Bright Lights 42.

I think we're going to make it a tradition around here. Each time a new issue of that "popular-academic hybrid" Bright Lights Film Journal comes out, we'll herald its arrival with a stand-alone entry. This time, we have reason to make an especially loud noise since it happens that, as Issue 42 arrives, editor Gary Morris has just contributed a primer over at the main site, "A Brief History of Queer Cinema."

Bright Lights has always balanced any heaviosity with a breezy joviality and, oddly enough for a November issue, this one seems to be one of the most playful issues in a while. The photo essay of Hitchcock's "fetishes - uh, motifs" is a fun example. Pieces vary in length and voice, but there is a sense overall of a celebration of movies. Maybe Gary's not just jesting after all when he writes, "[W]e're doing our part... to remind readers of the many good things to appreciate in l'art du cinemaWe've always prided ourselves on seeing the cup half full - whether it's got anything in it or not."

Posted by dwhudson at November 30, 2003 2:23 PM