Film Lists

About 6 years ago in English class I was handed a list of AFI's (American Film Institute) top 100 movies, told to choose one, screen it and write about it.
I chose Citizen Kane because I knew there'd be lots of material about it. I then took the list and made a conscious decision that I would view every one of the films. Thus started my foray into film craziness and more of a film education than I feel like the education I would've gotten in 4 years of film studies (if I had gone into film studies for university, for example).

Fast forward (or skip, but even DVD-speak is going out) 6 years and I have two more films to go! Two more! They are 1931's Frankenstein and 1939's Gone With the Wind. After I'm done these it would feel to me like what watchers of Lost felt when the show ended, probably: something is missing.

But no matter, because there's always the BFI's (British Film Institute) top 100 list and IMDB's top 250 lists I'm working on and this and that list. Along the way, I've watched a lot of (mostly European) foreign films and read a lot on films and film analysis while I was actually supposed to be reading stuff for geography or linguistics.

I'm not done yet, but if you asked me which movie was my favourite of the AFI 100, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Indeed, the list is pretty sad now that I look over it again because it reminds me that cinematic history is reflective of history in general: written (or directed by) white males. I could add in all sorts of identity markers too, like straight and rich and on and on but race and gender are the two annoyances I have with AFI's list. Even in other countries and on international lists, females really do not have a place in cinematic history as of current. I look at lists like Jonathan Rosenbaum's 1,001 films to see before you die lists and the Criterion Collection I think I really don't want to spend my time watching yet more Japanese movies about samurai or westerns about avenging someone or other. Michael Kaminski wrote a good article about why more women need to be producing and receiving film.

Another upcoming landmark is my 1,000th film logged in my film log (as of today I have watched 948 films since June 23, 2003). Okay I think that you'd think me more crazy than wanting to celebrate with me since I told you this.