🎧 National Geographic's limited series 'A Small Light' looks at those that tried to save Anne Frank and her family during World War II.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed | Omny Studio A program that looks back at World War II and the Holocaust is part of this week's focus. National Geographic launches a new limited series on May 1 called"A Small Light" that follows Miep Gies and her husband Jan , who were critical in the hiding of the Frank family from the Nazis.
They also discuss the three new movies that were recently announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 in London by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. James Mangold, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy were selected to direct the films. You should have said Yoda, because, you know, I'm that old. I had it in the script. I was going to call you Yoda, but I didn't want you to feel that way. I am so Yoda. It's ridiculous. That's it's is apt and it's fitting and it's me. Plus, if I were collecting anything, it would be Yoda. Got to love Yoda.
I thought that was really cool. But it did feel like you were dropped into a world that you had no idea what was going on. It's really amazing when you look back at the Times. I mean, today movies are so overboard with CGI and animation and green screens and everything. The fact that they were able to do a space Western because that's really what it was, you know, you equated it to a Western, but even George Lucas thought of it as a space weren't Western.
So you got a chance to kind of delight in in those kind of simpler things. And I think it works better. I don't think you should have messed with that stuff. I thought you should have left it alone because it is a piece of its time, you know? But hey, if you're George Lucas, you do what you want. One is going to star Daisy Ridley as Rey. So she's going to reprise her role that she brought forth in the three most recent films from that new trilogy. There's going to be one that takes place in The New Republic, which is post Return of the Jedi. But before the the Rey version comes up. So this is basically taking the the shows that we see on Disney Plus now, and they're going to somehow intersect into some sort of film.
Yeah, I think there are too many things out there. I really do. We waited so long just to get Star Wars films that now they have a glut of them. I, I don't know that that's in their own best interest is I know they want money. I know they're there. There's really we've got to get more money out of this.
Who knows? And then, you know, they never really do want to toy with anything beyond a PG 13. Why can't there be an R-rated Star Wars film? Yeah, that would be an interesting one. I mean, you can you can maybe get to I mean, it is it's space war. So you could take up the violence level a little bit and maybe and they did it with with the comic book movies.
It was a great movie from start to finish and it's kind of followed through now with Andor the series where, you know, you can only do a couple of seasons of that because eventually there's an end point, right? So I think they really did a great job with that. I'm kind of hopeful that with James Mangold, maybe that's that director that they're bringing in, like you suggest, because he's doing the new Indiana Jones movie, The of Destiny.
Yeah, I think Star Trek had a little problem with that as well, where they're, you know, they're trying to many worlds. And now where are they? I really don't know where Remember the the kind of reboot with Chris Pine? Is that going anywhere? Is that going to be something more or are we going back and looking at old characters like Picard?
So it was his concept where he worked with other writers and directors on the finer points, which I think in comparison to the new trilogy, J.J. Abrams was there. I know he was the executive producer on the second one, but he kind of stepped way too far away. And the movie went in a totally different direction. And then he had to come back to kind of rescue the third one, and it just turned into, I guess, a bit of a hot mess.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio I don't think we need to go into that a little more. But she might bring us a whole new a whole new world of of opportunity. And it would be interesting to see what happens. You know, I want to see what are what people are doing in other parts of that universe. And I don't know that we've necessarily seen that they're also caught up with this rebel forces kind of thing.
It's these newer characters that they introduced that have expanded the universe to just more than boys and men. And the Jedi can be a girl, you know, A Jedi can be a woman. Look at how animation was largely seen as, you know, female driven. It always has to have a heroine who falls in love and gets out of her situation.
Since that time there has been a Holocaust related film. Every year. It's interesting to see that that's that's lasting like that, but it's one of those things that you need to remind people because otherwise they're going to say it didn't happen. And I think a lot of times you'll see in the documentary categories of the Academy Awards, there will be something about someone.
Yes. Miep was a secretary of Otto Frank, who was the one who helped him during all of this. She, he said, would you help me get things to my family? Can you be there for us? And will you promise not to tell anybody? In retrospect, meet said, You know, I didn't do anything.
We don't need to be that guy who runs in, saves a bunch of people, and then you're considered, Yeah, that's what we need to do. It can be something as simple as maybe talking to somebody else, maybe comforting someone during a tough situation. Maybe it's bringing food to somebody. You know, it's so, so simple.
You think, I think I could hang with these people. I think these are people that I would like to be around. And that's where sometimes when they do do films about these things, they tend to take away that kind of humanness and they want to set them up on a pedestal and make them something other than real people.
I really would. It's hard to. That's such a hard question to answer because it's so late. You just sound like such an arrogant, provocative. So, yeah, I mean, I think what they did was so extraordinary and so incredible. You know, I, you know, thankfully will never be put in that position, you know? But what one kind of a role models for you.
And her voice really does come out in that book and she does talk like you get the sense that she was quite cheeky and playful and she talks about how much she loves going out dancing and partying with her friends and how she found her husband so attractive. And, you know, the funny kind of conversations she had with Ann.
It's like it's a social faux pas. Those things. Did they do all those things in the bathtub? Because I thought, Oh, that's really cool. I mean, I don't know. I know they used to they used to to get away from everybody. They'd go like that. They said that that's a great thing. I think it's a huge, huge idea.
And it was a young girl in the annex and the rest of it. But I feel like the reality is people don't know the story. And how many episodes of you said you mention that you've seen two. Okay. So there's so much that you're going to hopefully learn and become aware of what was going on outside the annex, what was going on in the streets of Amsterdam.
Think the lengths that these people went to when they were literally just a secretary and a social worker and a young people was absolutely insane. So, yeah, I learned so much about being brave and also the amount that one human being can actually do so that that the best, most unfathomable stories are often the ones that are real.
And it's sad because there's really not many of them left. So it's great that we can have stories like this, find ways to to have these stories, to share those experiences, but also, as you said, have a contemporary message as well. And I think there are applications that we can look at. Hopefully, we will never get to the point that our situation today is what it was back then.
And again, he thought he really I don't know what I did that was all that great. But when he realizes, you know, that somebody is making something out of this, they say, well, now the person next to you, she was one of the ones you helped, and the person next to her was somebody you helped. And before you knew it, it was everybody in that theater was somebody who he had helped and he had never met them.
Well, you know, I also like talk about getting to talk to people that make a difference. David Rubenstein is a billionaire who's done a lot of different things, but now he's doing a TV series about American icons, things that are iconic in the United States. Now, I said right away, Well, Mount Rushmore, of course, isn't that an icon?
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Nat Geo’s ‘A Small Light’ Is a Profound Take on Anne Frank’s Story: TV Review“A Small Light” isn’t Anne Frank's story, though the teen’s legacy is embedded throughout. The series is a tale of resistance, activism and humanity, centering on one tenacious young woman, Miep Gies, who risked everything to save the Frank family.
Read more »
Scott D. Pierce: There’s humor in the latest retelling of the Anne Frank’s storyYou should watch the National Geographic Channel’s “A Small Light,” the eight-part retelling of the Anne Frank story — this time primarily from the perspective of Miep Gies, the young woman who helped hide the Frank family from the Nazis for more than two years.
Read more »
Coachella Owner AEG Threatens Legal Action Against Filmmaker Who Made Unofficial Frank Ocean Concert Movie (EXCLUSIVE)Coachella parent company AEG is threatening legal action against a filmmaker who created a concert movie using found footage of Frank Ocean’s controversial April 16 set at the festival. Brian Kinne…
Read more »
Filmmaker Faces Cease-and-Desist From AEG Over Frank Ocean Coachella VideoA filmmaker has been hit with a cease-and-desist notice from AEG after uploading Frank Ocean’s entire Coachella set composed of edited-together fan-shot videos
Read more »
Watching Frank Ocean’s Coachella Set Online Won’t Be EasyCoachella’s parent company AEG is removing any and all videos related to Ocean’s only performance.
Read more »
2 executives on leave after Bud Light collaboration with transgender influencer stirs backlashTwo Anheuser-Busch executives took a 'leave of absence' following the backlash that unraveled over a partnership between Bud Light and a transgender influencer, which has since been drawing cries for boycotts.
Read more »