A Brief Introduction

My journey began around 2011.

In my early to mid-teens, cinema became perhaps my greatest passion, a passion I had cultivated from multiple experiences. Chief among those experiences were my discovery of films widely considered to be among the greatest in cinema history - 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968), Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), and North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959), to name but a few - and when I began to follow popular film criticism, the work of Mark Kermode in specific. I began to consume films at a more sophisticated level than I had before.

But I think what truly awakened me to the art of cinema, its global cultural significance beyond the popular entertainment I had known it to be before, was when I watched the Channel Four documentary series The Story of Film: An Odyssey (Channel Four Television, 2011) - and subsequently read the book on which it was based, The Story of Film (Cousins, 2004). What I found (and continue to find) compelling, inspiring even, is not only the breadth and depth of Mark Cousins' knowledge about cinema but even more so the significance, the beauty, that he sees in cinema from every culture and every period in film history. A quote by Sean Connery on the back of the 2011 edition of the book reads, "Mark Cousins makes cinema history fascinating." But it would be more accurate, I argue, to say that cinema - its history, its tradecraft, its role in culture - was and is already fascinating; what Cousins does so well is convince you why it's fascinating and, moreover, why it matters.

Cinema, like any other art form, has the ability to communicate feelings and ideas that we all share to innumerable others at once, to teach us about other times and cultures in ways that truly resonate on emotional, even spiritual, levels. It has the profound power to bring people together. That matters.

I went to university to learn the skills and gain the qualifications to become a filmmaker, which is what Cousins' writing initially inspired me to do. I wanted to return the favour to the movies, to give to others what the likes of Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Welles had given me. My university studies did teach me how to be better at planning, writing, recording, and editing film projects. But it was also where I discovered and cultivated my interest in film academia, in researching and writing essays about the industry, aesthetics, and significance of cinema through various frameworks and from various perspectives that dimensionalised my appreciation for cinema. This became my primary interest (and, I will admit, it turned out I was better at film analysis than I was at filmmaking.)

Popular media is both fascinating and necessary to discuss, analyse, and critique not only because it is popular, but because it matters to culture and people on many levels. I created this blog to promote my interests and skills to prospective academics in these fields who may be looking for research assistance, but also because informed discourse about the media we consume and the art that inspires us is - like that art and media - something that can bring us together, something that can dimensionalise us and our appreciation of culture. My hope is that I can make a worthy contribution to that discourse, even in a small way.

My journey began around 2011 and if Robert Frost has taught us anything, it is that a journey can take us down many unexpected paths. We can only do our best to ensure that the roads that lie ahead lead us to fulfilment.

From here, my journey continues...

BOOKS

Cousins, M. (2011). The Story of Film. 2nd edn. London: Pavilion Books.

FILMS

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Directed by Stanley Kubrick [Film.] USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Citizen Kane (1941). Directed by Orson Welles [Film.] USA: RKO Pictures.

North by Northwest (1959). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock [Film.] USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

TELEVISION SERIES

Story of Film: An Odyssey, The (2011). Channel Four Television.