Last month, I enjoyed attending a panel discussion at the Moving Image museum about the history of the film section of the recently ended Village Voice, where several film critics and editors talked for an hour about their experiences writing for the paper, really reminiscing on the close-knit, counterculture vibe of the paper over the decades.
The panelists were Michael Atkinson, Bilge Ebiri, David Edelstein, J. Hoberman, Jonas Mekas, Nick Pinkerton, Amy Taubin, and Stephanie Zacharek. It was really fascinating, and I loved seeing how the critics shared the same love for odd or underseen films as I do, and were actively working to promote those films and not just the prestige stuff that the New York Times was covering. It did make me a little nostalgic for when I briefly worked at the Voice as a summer intern, as well as how I used to read the paper a lot and saved clippings of arts reviews for my scrapbooks. My experience with the Voice is pretty much the same as any newbie in NYC who used it as a guide to find the underground arts scenes in the city. It was just great to see these film journalists gathered together and sharing stories about the legacy of the Voice and the indie film theater scene in NYC.
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