitism and a more virulent strain of anti-Zionism in recent years.
“I have seen the full intersection of Israel and the Jewish identity,” Wiczyk said, adding that the BDS movement — promoting boycotts, divestments and economic sanctions against Israel — “has brought it to the mainstream. A lot of people are saying ‘Zionists are racists, but I’m not anti-Semitic.’ That’s ridiculous. It’s the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism, using anti-Israel as a smokescreen, a Trojan horse for anti-Semitism.”
I asked Hollywood what they should do.
It’s a sticky problem, he admitted. Since the very origins of Hollywood, the Jewish individuals who have figured prominently in the film industry’s leadership have been hesitant to call attention to their religion.
Everyone agrees that discrimination against people who are not of the same color is a serious concern in entertainment, and elsewhere. However, anti-Semitism is also a prominent concern.
Just this weekend, a right-wing hate group unfurled banners supporting Ye’s remarks on a Los Angeles freeway, and Wiczyk was among those across the city who received anti-Semitic literature in his mailbox.
Alarming numbers have been released by the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks 2,717 anti-Semitic incidents for 2021. “It’s the highest total we’ve seen in 47 years,”Jonathan Greenblatt was the CEO of ADL. He spoke to me Monday. “That’s a 34% increase, year over year, and almost triple whatwe saw in 2015.”(More Greenblatt news in the coming story.
Not doing anything is not a good way to go.
“Hollywood has been very articulate and on the case about traditional anti-Semitism,” Wiczyk said. “Many of us have been confused about how to talk about Israel and Palestine. How that intersects with being Jews in America. And how a given person’s opinions may reflect on their view of civil rights in general. I think that’s a complicated conversation that people have been very scared of having.”
He continued on: “The next step in the conversation has to be to create a safe space for people to be critical of Israel and in defense of Israel in ways that are healthy and do not label them beyond their opinions of the situation.”
I don’t know exactly how that figures into canceling the Ye documentary, but it’s certainly a way to bring an uncomfortable discourse out of the shadows.
