So, here we are ten years later and what's happened? We'll never be the biggest site going - our focus on the niche and unusual guarantees that - but we've got a thriving community of readers. I still see names popping up in the comments thread that I saw in that first year, and I'm proud of that. A healthy number of commenters from the early days have become hugely valued writers and editors on the site themselves, and I'm proud of that, too. We've helped to launch a decent number of films and filmmakers, becoming a bellwether for future trends and emerging talents.
On a personal level, ScreenAnarchy has absolutely changed my life. It opened up the doors to the festival world, a world that I've absolutely loved being a part of as a programmer, which in turn ended up teaching the ins and outs of how this whole independent film world actually works while putting me in contact with the guys who are now my business partners at XYZ Films and international talents like Gareth Evans, the end result being my involvement with movies like The Raid.
Ten years ago when ScreenAnarchy started I was just freshly into my thirties, a newly single father to a young son, a former chemistry student with a religious studies degree and most of another in philosophy, living with friends from college and just sort of banging away about things that I found interesting with no grand designs whatsoever. Now it has come to more or less define my professional life while also building a rich community of collaborators and putting me in touch with a great many people who I now consider my closest friends. I am immensely thankful to all of those who have contributed to the site in any way through the years - whether writer, reader, commenter or cranky guy who sends hate mail from time to time - and can't imagine doing anything else because this is still simply far too much fun. Thank you all for joining me on the ride thus far. Life has changed a ton since we started, as has the business of making and sharing movies. I have no idea what life will look like ten years from now but I intend to still be here in some shape and I hope you are, too.
Andrew Mack
How do you begin to summarize writing for ScreenAnarchy for ten years? How do you encapsulate it in three hundred words or less? Well, you stop asking questions, using up your word count, and get down to writing some answers. Dink.
After college, Todd and I would spend evenings watching Lee, Chan and Li punch people in the face. I’d like to think that part of the foundation for what ScreenAnarchy is started back on those evenings. When Todd asked me, “Do you want to cover TIFF for this site I’m starting up?”, I sat there and calmly answered, “Yes” while doing the Happy Dance inside.
Thanks to my time with ScreenAnarchy I have dabbled in podcasting. I’m programming the Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival these past three years. I had a nerdgasm on the bridge of the Galactica (sadly, the only good picture of me from that trip is from SG Atlantis). I interviewed, for an extra ten minutes, martial arts icon Master Yuen Woo-ping. I talked with Miike Takashi over Skype. I have yet to meet any childhood heroes (ie. Spielberg) but if I did I’d probably break out in tears.
These days I am looking at someone’s screenplay with the intended purpose of filling a sketchbook with conceptual drawings. I have my own ideas for screenplays (who doesn’t?) so maybe one day something will come of them. And Ard is still jealous of a picture of me with Iguchi/Nishimura regular Cay Izumi from five years ago. He hasn’t expressed any dismay about this year’s picture with Gun Woman’s Asami yet. Give him time.
Do you know what really counts in the end? It’s how happy (most) filmmakers, producers, industry insiders, are to meet you when you mention you write for ScreenAnarchy. I hazard a guess as to what the name ScreenAnarchy is synonymous with. Integrity? Passion? Honesty? We’re doing something right because people can be so grateful that we have talked about them and shared their films from the little corners to the rest of the World. I am surprised we’re still paying for our beers though (nudge nudge wink wink).
So I’ve been riding that wave of credibility and somehow still managed to not screw it up for anyone else these past ten years. That’s got to count for something, right? At least allowing me to exceed the word count?
Seniority, bitches.
Kurt Halfyard
I believe I was the first writer that Todd Brown took into the fold outside of his immediate circle of friends. It might have been the advanced reviews Howl's Moving Castle or Blueberry or perhaps it was the constant peppering of his inbox with news items on foreign cinema. Either way, it lead to the exasperation of "here is an account, please post them yourself," that has been the basis of our professional relationship ever since!
Even then, in early 2005 -- only 4 months online -- ScreenAnarchy (then .net) was well on its way to capturing and cementing its niche on the internet. The slogan was "From the Arthouse to the Grindhouse," and I believe we delivered (and keep on delivering) on that concise but quite encompassing promise.
Covering film festivals for ScreenAnarchy has been a privilege and a blessing. It has lead to sharing a carafe of wine with Udo Kier (and I would like to believe he was flirting with me!) as well as doing a karaoke rendition of Linda, Linda, Linda with a young Sion Sono at 4am in a basement. Tsukamoto Shinya asked to take his picture with me, befuddling the usual fanboy way of doing things.
Furthermore: talking about dreams and schemes with Guy Maddin; or classic 3D cinema with Joe Dante; or Dartmouth, Nova Scotia with Rutger Hauer; most recently, a lengthy twilight talk about the screenplays of Tracy Letts with Tobe Hooper. The strange world of interviewing your personal heroes or simply raising a glass of scotch with them on a hot evening patio remains utterly surreal.
Equally so, watching the rise of younger filmmakers Ben Wheatley, Jim Mickle, Rian Johnson, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson after casual festival chit-chat and hang-out beers at smaller festivals, has been a privilege and a delight.
Then there are all the festival programmers, volunteers, distribution folks, writers, and various other career folks in the world of film (yes, even the publicists!) that have been so generous, kind, and friendly. Thanks to ScreenAnarchy, I can travel to almost any major city on the planet, and know someone to make the visit all that more pleasant. That's a pretty swell place to be for a shut-in research chemist.
Ultimately, though, it comes to the films, and for a decade ScreenAnarchy has been damn good at exposing and lending a helping hand to strange little films from around the world. I am simply surprised and amazed to be around for that in any small way.
Jim Tudor
If ScreenAnarchy is ten, then that means I've been some small part of it for over nine of those years. How time flies. I'd been cutting my teeth as a film critic on Dave Canfield's old site ImagineDat when he opted to make the jump to this new thing called ScreenAnarchy that his buddy Todd was starting, and suggested I do the same. Uh, okay...
Next thing I know... Press lists! The critics guild! Whoa, nelly!
But, full disclosure... Although I'm a filmmaking professional who loves teaching and critiquing cinema, I did not exactly have my finger on the pulse of “extreme and weird” cinema. (Although I wasn't necessarily averse to it.) Todd took me in as The Domestic American Reviewer Guy, "so that the site doesn't fall completely into the obscure." Over time, I like to think I have grown and diversified in that regard. Being a part of ScreenAnarchy has been a big motivator.
Sure, in my contribution of hundreds of reviews and other writing - all meticulously crafted in my painstaking attempts to channel the opinionated eloquence of Ebert or David Thomson - I found things to be frustrated about. Not so much with ScreenAnarchy per se, but the state of unpaid internet film criticism itself – a snake eating its own tail. But then, I need only remember the one time a fellow local critic stopped, reminding me, "You write for ScreenAnarchy. That's cool."
Thanks to the burdens of geography, finances and real life, I'm landlocked away from the action that other cooler ScreenAnarchy stalwarts partake in regularly. No big film festivals for me. (Wha-whah!) But that's okay. The bottom line is that I'm honored to be here and to be read. As a wise Lego once said, “Everything is cool when you're part of a team."
Peter Martin
In the fall of 2005, I met Todd Brown at a cafe in Santa Monica, California. When he saw me, he laughed.
Some five years before that fateful meeting, when I was living in Fort Worth, Texas, I had started my own site, A Better Tomorrow, dedicated to my personal discovery of Hong Kong films. Two years after that, I returned to my home town of Los Angeles to care for family matters. Two years later, my father died, my brief volunteer service/employment at AFI Fest came to an end, and I was left adrift. My site foundered. I needed to focus my writing energies.
And there was ScreenAnarchy, which appeared willing to publish volunteer contributions. So I submitted something. And then a review of a Thai movie on DVD, which prompted commentary on whether I was qualified to do so. (A discussion that continues to this day.) And then I asked Todd for help in order to secure a press pass for AFI Fest. And then he laughed when he met me, because I was quite a bit older than he had anticipated.
What drew me to ScreenAnarchy was its intense focus on Asian films, and genre movies in general. I love all kinds of movies, but good action films, thrillers, and horror movies are my passion -- perhaps because my life has never been about action or thrills, and I've experienced enough personal horrors to relate to such movies.
ScreenAnarchy has given me the opportunity to write about every type of movie. Since 2011, it's been my privilege to serve in an editorial capacity for the site as well, which really should humble me. I'm still a short, tubby, middle-aged man of Irish/Mexican descent, but I get to write for ScreenAnarchy, which makes all that movie-watching somehow more … explainable.
Ard Vijn
For me, writing for ScreenAnarchy started as a hobby, eight years ago, but it quickly grew into something more. It opened doors I never expected to open. Thanks to ScreenAnarchy I have been able to call myself a paid writer, and an accredited journalist.
But the biggest kick of all, and without a doubt the most nerve-wrecking activity I have participated in on behalf of ScreenAnarchy, has been the interviewing of people I hugely admire, and even some people I'm a big, BIG fan of (which is NOT the same!).
Every year at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, you can casually bump into celebrities in the press area, sometimes literally. The festival doesn't encourage roundtables or press conferences, instead they try to facilitate as many 1-on-1 conversations as possible, something I love.
Whenever possible I try to gang up on talent, with interviewing buddy Peter van der Lugt, and this has led to some of the greatest experiences I've had in the past decade. Like when Jo Odagiri asked if we could meet him in a restaurant, and the interview turned into a 3-on-2 lunch-conversation as Jo was joined by two colleagues.
So what is my single best interview-related memory? Runners up are plenty. Like Richard Raaphorst telling me I had unknowingly played a role in getting Frankenstein's Army rolling. Or interviewing Miike Takashi and Shinya Tsukamoto in the same week, and using their remarks against each other.
But my number one is the huge interview Peter and I did with director Tsai Ming-liang.
Check it out if you have... like... hours!
Ben Umstead
There is no surefire way to sum up the five fabulous years I’ve spent writing for ScreenAnarchy (with the last three on the editorial staff). So, with that in mind, what follows is, more or less, a love letter.
My time here has brought about a plethora of experiences and opportunities for me as a cinephile, writer, and yes, filmmaker, that I never could have foreseen coming, yet were things I had always desired.
From the early days of covering the New York Asian Film Festival and Tribeca, to forming and spearheading our NYC team, from my extensive Slamdance coverage, to my unorthodox Indie Beat column, and that one time I shot guns with Nicolas Winding Refn in Austin, it’s all... well... been quite the long, strange and lovely trip.
What truly makes these experiences so lovely are, of course, the people. Punching the clock at ScreenAnarchy has largely been about cultivating, creating or being invited into all these neat little film communities. This love letter is addressed to all those people who participate in and form such wonders: My esteemed editorial colleagues, our ever growing and dynamite group of contributors; to readers, festival staff, filmmakers and PR folk. I’ve not just made life long friends through my ScreenAnarchy writing, in large measure I’ve found my tribe. I never expected to get a degree in journalism either, but here I am with what probably equates to one.
As such, even on the days and weeks when I am offline, ScreenAnarchy remains a touchstone in my life. And it is hard to see that going away any time soon.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg
Writing for ScreenAnarchy for the past five years has been nothing short of amazing. It has helped hone my writing skills, and allowed me to see many great (and yes, some not so great) films that I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to. Through review and news postings, I’ve been able to tell cinephiles about some of the great films they might otherwise have missed. I’ve attended many festivals as a representative of the site, and I’ve made friends around the world.
Probably the best thing about it is how my work can have a direct positive effect for filmmakers. A couple of years ago, I gave a deserved rave review to the first feature film by an Australian director that played at a small festival in London. A few months later, one of my fellow ScreenAnarchy writers emailed me to say that, thanks to my review, a production company sought out the film, saw the potential that I saw, and would now be working with the director on future projects. I’ll put that in the win column.
One other thing that remains positive for me at ScreenAnarchy: it can be difficult as a woman, writing about the films that I do, which are mostly in the fantastic genre. There is a lot of discrimination against women in this area, and as a lot of people know, women are frequently targeted by anonymous trolls through sexual harassing comments, and sometimes much worse. While I have had my fair share of critical comments over the years, not once has any of that commentary been in regards to my gender. So thank you, ScreenAnarchy readers, for recognizing me as a critic first and last. Keep it up.
Kwenton Bellette
I’ve been writing for ScreenAnarchy for five years now, which, when looking back is quite a long time considering how young I am (cough). This article celebrates ScreenAnarchy and film culture, but how to sum up my vast thoughts on this? Although I have been thoroughly involved in the Australian media and cinema scene, I have always admired Asia and considered it the primary source for cutting edge content.
Starting there, it did not take a great deal of thought then to recall my most memorable ScreenAnarchy experience. My first international film festival in Busan South Korea opened my eyes to the actualities of industry and the truly global festival. I felt utterly naïve in comparison to the segregation I faced in Australia, but the festival has left such an impression that I am eager to return. From bumping shoulders with every facet of the film world and meeting legends to experiencing a diverse and eager audience react to some extreme festival films; I got a glimpse of what inspires me as an open-minded Flâneur, traversing the fictions and the spaces of film culture at large.
This is exciting for various reasons, not least of which the notion that ScreenAnarchy fosters a global view of cinema, encouraging out of comfort-zone experiences and embracing not only different cultures, but different celebrations of film. Simply put, the superb coverage of most parts of the globe enable an unfettered appreciation and desire to experience the rest of the world, communicate with like-minded people, surrender to the decadence of the festival culture and be always hungry for the fantastic feasts, genre or otherwise, on offer.
J Hurtado
I began reading ScreenAnarchy about a year after the site launched in 2004. It quickly became apparent to me that this was a forum that spoke to me; these are my people. Fans of the ultra-obscure odd and frayed ends of the cinematic universe. The Internet already had a few small and scattered corners dedicated to international cinema, but no one covered it with the authority, engagement, or joy that ScreenAnarchy did (and still does). When I was offered the opportunity to join the team four years ago today as a correspondent who would be covering the immense world of Indian cinema, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, however, it quickly became apparent that I was in for the ride of my life.
More than once I've heard ScreenAnarchy referred to as the Fight Club of the film industry. Everyone knows about it, but very few step up and talk about it for fear of giving up their greatest chance at breaking that next big thing. From the time I covered my first festival as a press correspondent for ScreenAnarchy back in 2008 to programming for Fantastic Fest since last year, and now preparing to launch a brand new film festival in 2015, my affiliation with this site has brought me more opportunities than I could ever have dreamed of. I want to sincerely thank Todd Brown and the rest of the editorial staff for putting up with my ethereal nature and scattershot review schedule in allowing me to continue to be a part of this beautiful machine. You've helped me through some of the roughest parts of my life, and I want to make damned sure that this is only the first decade in a long, long association!
James Marsh
I was first introduced to ScreenAnarchy back in 2005, during a brief stint working at Asian online shopping behemoth Yes Asia. Our content sharing partnership put me in regular email contact with one Todd Brown, and a few years later I was sending him film reviews. Specifically Ong Bak 2 and Shinjuku Incident, if memory serves, and soon enough, over a plate of mapo tofu, I was propositioned by Mr. Brown, back when he sported an unwieldy handlebar moustache, to become Twitch's "Man in Hong Kong".
The rest, as they say, is history, and what an incredible ride it has been. Through ScreenAnarchy I have been able to attend film festivals on at least three different continents, in such exotic locales as Japan, South Korea, Qatar, London and Texas. Beyond that I've had the opportunity to interview filmmakers like Gaspar Noe, Olivier Assayas, Yuen Woo Ping, Jacques Audiard, Bong Joon-ho, Oliver Stone, Obayashi Nobuhiko, Nicolas Winding Refn, Roger Corman, John Woo, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Iguchi Noboru, and watch thousands of wild and wonderful films along the way.
Even more impressive than the doors ScreenAnarchy continues to open for me - let's face it, I certainly wouldn't be associated with either Fantastic Fest or XYZ Films were it not for the skills I have honed and nurtured under Todd's expert mentorship - is the reaction ScreenAnarchy gets from people wherever I go. ScreenAnarchy as a brand and as a resource is universally respected, admired and enjoyed - seemingly the world over. I am humbled time and again by the team that has been assembled and what we manage to achieve, despite being scattered to the far ends of the Earth. They are a fantastically knowledgeable, talented, hardworking and thoroughly decent family, of which I am incredibly proud to count myself a member. Congratulations Todd for all you have accomplished. Happy birthday, ScreenAnarchy - here's to another 10 glorious years.
Dustin Chang
Twitch rocks, what more can I say?
I started writing for ScreenAnarchy in 2009. It was Ben Umstead, our esteemed East Coast editor and one of the biggest film enthusiasts I know, who pulled me in for covering NYAFF. I had a little to no notion about the site beforehand and wasn't a huge fan of the genre films ScreenAnarchy seemed to promote. WRONG! It didn't hit me until I got to interview Claire Denis (twice!), Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Michael Haneke, Abbas Kiarostami, Leos Carax - some of my biggest idols of cinema, under the ScreenAnarchy banner that I was in the right place.
What's great about the site, compared to others, is the complete freedom given to contributing writers to cover anything they want. The scope of ScreenAnarchy is so grand, however freakish, obscure and personal your taste in cinema is, you will find what you are looking for, provided by passionate cinephiles, such as myself.
The dedication I've seen by Todd and the company, day after day, over the years is truly astounding. I still don't have the faintest idea how they manage to pump out quality article after article on a daily basis. Such stamina! Do they not sleep? Are they in some sort of performance enhancing substance only found in Mount Assiniboine? Anyway, Todd & Co. It's been an honor to be a part of ScreenAnarchy. Happy 10th, and many more to come!
Swarez
I'm not sure what it was that was my first contribution to ScreenAnarchy. Some tidbit about an Icelandic film I'm sure, a trailer maybe but when Todd asked me to be a contributor I jumped at the chance. Being a contributing writer introduced me to what I believe is the best film festival in the world, Fantastic Fest, experiencing a film festival from a writer's point of view was a great experience as well as getting to know the people involved, some of who are my friends to this day.
Most importantly ScreenAnarchy Kicked off my mini career of movie poster design, if it hadn't been for Todd and the awful, awful film he was executive producing I never would have ended up designing the poster for ,The Raid, a poster that traveled the world and boosted my reputation as a designer as well as my ego. So screw you guys!
But seriously even though my contribution has reduced dramatically recently, who knew having a baby would take up so much time, I'm proud to be a part of ScreenAnarchy and everyone who writes for it.
Here's to ten more years!
Christopher O'Keeffe
“You write for ScreenAnarchy, I love ScreenAnarchy!” is a common response from filmmakers when introducing myself and it’s great to hear that so many of the people I’m a fan of, in turn, respect the work we collectively do on the site. Meeting filmmakers is high up on the list of things that’s great about writing for ScreenAnarchy, and this year saw my finest moment with the site when I got to meet and interview a personal hero, Housu director Obayashi Nobuhiko (above).
It was my first time at Yubari International Festival, and Yubari, a ghost town housing what remains of a once thriving coal mining community, was proving to be one of the best, and strangest, festivals I’d ever been to. Nestled amidst the snow-covered mountains of the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the area had been descended on by the filmmaking residents of Tokyo. As the town’s only pub quickly filled up every evening as the screenings (a mix of weird sci-fi, odd sex flicks, and nasty horror with some absolute gems to be found in the mix) came to a close, drinking parties and karaoke sessions continued well into the next morning.
After several days of this film-booze-karaoke cycle, the meeting with Obayashi I’d been pushing for was arranged. I’d been a fan of the directors ever since I saw his 1977 wildly surreal comic fantasy horror Hausu. It’s everything I love about film, wildly inventive, stunningly creative and also a tremendous amount of fun. Sitting down with the director exceeded my expectations, he was tremendously cool in style and demeanor in a way that seems so natural to older Japanese artist types (think Miyazaki) and talked engagingly for far longer than expected, discoursing on his theories on film, art and the future of the medium. The man was a true inspiration and the encounter made a wonderful end to an incredible festival experience.
A huge thank you to ScreenAnarchy (and in particular my friend and partner in film festival crime James Marsh) for bringing me onboard and making encounters like this happen.
Eric Ortiz Garcia
I have been part of ScreenAnarchy for little more than a year only, but I have had enough experiences already thanks to the site to be eternally grateful with Todd for giving me the opportunity back in June 2013.
As a film aficionado, I began to watch more films from my own country than ever. Discovering Mexican movies, new and old, while also staying close to the film scene of the country as a journalist, has been a great task.
I joined ScreenAnarchy after four years of journalism school, so I have developed my skills as a journalist thanks to the interviews, the reviews, and the notes that I have written for the site.
I must say that ScreenAnarchy helped me a lot to finish my college thesis, which is an article on the independent movie studio Troma. Most of the doors I needed to knock were already opened as pretty much all the people related to genre cinema in Mexico read ScreenAnarchy and respect its importance. Hell, Lloyd Kaufman also knows ScreenAnarchy!
As you can tell, even if I’m a journalist, everything with me has to do with film. So while covering the beat for ScreenAnarchy I just can’t be more happy and excited to see films and to get to talk with the people who make them. Some of them have been my heroes since I was a teenager and during this year, while covering film festivals or events, I got to shake hands with Quentin Tarantino and Gulliermo del Toro. Those are priceless moments I will always cherish.
So, thanks Todd, you’re the best boss. Peter Martin and Ryland Aldrich are equally awesome, and Ben Umstead, who I personally met in Mexico City, is a great guy too. Here’s to Twitch’s next decade!
Photo above: I’m at Morelia 2013, working on a review or an interview, while John Sayles sits next to me. One of the surreal and awesome moments I have enjoyed thanks to ScreenAnarchy!
Ernesto Zelaya Miñano
I’m known amongst my friends for having a lot of nervous tics and making weird faces. They thought it was really ironic that I was writing for a website called ScreenAnarchy.
Hard to believe I started writing here already more than a year ago. Saying time flies when you’re having fun is a cliché, but it’s the truth in this case. I’m obsessive when it comes to movies (being the guy who can recite all of Pulp Fiction almost word for word tends to get you odd looks), and it’s great to be able to share this with like-minded people. All that’s left is to meet everyone in person, but that’s nothing a lot of money saving and plane tickets can’t eventually fix.
Writing for this website is a lot of fun; it’s made me realize that there are movies all over the world, sometimes from unexpected places, and how little of them I have seen. Usually we don’t get much over here other than Hollywood output, so it’s great to see that there’s more out there waiting to be discovered.
Twitch has also made me pay more attention to the Peruvian film industry, which at this point is still in diapers. With so many movies being made, it’s great to be immersed in this little environment as it grows; and I have to admit, being able to give them some exposure overseas is a source of pride.
I used to be the oddball that got blacklisted from my friends’ movie trivia games, and now I’m giving lectures on horror films to college kids. Of course, there’s still lots to see; I still consider myself a newbie at this.
I guess all I have to say is, thanks for letting me be a part of this!!
Stuart Muller
CAT SOUP Courtship
Looking at the dates, it must have been very close to the birth of ScreenAnarchy when I first stumbled onto the site, and encountered Cat Soup (Nekojiru-so). The DVD of Tatsuo Satō's experimental animated film, inspired by the work of manga artist Nekojiru, came out in the US in 2003. Though I tried sleuthing through the ScreenAnarchy archives, I wasn't able to exhume whatever long-buried post it was, but I do remember it fondly because the ramifications have been profound.
What curiosity ScreenAnarchy piqued, a nascent Netflix satisfied, and with Cat Soup in hand I accompanied a foxy lady I had my eye on for her Saturday of hydrological experiments. This odd date took place in a huge warehouse building, in which large and noisy physical experiments were conducted on water. In this case, it was a 15-m perspex channel of pumped recycling water (a "flume" for those who care), which she occasionally sampled for solute concentrations and flow velocity.
In between these intermittent measurements, she and I - hunkered over a laptop and sharing earphones over the din - discovered Cat Soup. I've since learnt she doesn't remember much about the film, and apparently nor do I after just watching the trailer, but I do remember the pride I felt at showing her something she clearly found impressively obscure, delightfully weird, and wholly enjoyable. It was a step in the right direction after I'd unwittingly shown her Irreversible on our first movie date. Let that one sink in for a moment (last time I ever picked a Palm d'Or without doing some research!).
Though neither of us remember much of the film, she does remember the day, and I recall it clearly as a redemptive moment for my taste and cinephilic credibility in her eyes. I'm pretty sure the double-whammy of this deviantly charming film and my deviantly charming company is what toppled her heedlessly into love with me. Because now she's my wife. So, you know, thanks ScreenAnarchy.
Pierce Conran
I’ve only been with ScreenAnarchy for two of its last spectacular ten years, but what an incredible time it’s been. As a longtime reader, I was thrilled to be asked to cover the goings on in Korean cinema for the site in 2012, but more than the great exposure the site has afforded my (still developing) writing and the guidance offered by its great team of editors, what I’m most grateful for are the new friends I’ve discovered in the ScreenAnarchy writing team. Every spring in Hong Kong (for FilMart) and every summer in Korea (for PiFan) I meet my mortal nemesis, ScreenAnarchy Asian editor James Marsh, for movies, food, karaoke (see photo), shenanigans and, once in a blue moon, even a bit of work. I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting Todd, Peter M, Kwenton, Chris B., Chris O’K. and Trung - fun times and many a heated movie chat have been had.
Anything goes at ScreenAnarchy, where arthouse films, commercial works and b-movie fodder are all given equal footing, and as a result the site has become a trusted resource among film lovers and professionals around the globe. It’s an honor to be part of something that has come to be so influential, and, I won’t lie, it’s a huge thrill to be quoted on the one-sheets of the films you love. I’ll never forget strolling into a Gangnam cinema to see my name printed under Martin Scorsese’s on a wall-sized poster of Korean indie gem Han Gong-ju. It’s also wonderful to visit a festival and be met with so many positive comments when the name ScreenAnarchy comes up.
So thank you Todd, Peter, James, Ryland, Brian, Ben and everyone else on Team ScreenAnarchy for a wonderful ride and here’s to another 10 (nay 100!) years. In a few weeks an inordinately large number of us will be attending Fantastic Fest (also on the cusp of its 10th anniversary) and I can’t wait for all of us to celebrate this momentous milestone together.
Christopher Bourne
Writing regularly for ScreenAnarchy has gotten me into places and made things possible that weren't before, and I'm eternally grateful for that. I've had great encounters with numerous filmmakers from around the world who know ScreenAnarchy and appreciate the coverage of their work. This is a testament to Twitch's great reputation, which I hope I've contributed to in some small way.
My proudest moment as a critic was seeing my review of Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone In Love" (which I reviewed at the 2012 NYFF) quoted at length, with my name, on a large standing poster in the lobby of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, where I've logged countless hours attending films over many years. To see myself quoted alongside critics from the New York Times, New Yorker, Hollywood Reporter, and Indiewire, about a film by one of my favorite directors, was an indescribably great feeling.
This wouldn't have been possible without you all. So, thanks again. Here's to ten great years, and hopefully many, many more.
Jason Gorber
My first online review was back in 1996, and I’ve been covering films and festivals regularly since then. Yet it wasn’t until a chance meeting with Todd in a TIFF screening a few years back that I ever thought about writing for this site, and had no idea what a change that would make in my life.
We’d had casual conversations about doing this or that, but little came of it. It was at The Raid Midnight Madness screening that I really gave ScreenAnarchy a serious look. My first article for this site was a review I’d written already for my own site, for a film that ended up being my favourite of that year. Todd has missed the Tinker Tailor screening, and while writing the review I figured what the hell, send it over, let’s see what happens when people actually read my stuff.
Since then, I’ve written hundreds of posts, got to travel to lands far and wide (Tallinn, Estonia! North Bay, Ontario!), got back into OFCS and recertified as a Rotten Tomatoes critic, been accredited on every local PR and studio list, and have with the help of the editors and my fellow writers become a full-time film critic and journalist.
Doing TIFF, Cannes, Sundance and other festivals as part of the ScreenAnarchy family has been life changing. TIFF has been my home fest all these years, and so I can see how I’m treated differently, gaining access to far more opportunities and making friends from all over the planet.
I’m still me, but suddenly, thanks to ScreenAnarchy, things are better, my reach is farther, and I’ve gone from a few dozen followers and readers to many, many thousands, with my reviews now quoted in trailers or on top of movie posters.
As a freelancer, I have a choice of whom to cite when my accreditation is listed. I’m often extraordinarily proud to say I’m part of team ScreenAnarchy, whether it’s on my weekly "Twitchvision" TV appearance or on a festival press badge.
Thank you Todd for building this wonderful playground, to the veterans of the site that welcomed me with enthusiasm and encouragement, to the tireless editors (especially Peter) that help me sound coherent, and to you, the readers who make this all worthwhile.