Offerings of Our Own
"Christy," "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk," and a community-based charity auction.
I’ve got two movie reviews for you this weekend, a quick one for the Sydney Sweeney-starring boxer biopic Christy, and another for the wrenching Gaza documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. But the real meat is about the charity auction gala my friend threw for his birthday, and how you can also raise money for good causes without having to spend much of yours—while also having a lot of fun! One of the benefits of having this newsletter is being able to occasionally break free from the typical film criticism format. (This is often referred to as “blogging.”)
Christy
Now playing in wide release.
Whether or not Sydney Sweeney has great jeans may be a subject of controversy, but she’s got an undeniable right hook. She delivers an impressive performance as Christy Martin, a trailblazer with humble beginnings, having come up from a rural mining town in West Virginia to putting women’s boxing on the map as a legitimate enterprise. Her inspirational rise to the top is dutifully conveyed by director David Michôd, who shoots the fights competently but is working off a script that seems plug and play from any other rags to riches athlete movie.
It’s not a smooth ride to success: Christy is forced by her conservative family to repress her lesbian identity, and she resorts to shouting homophobic slurs at her competitors. At a young age she marries her middle-aged manager Jim Martin (Ben Foster, doing a Bill Pullman impression). From the start, there are signs that this partnership is toxic, and as the years pass, their domestic life dissolves into a haze of cocaine and physical abuse. At this point, the film shifts focus from boxing to something much darker, and it culminates in a shocking act of violence.
Christy’s recovery and comeback from this incident is incredibly compelling, so it’s a shame that it takes up so little of the film’s runtime. Her second marriage to her former opponent Lisa Holewyne (Katy O’Brian) is relegated to the end titles, when that could have been an entire movie on its own. Sweeney is consistently the bright spot of this film, convincingly deglamorized while retaining a charming pluckiness. Christy is good for what it is, but it’s hard not to feel that an opportunity was missed for a film as daring as Christy herself.
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
Now playing in NY at IFC Center & LA, expanding to further markets in the coming weeks. As part of DOC NYC, director Sepideh Farsi will be doing a Q&A at the Village East on November 13.
I caught this during the New York Film Festival about a month ago; it was a warm Saturday afternoon but that beautiful weather didn’t stop the Walter Reade Theater from being packed. Just a few minutes in, I started to hear people sniffling around me, and I don’t think it was from the bug that was going around during the festival.
Seeking to understand the destruction of Gaza beyond the abstractions of media coverage, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi virtually connects with Fatma Hassona, a Palestinian photojournalist and poet whose bright smile cuts through the pixelation of an unstable internet connection. What unfolds is a chronicle of a life under siege, told through a series of video calls. Rather than use screen recordings, Farsi uses a second phone to film these conversations, placing us inside the director’s point of view. On the margins of the frame, we see her surroundings: a flat in Paris where her cat wanders freely, the hotel rooms she inhabits on her travels to international film festivals. They’re comfortable environments, much like the cinema or living room where you’re likely to watch this movie. It’s a stark contrast with the bombardments and drone buzzes that was Hassona’s daily reality.
In April of this year, just one day after Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk was announced to be a part of the Cannes Film Festival’s ACID sidebar, Hassona and six members of her family were killed by an Israeli missile strike; she was deliberately targeted, according to an analysis by Forensic Architecture. But those who see this documentary will remember this woman not just for her death, but also her vibrant life, powered by a strained but irrepressible optimism. (Hassona would cite a quote about hope from The Shawshank Redemption, a movie she hadn’t yet seen; Farsi said that they would watch it together when they would finally meet in-person, a promise never to be fulfilled.) Most striking was that her hope for a better future persisted, even though it grew dimmer as Israel ramped up a genocidal campaign that would take her life. We are left with this galvanizing and devastating testament from a woman whose vivacious spirit was cruelly snuffed out. The film isn’t much more than what it is, but sometimes that’s enough. By the time the end credits rolled, those sniffles I was hearing turned into outright sobs.
Tasting Notes
Sepideh Farsi began her conversations with Fatma Hassona in April 2024, not long after the widely publicized killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers who were delivering much-needed food supplies. Near the beginning of the film, Hassona shows off her limited provisions, much of it packaged and sent from afar: chile-lime chips made in China, Indomie instant noodles made in Saudi Arabia. As time goes by, food becomes even harder to come by, and she is visibly affected by the famine.
Usually I use this section to suggest some fun things to cook or give restaurant recommendations. Instead, I want to spotlight a way that you and your friends can raise money to fight food insecurity (or any charitable cause) while building community and having fun, all at the same time. You can have your cake and eat it too, and so can people in need.
How to Host a Community-Driven Fundraiser
A couple months ago, my friend Yang threw a birthday party with a purpose: a charity gala where nineteen of his friends auctioned off their services and expertise. And he has some very talented friends: Julia offered a full tarot reading, Drew would build a website, Oliver would write you a song, Maya would give a one-hour violin lesson, Kasra would “solve any problem you have.” Three different people offered acting or voice lessons. (If you can’t tell, Yang is a member of the theater community.) Donations would go to World Central Kitchen and the International Rescue Committee, which would be doubled by a matching program at Yang’s work.
For the most part, those contributing their services won’t have to spend much more than their time. It was a group of people sharing their skills and talents with others, for no personal gain other than feeling good and building connections.
Everything was live and in-person: someone would pitch their offering and then the floor opened for bids, with Yang serving as auctionmaster. The bidding wars were equally as fun to watch as they were to participate in. (I may have been the first person to bid $69, thereby ensuring that subsequent rounds would reach or exceed that nice amount.)
Originally I wasn’t in the lineup to auction anything off, but inspiration struck for something that I could uniquely do and tied to one of the non-profits being fundraised. I went up and made an offering of my own: a dinner party for you and five of your best friends. We’d collaborate on the multi-course menu and it could be hosted either at my place or their’s, depending on the space. (The winner would be responsible for grocery costs, which is typical for hiring a private chef.)
My pitch involved telling people to check out my cooking Instagram and fielding audience questions about the specifics. I figured someone would pay me a couple hundred bucks. The winning bid was $575, the highest of the night.
That was just one of many donations. Combined with the corporate matching, we raised over $5,000. This amount alone won’t fix famines or cover a lapse in government spending. It’s a drop in the bucket, all things considered. But what is an ocean, if not a multitude of drops?
Yang is one of the most selfless people I know, and I feel fortunate to even be on the periphery of his beautiful circle. And it was a really fun time. You could also organize a charity auction within your community. (If that word scares you, remember that “community” is just a fancy way to say “friends and acquaintances.”) You don’t have to wait for your birthday.
I am curious. If you were auctioning off a skill or service, with the proceeds going to charity, what would be your offering?
Speaking of which, I still owe a very generous person a dinner party. It would have been a stronger ending to this post if I could have shared more about how that went. Need to reach out to her to get a date on the calendar…
And because you’re probably asking…
The dress code for the gala “Celestial,” taking after the five Chinese elements. Of course, there was a red carpet and there were some amazing fits. These are just a few. (Photography by Moe Amadou.)
