“Cliches about Jews come from a lack of exposure”: BournRich and Rachel Myers on Jewish visibility in film
The Jewish creative duo of award-winning director Rachel Myers and street artist and activist BournRich appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where they discussed their latest film, the Tiny Kindness Project, and how tackling antisemitism and promoting Jewish visibility are recurring themes in both of their works.
The Tiny Kindness Project, a film directed by Ms Myers that stars BournRich, focuses on the street artist’s project in which he wrote and disseminated messages of hope onto facemasks during the COVID-19 pandemic to combat division.
“The world was almost at a standstill and so what I want to do with this film is bring people together, show harmony and kindness, and put messages on masks to let people know everything is okay and to break down their barriers,” BournRich said.
On one of the masks, the word ‘Shalom’, meaning ‘hello’ or ‘peace’ in Hebrew, was written, and the artist’s hamsa (a hand-shaped symbol popular in certain parts of Jewish culture) necklace also featured in the film.
Speaking on the presence of Jewish symbolism in the film, the artist said: “I always have to put something of my Jewish identity in my work.”
Ms Myers explained how the presence of BournRich, who is both Jewish and Black, in her film continued her work’s overarching theme of Jewish visiblity as a means of combating antisemitism.
“I think Jewish identity takes lots of different shapes and forms and one thing that I feel as an artist who’s Jewish is that so often in depictions of Jews on screen, they are a certain type of Jew…I think showing all experiences is really important, and so when I met [BournRich] and saw how his identity came out in his work as an artist, I thought that was very important.
“As an artist, I feel like I’m always trying to dispel myths about what something means…the theme of your podcast is really on point for what the [film] is about because I think the tropes of antisemitism come from these old ideas of this tiny population and I think so often that the cliches that people fall into about what Jews are, Jews in the media, all come from a lack of exposure and misunderstanding, a lack of education.”
Ms Myers went on to reveal that “When I went to college, my roommate next door was a Mormon and she’d never met a Jew before and she’d heard the old antisemitic trope that Jews have horns.”
The director continued: “I want to show that Jews are many types of people.”
Throughout the interview, the duo also discussed white supremacy in the United States today and the work of the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance which, like previous Podcast Against Antisemitism guest, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, BournRich is a member.
The podcast with Ms Myers and BournRich can be listened to here, or watched here.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, and actor Eddie Marsan.
