Philip Lopate, author of American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents Until Now, puts current fears about the future of film criticism in context by looking at the history of the form, from Sandburg, Agee and Kael through to the online generation. more >
This week, a Utah Festival that's so bad it's good and a Denver film series that's dead on arrival; in LA, the stars stay home and UCLA remembers the Brits; and St. Louis sees the world that Gordon Parks made. more >
Film historian David Parkinson recounts the remarkable true story of flamboyant producer William Castle and the curse of Rosemary's Baby. more >
Producer William Castle devoted the latter part of his movie career to the cause of trying to scare movie crowds with cheap gimmicks. But Castle himself would fall victim to a macabre irony when he became genuinely terrified of one of his own pictures — indeed, the only title in his canon of any real quality. Here David Parkinson unravels the many woes that assailed Castle — from casting problems to ill health, hate mail, untimely death and savage murder — in the making and reception of Rosemary's Baby.
After 15 years toiling in such B-movie series more >
A primer on Mexican cinema, and also Hollywood's trips south of the border.
On its 40th anniversary, we revisit the festival that wasn't.
The Whitney's Henriette Huldisch on the Biennial
A look at the seeds of a new generation of Iraqi filmmakers.
Peter Bowen casts an eye over Iraqi moviemaking's troubled past.
Novelist Toby Barlow with a lyncanthropic take on film history.
Scott Kirsner on how the web knows what you like
Spencer Parson's on Texas's favorite movie city
Five emerging African filmmakers will be awarded $10,000 each towards the pre-production, production, or post-production of their short film. The deadline to apply is July 15th, 2008 and award recipients will be notified on our about August 15th, 2008 of their status.