skim milk and soft wax

Dani Leventhal's most recent video, Skim Milk and Soft Wax, evoked a mixture of apprehension and appreciation. Dani's earlier work, Draft 9, being one of my favorite videos, meant that my expectations were high and that I was probably going to give a generous reading of her treatment of a high-stakes issue, i.e., the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the Q&A that followed the screening at Syracuse University, Dani expressly stated, in the face of pointed questions, that her work is definitely apolitical although she knows that she is handling a controversial topic. This resolved some of the uneasiness I had felt at moments throughout the video- primarily because it is quite hard to read her political stance on the issue. Being Jewish American, Dani has been facing an extremely difficult and nebulous path away from the Zionism that she was raised in. I think as with all "political" controversies, there lies at the heart of the issue deeply ingrained and primarily emotional stances that are staked out and defended, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a perfect example. Most Jews I have known (and often loved) believe in the myth of endless persecution and the redemption of the land of milk and honey for completely understandable reasons, few of which are actually political in any legislative or juridical sense. And yet these very personal feelings, rooted in misinformed notions about security and righteousness, quickly turn into convictions that lead to political and militaristic decisions that have grave human rights consequences for Palestinians. This being said, I think it very brave of Dani to even attempt to represent her journey into the deconstruction of the meta narrative of her heritage, and I think her video is invaluable for her honesty. It's particularly interesting to see how her father figures largely in it as a major voice of her internalized Zionism. Basically, the video is a document of their journey back to Israel together, a beloved land of her father's and a nostalgic site of confused feelings for Dani, as she awakens to the reality on the ground, beyond the story she's been indoctrinated in.