Category Archives: Site Update
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 12th Anniversary!
Absolutely cannot believe I’ve been blogging on here for twelve years! My life has seen a lot of changes over those years. I really want to thank everyone who has been reading so diligently all these years. I’m planning to continue doing my monthly wrap-up posts on here, but in 2022 I am also going to be posting more frequently over on Substack. If you’d like to receive more movie recommendations, read interviews with cool people, and more, please think about subscribing. And definitely let me know what kind of posts you’d like to see more of!
No worries though, my wrap up for December, my Favorite Fifteen Films, and my year end wrap up will live here on this blog. But moving into 2022 most of my (non-paid) work will live there, so sign up early so you don’t miss anything!
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 11th Anniversary!
Truly baffling that today is the blog’s 11th anniversary. Back when I started this blog it was during the recession and I was living in the back of my parents’ house working a job I did not care for in my hometown. Watching films, writing about them, just sharing my love for them gave me a sense of purpose.
In the ensuing decade plus I have attended grad school and received an MFA in Film Production, I have worked at Warner Bros., Rotten Tomatoes, TCM/FilmStruck, and Netflix. Jobs I would never have dreamed I would have back when I started this.
But in doing those jobs I lost touch with the pure love of it all. I slowly stopped blogging as much. First went all the lengthy features, and then even Movie Quote of the Day. Now I don’t even write about the films during my monthly write-up. I’ve just gotten so tired.
I learned a lot at every single one of those jobs and am grateful for the experiences I would not have had over the last decade without them.
But as anyone who follows me elsewhere knows, I left my most recent job as the Editorial Manger for NetflixFilm at the beginning of the month. It was a weird, strange departure. But I think for the best. I am proud of all the work I did there in the last 19 months. It was surely some of the best work I’ve done.
I’m not sure yet what I am doing next. I am weighing some options for what ~ the future ~ holds.
With the pandemic raging I’ve been as isolated as I was in those years when I first started this blog. In the last two weeks I’ve found the joy of just watching cinema again. Just sharing my love of it again. It seems everything has come full circle.
The one constant is always cinema. Always.
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 9th Anniversary!
I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade of writing on this blog! Earlier this year I hit my ten year anniversaries on Tumblr and Twitter, both of which I started using before longform blogging in ernest. Although this blog is mostly updated monthly now (though I have plans to change that in 2019), I update my YouTube channel with reviews almost daily (that may change in 2019 as well). I thought for this blog anniversary I would do a breakdown of some of my film-going shenanigans from 2018.
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 8th Anniversary!
I almost forgot to celebrate the blog’s 8th anniversary today! When I first started this blog I posted every day and now it’s mostly the home of my monthly and yearly viewing wrap-ups. Those of you who still read all of those, I applaud you! For those of you who miss my every day posts, you can still find me all over the internet: on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr! As far as 2017 goes, this was a great year. I went back to Italy for the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, I visited the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, I visited the Criterion Collection closet in NYC, I was on a panel about Universal Monsters at DragonCon, Videodrome ATL let me curate a #Noirvember section at their store, and #Noirvember made it into the New York Times! All and all, I think it was a pretty good year. In a few weeks I’ll post about all the films I watched this year (looks like I might come close to 600 new-to-me, a feat I haven’t managed in a few years) as well as all my favorite 2017 releases. Until then, happy watching!
P.S. Watch one of my fave films from the last few years, Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous (’15).
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 7th Anniversary!
This has been a roller coaster year. When I moved across to the country to work at Turner Classic Movies (and FilmStruck!) I had to put Movie Quote of the Day on hold and I haven’t yet managed to bring that feature back. I did, however bring back Female Filmmaker Friday, this time as a podcast and I’ve had some great guests on talking about some great filmmakers. Due to some health issues I had to put that on hold as well (it will be back soon though!). Aside from driving across the country (and through 7 states!), I also went to Virginia to Joseph Cotten’s hometown on a research trip (I even wound up on the local news!) and to Italy to attend the Pordenone Silent Film Festival! All and all, it’s been a pretty crazy year and I’m grateful I was able to share it with all of you. 2017 is going to be full of all kind of adventures as well.
Bonus points if you can name the film that the above scene is from!
Housewarming Stuffs!
As many of you know, I just packed up and moved from California to Georgia for a new job. In doing so I gave almost everything I owned to friends or charities (10+ years of adult belongings!), so I am starting at zero in terms of household items.
I set up some wish lists/registries for my family to send me housewarming gifts, but I thought I’d share them with y’all, because as Blanche DuBois says
THANK YOU.
p.s. I hope to get the blog back up and running in April!
A Year With Women: What I Learned Only Watching Films Directed By Women in 2015
So it is the first day of 2016, which means we’ve bid adieu to 2015. For me, that means I’ve completed A Year With Women. During the entire year of 2015, all the films I watched – from new releases, new-to-me, and re-watches – were directed or co-directed by women, with the exception of the TCM Classic Film Festival (it was impossible!) and Noirvember (all films watched had female writers). Normally, I would write this post and talk about a few films I really loved from the year and maybe a theme I noticed in my viewing habits. This year that theme is pretty obvious: women! I’ve kept pretty good notes, so after the cut I’m going to go through the year, both in terms of what I watched, as well as the big news stories related to female directors in 2015. I’m also going to talk a bit about my favorite new-to-me film of the year, because some traditions must stand!
It’s Cinema Fanatic’s 6th Anniversary!
This time last year I was announcing my A Year With Women project – and I’m now two weeks from its end! It’s amazing. Also, Movie Quote of the Day celebrated its 5th anniversary and #Noirvember 6 was a total success. I’ll update more about my year in movies (and TV!) as the year actually closes out, but I do want to say how grateful I am to all my readers who have stuck with me for all this time!
Movie Quote of the Day is Five Years Old!
I can’t believe I’ve been doing this feature for five years! Since January (if you haven’t noticed) every single quote I’ve done has come from a movie directed by a woman (except Groundhog Day, obviously), to tie in with A Year With Women. After the cut is all of the Movie Quote of the Day posts from June 30th, 2014 thru today, but if you want to see every single Movie Quote of the Day you can do so here.
the diary of a film history fanatic 