alt.film

The San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Fall Arts Preview" issue is out and Cheryl Eddy trains a discerning eye on the movie release schedule and, for those in the Bay Area, Johnny Ray Huston presents "a top 10 of upcoming cinematic pleasures" - series, special screenings and the like.

By the way, it's a bit shrill - well, it's pretty shrill - but the SFBG's open call for the Justice Department to intervene in a prospective merger between New Times and Village Voice Media is worth a read if you care about the state of the alternative press in the US.

And you should. Outside of a few magazines and journals and a very few daily papers, the alternative press has been the last refuge of timely, vibrant writing about film that goes anywhere beyond "Can we take the kids?" The squeeze on these weeklies has been long and painful over the years, and who knows, they may well all die out at some point. But until blogs and online zines are truly ready to take up the slack (and we're getting there, but let's face it, there's still quite a bit of growing up to do), it's still the alternative press that we turn to read seasoned voices on the many, many films the mainstream press ignores.

Posted by dwhudson at August 25, 2005 5:52 AM