Bill Arceneaux is creating a new website for New Orleans area film screenings and filmmakers from around the world
By Sujewa Ekanayake
I discovered Bill Arceneaux's work after reading two reviews (at Letterboxd, at Neaux Reel Idea) he wrote about my new movie Werewolf Ninja Philosopher.
Werewolf is a movie for art/indie - real indie/foreign movie fans - and takes a good understanding of noir movies, art house cinema, NYC underground movies for someone to fully enjoy it - and by reading his writing it was obvious that Arceneaux knew the references in Werewolf. Plus Arceneaux is a relatively accessible film reviewer (@billreviews on Twitter) and he seeks out new films and filmmakers that interest him - qualities that are useful for real indie/DIY filmmakers who often do their own distribution and publicity work. Arceneaux is deep into art films, mainstream films, Jim Jarmusch movies (with a book on Down By Law on the way) and he is an enthusiastic supporter of the New Orleans film scene. He is working on starting a website that will cover film screenings happening in New Orleans area, also indie films from all over the world. The project sounded very interesting and possibly very useful for both New Orleans area people and indie filmmakers elsewhere. Perhaps it will do for New Orleans area what Rogerebert.com has done for the Chicago area and the rest of the world - be a great resource for film fans and filmmakers. So I interviewed Arceneaux about his project and related matters.
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Sujewa Ekanayake (SE) - For those of us not in New Orleans, what is the art house/indie film/foreign film scene like over there? Who are the theaters that show such work? Are there a lot of indie filmmakers in New Orleans?
Bill Arceneaux (BA) - The state of the diverse moviegoing scene is, at the moment, in flux. We lost a previously independent cinema turned luxury theater, and now only have two regular venues in the city limits - The Prytania and The Broad - both of which show classics, indies, and obscurities often. Just outside the line, there's Zeitgeist - which always has incredibly wild programming - and Chalmette Movies, which likes to challenge its family-oriented audiences with thought-provoking films. There's a mobile screening unit called Shotgun Cinema that runs every few months, and then a few underground organizations and multiplexes. I don' want to say it's scarce, but more theaters are welcome, more curation is necessary, and more coordination of showtimes is needed.
We have a slew of great indie filmmakers, from Randy Mack to Kenna Moore to Garrett Bradley to Jonathan Jackson to recent Tribeca winner Phillip Youmans - to name just a few. Programs offered at the University of New Orleans and the New Orleans Video Access Center don't just encourage work on Hollywood productions but teach craft for using to tell our own stories. We're more than just food and music...
SE - What is your new reviews website project all about? Do we need a reviews site focused on one city?
BA - So The New Orleans Movie Review Project - with an official outlet name TBD - currently seeking support on GoFundMe, has been established in response to the ever-shifting nature of news media in town. Recently, The Advocate purchased The Times-Picayune, merging into a monopoly of sorts and laying off staff that worked hard on music, arts, and movies journalism (among award-winning news pieces and investigations). Mike Scott, former TP film critic, was the writer who inspired me to start my career back in 2011. Without him and others leading the charge, it's now just a handful of bloggers and magazine writers. And access to press/advance screenings can be hard to come by too down here.
With this new site, I want to provide a space for colleagues and up & comers to express themselves on cinema and the overall local film culture, to foster different curatorial programming choices in area venues, and to strengthen regional appreciation of and for movies. Indeed, I feel that a city-specific movie publication wouldn't just benefit New Orleanians who love to go to attend screenings and discuss film afterward, but would help provide support for filmmakers across the globe who are looking for a crowd. They exist, and they're in NOLA.
SE - Can filmmakers from all over the world submit their films to your new website? Could that lead to possible screenings in New Orleans?
BA - Absolutely! I want to give moviegoers in the city and those who are New Orleans at heart across the world a chance to read about movies they otherwise wouldn't learn about. It'd be great to also provide a function that gives readers and potential audiences a voice with local theaters, to maybe suggest some of these films for screenings in the city.
SE - What is the film festival scene like in New Orleans? Are interesting things happening in that space?
BA - We have some diverse fests that run throughout the year - though the fall is the sweet spot. We have two horror film fests (Overlook and NOLA Horror), a French Film Festival, Prytania's monthly classic series inspired by deceased owner/operator Rene Brunet Jr, an LGBT Film Fest, and the big one from our film society - The New Orleans Film Festival. There are others, but these are the ones that come to immediate mind. The programming at these events are always eclectic and interesting, bringing down shorts, documentaries, foreign flicks, local and beyond indie movies, and even some surprises like virtual reality projects and streaming previews. We have multitudes, I feel - so to speak.
SE - Who else is writing about films in New Orleans?
BA - There are now but a few of us: Myself with Big Easy Magazine and blogging/freelance, Courtney Young of OnTheScreenReviews.com, Brandon Ledet of Swampflix.com, Fritz Esker and Dave Vicari of Where Y'at Magazine, Chris Henson of the @NOLA_FilmEvents twitter handle, and that's about it. We used to have Ken Korman from The Gambit, but he was laid off when The Advocate bought them out. We had John Wirt of The Advocate, but he too was laid off and now freelances here and there. We had Mike Scott, but he was laid off just recently from The Times-Picayune when they were bought by The Advocate. Mike Miley is a local film teacher but also writes books on media and movies too. It's lonely here for critics, and I really want to help add more from Louisiana to the Southeastern Film Critics Association roster (of which I am a member). It's possible I'm forgetting someone, for which I do apologize if so, but the above are the bare few.
With a new site, not only would we have a central place for sharing/cross-promoting our works, we'd have exclusive content and be an outlet for assisting in growing the film writing community in the city.
SE - What is your planned Down By Law book all about? I understand that it is one of the perks from the reviews website fundraising campaign.
BA - Yes, at the $50 level I'm offering a PDF of a collection of essays on Down by Law from Jim Jarmusch. At $100, you can get a print version too, plus a PDF of another essay tome on WUSA - both movies which were shot and set in the area. I'm still coming up with the themes for the collections, but the title of the Down by Law book will be "Sad & Beautiful World".
SE - What's the role of - as fas as you can see - the critic or a reviewer in creating a film scene or a community in a city like New Orleans? What positive effects do you anticipate from your new website?
BA - In a way, the critic can act as a gatekeeper to not just understanding and learning about a given film and how it made or didn't make someone feel, but also to causing action in the moviegoer. To get them to purchase a ticket, to get them to write a comment or seek out other works from a filmmaker, to inspire filmmaking efforts, and to influence and spark within them something about their connection to the rest of the world. We have so much going on in New Orleans from a film standpoint, it would be a shame to gloss over the movies being made and movies being shown. I want to cover as much as possible!
Go here to support Arceneaux's new New Orleans film criticism website project.
I discovered Bill Arceneaux's work after reading two reviews (at Letterboxd, at Neaux Reel Idea) he wrote about my new movie Werewolf Ninja Philosopher.
Bill Arceneaux
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Sujewa Ekanayake (SE) - For those of us not in New Orleans, what is the art house/indie film/foreign film scene like over there? Who are the theaters that show such work? Are there a lot of indie filmmakers in New Orleans?
Bill Arceneaux (BA) - The state of the diverse moviegoing scene is, at the moment, in flux. We lost a previously independent cinema turned luxury theater, and now only have two regular venues in the city limits - The Prytania and The Broad - both of which show classics, indies, and obscurities often. Just outside the line, there's Zeitgeist - which always has incredibly wild programming - and Chalmette Movies, which likes to challenge its family-oriented audiences with thought-provoking films. There's a mobile screening unit called Shotgun Cinema that runs every few months, and then a few underground organizations and multiplexes. I don' want to say it's scarce, but more theaters are welcome, more curation is necessary, and more coordination of showtimes is needed.
We have a slew of great indie filmmakers, from Randy Mack to Kenna Moore to Garrett Bradley to Jonathan Jackson to recent Tribeca winner Phillip Youmans - to name just a few. Programs offered at the University of New Orleans and the New Orleans Video Access Center don't just encourage work on Hollywood productions but teach craft for using to tell our own stories. We're more than just food and music...
SE - What is your new reviews website project all about? Do we need a reviews site focused on one city?
BA - So The New Orleans Movie Review Project - with an official outlet name TBD - currently seeking support on GoFundMe, has been established in response to the ever-shifting nature of news media in town. Recently, The Advocate purchased The Times-Picayune, merging into a monopoly of sorts and laying off staff that worked hard on music, arts, and movies journalism (among award-winning news pieces and investigations). Mike Scott, former TP film critic, was the writer who inspired me to start my career back in 2011. Without him and others leading the charge, it's now just a handful of bloggers and magazine writers. And access to press/advance screenings can be hard to come by too down here.
With this new site, I want to provide a space for colleagues and up & comers to express themselves on cinema and the overall local film culture, to foster different curatorial programming choices in area venues, and to strengthen regional appreciation of and for movies. Indeed, I feel that a city-specific movie publication wouldn't just benefit New Orleanians who love to go to attend screenings and discuss film afterward, but would help provide support for filmmakers across the globe who are looking for a crowd. They exist, and they're in NOLA.
SE - Can filmmakers from all over the world submit their films to your new website? Could that lead to possible screenings in New Orleans?
BA - Absolutely! I want to give moviegoers in the city and those who are New Orleans at heart across the world a chance to read about movies they otherwise wouldn't learn about. It'd be great to also provide a function that gives readers and potential audiences a voice with local theaters, to maybe suggest some of these films for screenings in the city.
SE - What is the film festival scene like in New Orleans? Are interesting things happening in that space?
BA - We have some diverse fests that run throughout the year - though the fall is the sweet spot. We have two horror film fests (Overlook and NOLA Horror), a French Film Festival, Prytania's monthly classic series inspired by deceased owner/operator Rene Brunet Jr, an LGBT Film Fest, and the big one from our film society - The New Orleans Film Festival. There are others, but these are the ones that come to immediate mind. The programming at these events are always eclectic and interesting, bringing down shorts, documentaries, foreign flicks, local and beyond indie movies, and even some surprises like virtual reality projects and streaming previews. We have multitudes, I feel - so to speak.
SE - Who else is writing about films in New Orleans?
BA - There are now but a few of us: Myself with Big Easy Magazine and blogging/freelance, Courtney Young of OnTheScreenReviews.com, Brandon Ledet of Swampflix.com, Fritz Esker and Dave Vicari of Where Y'at Magazine, Chris Henson of the @NOLA_FilmEvents twitter handle, and that's about it. We used to have Ken Korman from The Gambit, but he was laid off when The Advocate bought them out. We had John Wirt of The Advocate, but he too was laid off and now freelances here and there. We had Mike Scott, but he was laid off just recently from The Times-Picayune when they were bought by The Advocate. Mike Miley is a local film teacher but also writes books on media and movies too. It's lonely here for critics, and I really want to help add more from Louisiana to the Southeastern Film Critics Association roster (of which I am a member). It's possible I'm forgetting someone, for which I do apologize if so, but the above are the bare few.
With a new site, not only would we have a central place for sharing/cross-promoting our works, we'd have exclusive content and be an outlet for assisting in growing the film writing community in the city.
SE - What is your planned Down By Law book all about? I understand that it is one of the perks from the reviews website fundraising campaign.
BA - Yes, at the $50 level I'm offering a PDF of a collection of essays on Down by Law from Jim Jarmusch. At $100, you can get a print version too, plus a PDF of another essay tome on WUSA - both movies which were shot and set in the area. I'm still coming up with the themes for the collections, but the title of the Down by Law book will be "Sad & Beautiful World".
SE - What's the role of - as fas as you can see - the critic or a reviewer in creating a film scene or a community in a city like New Orleans? What positive effects do you anticipate from your new website?
BA - In a way, the critic can act as a gatekeeper to not just understanding and learning about a given film and how it made or didn't make someone feel, but also to causing action in the moviegoer. To get them to purchase a ticket, to get them to write a comment or seek out other works from a filmmaker, to inspire filmmaking efforts, and to influence and spark within them something about their connection to the rest of the world. We have so much going on in New Orleans from a film standpoint, it would be a shame to gloss over the movies being made and movies being shown. I want to cover as much as possible!
Go here to support Arceneaux's new New Orleans film criticism website project.
