Laura Brickman

[The General: Vietnam in the Age of To Lam @thegeneral_mov]

🎬 A documentary. A powerful story. A growing effort to silence it.

Director Laura Brickman (@lfbrickman) opens up about the making of “The General,” discussing the inspiration behind the film, the obstacles faced during production, and the controversy that followed its release.

[The General: Vietnam in the Age of To Lam @thegeneral_mov]

Looking back at Berlin 🇩🇪
A powerful post-screening discussion with director Laura Brickman @lfbrickman , human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài @LutsNguynVni1 and journalist Lê Trung Khoa @thoibao_de.
Thank you Wiebke Hangst for moderating. @mediadefence
Thank you TAZ for hosting.

[The General: Vietnam in the Age of To Lam @thegeneral_mov]

Grateful to the distinguished panel:

MEP Saskia Bricmont @saskiabricmont
MEP Jonas Sjöstedt
Claudio Francavilla @hrw
Alexis Dewaef @fidh_en
Director Laura Brickman @lfbrickman
and Moderator Julie Majerzcak @RSF_inter

#MovieScreening #Brussels #TheGeneral #ToLam #Vietnam

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

BREAKING:

Zelensky says that if the regime in Iran is allowed to survive, it will only teach other dictators that if you kill enough people, you can stay in power.

[Dr. Naomi Wolf. 8 NYT Bestsellers. DPhil, Poetry. @naomirwolf]

Bravest people on Planet Earth right now.

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

Fears dispelled. "Before the film screening, Dr. Dang Vu Chan, a member of the Viet Tan party and the program coordinator, addressed public opinion in the community that "this is a left-leaning film." The reason given was, "the female director, Laura Brickman, graduated from Columbia University."

https://t.co/zK6LVBwH4F

[Zvika Klein צביקה קליין @ZvikaKlein]

I can’t look away from Bari Weiss's story at CBS.

It's the drama. The memos. The anonymous staff statements. The internal rebellions that always claim they are defending journalism while quietly defending comfort. The whole thing is a perfect snapshot of what American media became in the last decade.

But I’m following it for a more serious reason. Bari Weiss represents a path that almost no journalist takes.

She did not just complain about a broken newsroom culture. She published her critique, walked away from the most prestigious platform in the industry, and built a competing institution. Then she returned to a legacy newsroom, not as a guest, not as a columnist, not as a hired pen, but with authority.

That is rare. That is the difference between talking about change and making it.
I have managed journalists for years. I know how much talent gets wasted on self-censorship. I know how many good reporters learn to anticipate the internal backlash and adjust their writing before the editors even touch it.

Weiss built an audience precisely because she wrote as if adults still exist.

The Jewish element is central. Weiss refused the defensive crouch. She spoke about antisemitism in ways that most never did; without the usual disclaimers. She treated Jewish safety as a story that belongs on the front page, not in a local news outlet or tiny corner of the internet.

David Ellison belongs in this story too. Owners decide whether courage is rewarded or punished. Owners decide whether leadership has cover when the internal outrage machine starts up. Ellison backing Weiss, and backing support for Israel after October 7, signals something that Jews and Israelis understand intuitively: Not only is it important to create news differently - It’s also okay to look at the Middle East through the prism of Western societies; and at Israel as homeland of the Jewish people - and the only democracy in the region.

Here’s my honest takeaway: Weiss is doing more for Jews and Israel than most of us, and she is doing it with creative thinking that turns backlash into leverage and chaos into direction.

That is leadership. 🇺🇸 ✡️🇮🇱

My @Jerusalem_Post column: https://t.co/BtGmhOvnT1

[Edmund @Kulambq]

Friedrich Nietzsche, 'For the new year'

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

@katyadanziger @VladDavidzon Has he stolen money from you yet?

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

During the worst of the days of the hunger crisis in Gaza in the past six months, Hamas deliberately hid literal tons of infant formula and nutritional shakes for children by storing them in clandestine warehouses belonging to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The goal, as I said then, was to worsen the hunger crisis and initiate a disaster as part of the terror group’s famine narrative in a desperate effort to stop Israel’s onslaught against Gaza and force the return of the UN’s aid distribution mechanism, and away from the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Now, activists in the Strip are documenting the waste and deliberate disposal of tons of infant formula, nutritional children’s shake, and children’s powdered milk, which Hamas had hoarded away, given the saturation of the coastal enclave with humanitarian aid after the ceasefire two months ago.

When countless other Palestinian activists and I from Gaza said this back in July, August, and September, we were villainized, attacked, threatened, and made into pariahs by the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex and activist mafias, even though for Gazans, the evidence was so clearly apparent before our eyes. What those in the West continue to fail to understand is that there is no being pro-Palestine without also having a serious vigilance against Hamas’s continued manipulation of international public opinion to hide behind the Strip's civilian population's suffering, something that the terrorist organization’s own actions have led to and created.

Never allow yourself to be a useful idiot in Hamas’s propaganda. You can have compassion for the real suffering of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza, and demand Israeli action to facilitate aid entry into the coastal enclave, while still holding Hamas accountable for its part in causing a hunger and starvation crisis in the first place.

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

@sethharpesq @AlexKarp_1 To be fair, your source is Russian propaganda

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

This is the right move.

Zelensky won’t be flying to Trump alone — he’ll be joined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other top European leaders.

His plane has already departed with a stop in Brussels. Media report that NATO Secretary General Rutte, French President Macron, UK Prime Minister Starmer, German Chancellor Merz, Italian Prime Minister Meloni, and Finnish President Stubb may also fly to Washington. More names could be added.

A united front. Europe stands with Ukraine.

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

@VladDavidzon And we are only beautiful not crazy :)

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

@VladDavidzon I believe this transcends gender!

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

@VladDavidzon And w such romantic tweets why would she ever run away!

[John Spencer @SpencerGuard]

https://t.co/OK3A7NMtP4

[Laura Brickman @lfbrickman]

@VladDavidzon @AltCulture Um….

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

This is terrorism against Palestinians by Jewish settlers and it has to stop. it is evil and a disgrace but also a challenge to the very essence of the state itself.

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

Now that we’re out, I can speak freely about some of the things I’ve learned having accidentally found myself in a war zone, hunkering down with Israelis and other tourists in Tel Aviv shelters:

- I appear to have underestimated the power of trauma bonding

- Israelis’ insistence of living as normal of a life as possible under the most abnormal conditions is truly something to be in awe of

- there’s this thing you can do where you enter a liminal space of half-sleep so you straddle the awake world and the sleep world so you never miss a siren

- your high cortisol + adrenaline levels become a new baseline and your awareness of it fades away

- every barrage is a game of Russian roulette. Knowing your life is at the mercy of both technology and fate permanently changes the chemistry of your brain cells

- there is something truly clarifying about being in a shelter while hypersonic missiles dance overhead. You look at the person you’re in the shelter with - is this the one I want to share the terror of imminent extinction with? Have I lived well? Did I treat my family and friends right? Have I forgiven?

- while I was afraid on several occasions, I still consider it the privilege of a lifetime to witness history in the making

- the frisson of real danger cannot be replicated in our safe, prosperous societies back home. It is invigorating and forces one to jettison all utopian and luxury beliefs

- it’s inspiring to see young people exhibit qualities that in the West hasn’t been seen since WWII - resilience, duty and sacrifice

- the delta between what was going on in the kinetic war and the information war was observable; too many lies were spread in the fog of war which were far too easily believed (some big account confidently asserted that 1/3 of Tel Aviv was destroyed, which I could see with my own eyes was clearly not the case)

- there is a lot more diversity of opinion inside Israel than is apparent from the outside

- the shared, bedrock consensus that has been hammered into the consciousness of Jews because of their deep history and sense of self is a great strength the West sorely needs to emulate

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

BREAKING:

Crown Prince @PahlaviReza announces that Iranian security officials who want to defect & join the revolution are contacting him.

Today, he’s creating a mechanism for them to sign up to the cause. Their security will be guaranteed in exchange for joining the revolution