Saturday, April 12, 2008

Getting My Act Together

Maybe it's that Spring is finally in the air in Michigan. I'm finally getting my act together. I've been writing down some of the ideas I've had knocking around in my noggin for months (years?) and attempting to bring them to fruition.

Along with this, I've been asked to host a panel at the Maryland Film Festival on "The State of Film Criticism". Rather than just shooting from the hip (my usual modus operandi), I'm actually coming up with some (get this) "speaking points". How fucking professional is that, huh? "Speaking points." Yeah, I said it!

I went over to Borders today to look at the state of their film criticism books. It's a sad state. The film section -- three shelves wide -- consists of three subsections; criticism, star biographies, film guides. Yet, even these aren't as "pure" as their titles suggest. All three are sullied by quickie tie-in products, biographies of marginally-related "stars", and other effluvia. Worse, the criticism section is nearly just that. What's sorely lacking is film theory. The two aren't mutually exclusive and often go hand in hand. Apart from one book of collected essays, there was little that even smacked of film theory.

Despite my attempt to stop buying books, I picked up a few tomes (online, they weren't available at Borders) that may be the modern equivalent of film theory. Reviews sure to come.

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