Welcome to Fink on Films – - I admit I have been not very
disciplined about blogging; the fact of the matter is it can get a little
discouraging. The purpose of this new project, is to expand upon my work over
The Film Stage and the other blogs I’ve started (and abandoned) - random
rambles, the blog at johnfinkfilms.com, – a site that is in need of a major
overhauling, and of course my original live journal from way back in the day.
I’m hoping to expand upon my work, perhaps even putting my
MFA to good use. My thesis “research” included by first feature film and a
paper on large format film – this site I hope will allow me furthur unpack
whatever research interests I run into along the way in my various cinematic
adventures. With that said, I also plan on reviewing here the movies I want to
review – movies that require some more thought, attention, probing or are
deserving of an overall rant for one reason or another.
There is only so much I can do on Facebook, Twitter, and
over at The Film Stage and I expect Fink on Films (a title I’ve borrowed from
the good ol’ days at Pompton Lakes High School) can the launch pad along with a Facebook group to aggregate
my overall thoughts on the cinema: the past, present and future – perhaps
diagnosing hidden movements that are otherwise not always apparent. I expect
many of these posts will, as this one has, be written in the odds and ends in
the days, over earl grey tea lattes at Starbucks and so forth.
So a bit about me: I’m a filmmaker based in New Jersey and
Buffalo, NY – Buffalo is a city I arrived in a little over four years ago to peruse
a graduate degree. Buffalo itself will be a topic in a sequent, multi-part
feature – but the University at Buffalo Department of Media Study wasn’t my
first choice until I met Carl Lee, who assured me that I could in essence do
whatever I wanted. This was partly the case and lead to many a colleague
extending their “studies” for one reason or another - unlike a “film” school
with strict time tables that would box you into directing within a genre, UB is
wide open. In fact the majority of my colleagues weren’t filmmakers. In fact
the program embraced the rather messy ethos of the city: once designed to carry
a larger population Buffalo was in essence an abandoned frontier along a
boarder with Southern Ontario. Southern Ontario and the GTA with its booming
economy was like taking a trip back in time to 2007, before the economy ground
to a haut and everyone was out, shopping and spending money. The good ol’ days.
Buffalo by comparison felt perhaps as Mexico does to those in Arizona.
But all of this is encouraging: a wide-open landscape to
make art! Yes! Unfortunately my first experience with local cinema wasn’t the
best – a romantic comedy with a bunch of problems and little ambition. On the
bright side in four years I’ve seen the Buffalo film scene evolve, perhaps,
because, and I really believe this: Buffalo is 20 years behind the times. And,
most importantly, 1994 had been an excellent year for film.
Regional cinema has always been a fascinating area I have
yet to explore – and its one I’m considering probing furthur into: what can we
learn about an area from the films it makes? Are brilliant things happening in
garages, front lawns, coffee shops, and crappy apartments and so forth all over
the country that for one reason or another have been kept away from Sundance
and South by Southwest, the kingmakers of indie film? I hope to explore these
kinds of questions with this experiment combining my interest in biography and
geography – the pure emotion I feel when I drive down the Garden State Parkway
toward the shore with Bruce Springsteen’s Sirius channel, E-Street Radio
blasting. What ghosts exist in art in places unexplored – in the suburbs of
Iowa, the abandoned frontiers of cities like Buffalo and Detroit, or rural
enclaves in South Western New York state?
The rush of cinema is why I do what I do – and I hope to
share this passion with anyone who checks into this page as I explore both
current releases, films that deserve another look, trends in production and
exhibition (exhibition a theme of my thesis is something traditional film
scholarship overlooks), and other matters on and off screen.
You can subscribe via RSS for updates or interact via our
Facebook page. Additionally I’ll be posting updates via twitter (@finkjohnj),
and I welcome suggestions for topics worth exploring and screening suggestions
(as well as online screeners) via email at johnjfink (at) gmail.com.
Thank you for checking out my blog – I look forward to what’s
to come.
-John
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