Film Watcher Goals For 2023

 

Stock image of a Black woman in a movie theater alone. She is me. I am sitting in a movie theater alone.

Art of Film— an elective humanities course taught during my art school undergraduate education— valued a certain kind of cinema. Our curriculum was Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run, Robert Altman’s The Player— womanless directors and writers while absenting other parts of the globe. Still, I came home from Cincinnati and visited Dayton’s premiere indie theater often. I found solace in enjoyable pieces throughout the years: Dee Rees’s Pariah, Mona Achache’s The Hedgehog, and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. I realized without doubt that film was my whole third love— next to painting and writing— and have decided to voice my film addict plans for 2023. 

My main goals:

1.) I will continue championing films from all over the world, placing a higher priority on works by marginalized, underrepresented filmmakers and try to dedicate a few posts a month celebrating/critiquing new, upcoming voices or those in the neglected past. Over the years, I have volunteered at Athena Film Festival, Blackstar Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, and the Dayton LGBT Film Festival, discovering great voices through these incredible learning networks. 

2.) I will set aside percentages of my writing earnings towards imperative works— mainly those on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and Seed & Spark. It is extremely hard out here, facing rejection, submitting story after story to a potential publication, praying to fit in. I imagine raising enough funds to make films a much harder process, especially considering that certain stories are favored above others. 

3.) I have finally seen the light: Western awards shows are mostly about legacy status propaganda and rarely about the winning talent. Also, should such contests exist anyway? This notion of “there can only be one?” No ties. This judgment of an artist’s interpretation versus another? Story for story, direction over direction? As a practicing visual artist and writer with a keen interest in art history (my other blog is Black Women Make Art), this daily struggle of applying for grants, residencies, and other honors, even a place to submit an essay— proves to be all subjective. Juror’s personal bias and preference exist. Thus, year after year, same folks are nominated, some folks holding onto two or three Oscars and people argumentatively stating, “they were the best!” We have seen the glaring racism and sexism showcased in the nominees. When you live in a society where almost every Steven Spielberg or James Cameron film hogs nominations— what does that say to an upcoming filmmaker, a filmmaker that is either a woman or nonwhite or a combination of both? Better luck next time? Some first timers have to make a profit before a second feature gets green lit. 

4.) I may fail in this Film Per Day Challenge and stick to twenty-five to thirty a month (we’ll see). Film is essentially a succubus; leaving you in wonderful awe or have you sobbing for hours or feeling perturbed by the human condition. It is only natural to break in between film’s dark, depressing moments. In addition, I am leaving my movie theater job in a few weeks (no more free films). That means my primary source of film watching will be streaming services unless the theater acquires cinema I would proudly pay for. Unfortunately, minority filmmakers financially underperform more often than not. 

5.) I will commit more to this nine-year blog. Perhaps five to seven posts a month? I watch so many films that my brain feels overstimulated in saturated images. It is difficult to keep up with my drafts in between other projects— paid projects. On occasion, I do get discouraged by being an almost secret blog few know about, let alone foolishly obsess over readership. Yet, I love freely writing about film, TV, and multitalented women in this complicated industry, adding my opinion on various genres. Although I do dream of surpassing two hundred fifty thousand views here, I must admit that entertainment essaying in a vacuum is not so bad after all.