15 - Brendon Marotta: Children’s Justice

2023-10-17

Brendon Marotta is a filmmaker, author, and podcaster. We talk about his book, "Children's Justice", which applies critical theory to the controversial topic of infant circumcision. We go through his decision to appropriate the tools and tactics of critical theory in service of this issue, apprehensions around taking circumcision up as a social justice or human rights concern, my discomfort with everything about this, childhood trauma and its reverberating effects on adults and institutions, rhetorical methods borrowed from...

Brendon Marotta is a filmmaker, author, and podcaster. We talk about his book, "Children's Justice", which applies critical theory to the controversial topic of infant circumcision.

We go through his decision to appropriate the tools and tactics of critical theory in service of this issue, apprehensions around taking circumcision up as a social justice or human rights concern, my discomfort with everything about this, childhood trauma and its reverberating effects on adults and institutions, rhetorical methods borrowed from Foucault and others to make his argument, barriers for men and parents to discussing circumcision, and why he sees advocacy around this issue as a microcosm for opening a broader discussion around the treatment of children.

Brendon Marotta's feature-length documentary, "American Circumcision" garnered numerous nominations and awards at film festivals, including Best Documentary at the Lone Star Film Festival (2017), The Silver Jury Prize at The Social Justice Film Festival (2017), Best Documentary Feature at Outer Docs Film Festival (2018), and is available on Netflix (non-US) and Prime video.

Children's Justice (2022): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735113425/

American Circumcision: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7628146/

Gods of AI (2022): https://www.amazon.com/Gods-AI-AI-Generated-Art-Book/dp/B0BMTFSNQ5/

Brendon Marotta

Site: https://brendonmarotta.com/

X: https://twitter.com/bdmarotta

If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

Listen on:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg