writer sophie lewis on conversations between revolutionary thinkers + our founder's new york film festival watchlist
monthly recs #31
Each month, we ask a writer to speak on what’s on their mind and their tabs for our monthly recommendations. This October’s guest curator, Sophie Lewis, is an Anglo-German writer in Philadelphia whose work has appeared in the New York Times, n+1, London Review of Books, and Harper’s. She is the author of Full Surrogacy Now and Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation, both available via Verso Books, where passerby club members are offered a 40% discount—sign up here for access!
“Wow, it’s a wonderful day,” I said automatically to my friend Rosie on Labor Day as we ventured for the first time outside the badly-lit, over-air-conditioned conference we were at, en route to Chicago’s sun-soaked beach at Lake Michigan. She responded, reasonably, by pointing out — while slathering my sweaty back with factor 50 suncream under the dazzling glare — that the temperature was literally lethal. She directed me to Jamie Allinson’s essay “Against Summer.” In Japanese, the samugari is a person who loves the summertime and abhors being cold; an atsugari is the opposite. But in a tragic irony, Jamie notes, “institutional samugarism now threatens us all”; anthrogenic climate catastrophe will turn us all into fans of cooler weather.
The especially silly thing about my “lovely day” remark is that I was just trying to sound normal. I’ve always secretly agreed with Jamie, preferring the autumnal seasons, even though I love to swim. While all my friends sound panicked at the possibility that “summer is ending,” I tend to associate July with depression and yearn for the orange glow of October. This year, I had a book manuscript deadline of August 30th, so in May, I shut myself up at my desk and pretended that I was in “book jail” (rather than actively enjoying the ecstasy of demented productivism I was suddenly mandated to indulge in). I’m telling you, it takes a workaholic to fully understand the necessity of what anti-work philosophers call “the postwork horizon.”
Once I’d turned in my draft, I suffered a nagging sense of low self-worth (what, if not productivity, am I for?! — the logic of the work society). But my cat companion, Barnacle, reminded me to be kind to my perversions and pleasures — as did an advance reading copy of Marx for Cats by Leigh Claire La Berge. It’s unseasonably warm for September, and I’m off to nap by a lake.
sophie lewis’
1. For people who want to actually “defend the wild” IRL — by preventing the construction of a giant military police training facility where the Weelaunee Forest currently stands, near Atlanta, Georgia — Block Cop City organizers are calling for a mass action on November 10-13, 2023.
2. Sarah Stein Lubrano and Max Haiven are calling on “rabble-rousers, malcontents and mischief-makers” to participate in a free course, running from September through December 2023 “on capturing hearts and minds for radical change” (supported by RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab).
3. In case you or your loved ones need to produce (or wish to help distribute) your own transdermal estrogen, the Fairy Wings Collective has published a safe, tested and reliable do-it-yourself guide here. Trust and fight side-by-side with trans kids!
4. Diversity of Aesthetics is a series of conversations between revolutionary thinkers; volume 3, Looting, is now out. This time, Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Rinaldo Walcott, and Vicky Osterweil discuss looting as a modality of Black struggle and a way of contesting whiteness.
5. Parapraxis magazine sold out the first printing of its second issue — on the theme of Reparations — in no time at all, and if you glance at the table of contents it’s no mystery why people are so keen on this bold new publication, created by radical psychoanalytic philosopher Hannah Zeavin.
passerby club members get five bonus recs from sophie this month — scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see them, or to subscribe if you haven’t already!
more from us
6. You might have noticed already, but we've officially made the jump from Patreon to join our many friends on Substack like passerby-featured chef Ethaney Lee, Hunter Harris, Laura Reilly, and more. We’ve actually got a full list of our favorite substacks if you’re looking to hit subscribe to some extra newsletters. Don’t worry, we’re bringing our perks along with us, paid members will still have access to our private discord server, receive additional interviews, recommendations, discounts to passerby-favorite brands and institutions, and more.
7. Almost 60 years before Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Mai Zetterling directed The Girls, the blueprint for comedy that comments on women’s subjugation to men in a wry plot riffing on the ancient Greek play Lysistrata.
8. Tirzah’s new album, trip9love…???, produced in close collaboration with Mica Levi, is full of understated, introspective jams we’ve been loving — they’ll be performing them live in an NYC show on Sunday, October 22nd!
9. These wearable shell sculptures from jeweler Peyton Sandler’s collection P. Nina are sophisticated, wild, and go with everything.
10. We’re excited to partner with Lobster Club for this October 14 event at Mexico City’s JO-HS, a traveling gallery headed by artist Maja Długołęcka. Artists like Daniel Adolfo, Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, and Miguel Angel Carrera will exhibit their work. The event is from 2-6pm, and you can RSVP at rsvp@lobster-club.com
I’m officially making sharing my New York Film Festival screening itinerary a tradition. The moment when the lineup goes live is my version of opening birthday presents. For those who missed last year’s, you can find it here. And if you missed it, we’re actually partnering with NYFF this year on some discounted screenings here. With a little over a week left until the festival, here are the screenings you’ll find me at, with my Chantal Akerman tote.
Wim Wenders' Perfect Days — ”The magnificence in the everyday, casting the incomparable Koji Yakusho as the taciturn, good-natured Hirayama, who goes about his solitary hours working as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo” — could there be a more passerby film?!
Hong Sangsoo’s In Our Day — Hong Sangsoo’s 30th film!!! Reminds me of my favorite photo book, Misao the Big Mama and Fukumaru the Cat, Goodbye, Hello.
Hong Sangsoo’s In Water — Per usual, Sangsoo is showing two films at once, and they are probably going to be identical, but absolutely terrific nevertheless.
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla — I know she can be quite hit or miss, but it’s Sofia Coppola, and Lost in Translation, however played out, remains a favorite, extremely formative film for me.
Michael Mann’s Ferrari — Michael Mann, Adam Driver AND Penélope Cruz? Sold.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses — I’ll be honest, this one is technically not on my real watchlist as I already saw it a couple of weeks ago. Not Ceylan’s best film, but still a profound exploration of the contemplative and introspective aspects of life in rural Turkey.
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest — here for the Mica Levi score.
Zhang Lu’s The Shadowless Tower — “An aging divorcé who has abandoned his love of poetry writing to become a food critic and whose connection with a young photographer opens the possibility of reconciliation with his past” — I’m always down for a middle-aged coming of age.
Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall — Justine Triet is probably one of the most exciting filmmakers there is right now. If you haven’t seen Age of Panic, I urge you to, it’s one of the few contemporary films that got me excited about cinema again.
Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves — On that note, so does anything by Aki Kaurismaki. This one is probably my most anticipated film of the year.
Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer — you had me at new Catherine Breillat.
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures of Ghosts — The filmmaker behind some of my favorite films: Bacurau, Aquarius, and Neighbouring Sounds. Haven’t seen a documentary by him, very excited about this one, especially as it explores his relationship with cinema.
Paul B. Preciado’s Orlando, My Political Biography — His book Testo Junkie was such a transformative exploration of identity and sexuality for its time. Intrigued to see how the theory will translate into film form.
Wang Bing’s Youth (Spring) — “An account of young rural migrant workers employed in textile factories, shot over the course of five years.”
Frederick Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros — NYFF said it best “The United States’s unrivaled maestro of observational nonfiction”. 4 hours of Wiseman’s perspective of a three-star Michelin restaurant in rural central France? Count me in.
Harmony Korine’s AGGRO DR1FT — I might regret this.
Other films on the list (it’s a long one this year) includes Angela Schanelec’s Music, Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera, Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers, Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson’s Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Martín Rejtman's La Pratica.
#skin-and-hair A good conditioner makes such a huge difference, making sure you leave it in for at least five minutes and brush your hair in the shower with the conditioner on. I also recommend investing in some good hair masks and rotating between them once a week. I like Briogeo's Don't Despair, Repair and Davines’ Vegetarian Miracle Mask.
#recs If you’re traveling to Taiwan: night markets are really fun, especially these three: Ning Xia Night Market (寧夏夜市), best for food and more “local” than the other ones, Shi Lin Night Market (士林夜市), best for food as well as games and clothing/accessories and Gongguan Night Market (公館夜市) which is next to the National Taiwan University — also very good for food, but more touristy and less authentic.
exclusively for paid subscribers: five bonus recs from sophie lewis