“Searching for Mr. Rugoff” Outtake #7: Lina Wertmuller Tells It Like It Is
Interviewing Lina Wertmuller in her apartment in Rome was one of the highlights of my life. But it was hardly an easy interview. First off, I don’t speak any Italian and she speaks very little English....
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Seth Willenson, Innovator and Good Guy
Seth Willenson, who died this week at the age of 74, was a good guy. I know that sounds like faint praise, but in a business that thrives on over-stuffed egos, it actually means a lot. He was also...
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Seven Ways The New York Times Could Help Save Theatrical Moviegoing and Its...
There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t read The New York Times. I fully admit to being one of those old-fashioned people who reads the news on paper; I flip through every page, skimming the...
View ArticleThe Warners Movie Dump: An Ominous Sign for the Streaming Biz?
The announcement last week that the newly combined Warner Bros. Discovery was planning to dump seven of its films, including one big budget female-driven DC Comics superhero film, has brought on a lot...
View ArticleCriterion Celebrates Fabled Distributor Cinema 5
When my film, Searching for Mr. Rugoff was released in the theaters, the most common feedback I got was how astounding it was that one company released so many of the definitive films from what, in...
View ArticleA Celebration of Joan Micklin Silver
Last June, at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, family, friends and colleagues of Joan Micklin Silver got together to pay tribute to the inspirational and ceiling-smashing legacy of one of...
View ArticleBill Thompson: Indie Film Stalworth and Dear Friend
Bill Thompson, who passed away earlier this week, was a true mensch. I first met Bill in 1977, when we both worked at Cinema 5, and we remained friends over all these years. Through his long career,...
View ArticlePremature Obituaries Part 1: Is The Movie Theater Business Dead?
With each passing week of meager reported box office, conventional wisdom in the press is that the tea leaves are pointing to the eventual death of theatrical moviegoing. While the numbers speak for...
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The Upper West Side Needs More Art Film Screens
When the Lincoln Plaza Theater closed in January of 2018, it was like a body blow to the Upper West Side, an area that historically housed a huge community of arts lovers who were educated,...
View ArticleMovie Theater Update, Missing Movies and More…
I have a number of things on my mind right now, the first of which is to give you all a quick and overdue update on the Upper West Side Movie Project I wrote about last month, which brought a...
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