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David Shepard: A Lion (1940 – 2017)
I heard last week that my friend David Shepard was in the hospital with pneumonia again, but not to let word get around. Yesterday I learned he was, in fact, in the hospital with stage four cancer and...
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2016 in Review: Not Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
What makes a movie? This is a richly theoretical question that’s often been answered by glibly practical guidance. The most common criterion is highly circular: if it’s exhibited in a movie theater,...
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Beacons of Cinema: In Defense of Trailers
Now that the film vs. digital debate is winding down, the National Association of Theater Owners has turned its attention towards more pressing matters. Last month the exhibitor’s trade group issued...
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Punch Cards, Veronica Mars, and the Digital No-Wave
Let Us Compare Mythologies You’ve probably heard by now that the ongoing digital cinema conversion has fundamentally transformed the way movies are produced, distributed, and exhibited. Taken on their...
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Remember The Alamo? Movies, Markets, and Misaligned Incentives
Film preservation is rarely a sexy endeavor, the fantasies of archivists themselves notwithstanding. Preserving or restoring a film often requires years of semi-scholastic drudgery—research,...
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Who Will Save the Cinema?
The celluloid community received its first positive news in recent months when the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that a consortium of studios was negotiating a long-term arrangement with...
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Andy Warhol’s Magic Trick: The Disappearing 16mm Projector
It’s not fair, the journalist reminds us, to pick apart and censure his headlines; the reporting is his work, but the boldface entrée is not. Case in point: Randy Kennedy’s informative dispatch on the...
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Sit Down: The Vanishing World of The Flick
The Flick at Steppenwolf. Photo credit: Michael Brosilow In 2012, when I was between gigs, I picked up a few shifts a week as a projectionist at a struggling movie theater, among the last in the city...
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Don’t Trust Your Local Film Programmer
Which version of The Devils are you going to show on Monday? We’ve been asked this question over the phone, in person, and on social media since announcing we’d be screening The Devils at the Music...
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Saying Something New: In Defense of the Topical Film
Museum of Modern Art / Film Stills Archive Is there any more dismissive response to a film than slagging it off as “dated?” Does a film lose its relevance merely because its clothing and hair styles...
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