In a social media driven world where we accept what pops up in our feed as gospel, Wendy Sachs’ essential doc, October 8, stands as a testament to just how dangerous trusting that feed can be and how it can lead to disinformation that infects an entire generation.
October 8 should be required viewing for all college and university students and everyone who ever posted or reposted anything about Gaza and the conflict.
The film investigates the day after the October 7th terrorist attack on Israel in 2023 where close to 1200 Jews, Muslims, Buddhists Hindus and Christians (but mostly Jews) were slaughtered and 251 people were kidnapped (including infants) with Hamas triumphantly live streaming their atrocities all over social media and the internet. It was the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The very next day a veritable viral blitzkrieg of anti-Israeli and antisemitic rhetoric began as students on college campuses chanted slogans like, “From the river to the sea” and “All of us here are proud of what happened yesterday.” Instead of condemning Hamas, there seemed to be a wave of pride spreading all over universities and in big cities across the U.S. While the mutilated bodies were still being discovered in Israel, Harvard was blaming Israel for the attack. And that’s just one example.
Sachs’s film takes a close look at exactly how this was happening and how it became epidemic. Gen Z, in particular, appeared locked into a virulent hatred, not bothering to even attempt to understand the complexities of the history.
Critics who are calling the film “propaganda” are completely missing the point and dangerously capitulating to the actual propaganda from those who would enjoy watching the destruction of Israel. Should we also present the Nazi point of view in docs about the Holocaust? We need to start calling out antisemitism, even if it isn’t popular and begets social media backlash. Period.
Yes, the film presents one side because it’s about the insane aftermath and crickets-response to a heinous terrorist attack. That and there are plenty of current docs that show the horrific plight of the Palestinian people and the horrors that are going on in Gaza. This film isn’t denying what is happening. It’s addressing the insidious way in which groups like SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine), with direct ties to Hamas and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, manipulated the narrative toward antisemitism and how a large majority of our youth allowed themselves (and continue to allow themselves) to be brainwashed.
There’s tremendous outrage right now over the attack on Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the Oscar-winning film, No Other Land, (along with Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor.) And that should be condemned, as any attack on any individual should. But part of the question Sachs and brave people like Executive Producer Debra Messing and U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres are asking in the doc is, where was the anger and outrage from the entertainment community, university students and our elected officials on Oct 8th?
