Jonathan Furmanski has been digitizing the battered, often unlabeled, relics of the International Videoletters, a feminist video exchange network that ran from 1975 to 1977. https://loom.ly/LvDOoow

Heartened to see so many academics critiquing AI because, like, I value thinking and process in research and education. Who knew this was controversial?! 😱. I’ll end by sharing @rcolesworthy.bsky.social’s evergreen quip on ChatGPT.

What @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social said!👇

A big part of being a historian is being a detective! Who did this? Why? Where? Why does it matter in the grand scheme of things? You have to learn how to probe, how to uncover, how to read against the grain, how to find unusual sources, how to interpret those sources. How to piece together a puzzle

This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:

This year we've been told over and over that there are shortcuts to Doing The Work. But there aren't, not really. Here on the shortest day of the longest year I wrote a little defense of Doing The Work. dansinker.com/posts/2025-1...

a big part of the issue surrounding the use of chatgpt/LLMs in academic research comes down to process vs. product. a lot of us know that the process of doing research matters because that's where intellectual work is done; but some "academics" and lots of techies only care about a fast product

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Academia needs to fall back in love with manually writing out footnotes. And if you never fell out of love with that practice, that’s just super.

More press on the recent decimation of the Video Data Bank by #SAIC. Article by my former colleague and current Managing Editor of cinefile.info, Kat Sachs. chicagoreader.com/film-tv/movi...

My “Intro to Film” class in spring only has a 2-hour in-person screening block. Turns out every almost every feature I’ve shown for my EDITING module is 120 minutes or more. So film hive: what film (shown in full) would you use teach to teach editing? My usual go tos….

Officials in Tennessee aren't just banning books, they're now demanding information on who checked out contested (largely LGBTQ+) books, including names, addresses, and "household composition." A librarian who was given the directive has come forward asking for whistleblower protections.

I am pleased to announce the remote has been recovered and we watched our BluRay! Spouse had never seen it and agreed it was utterly charming. Long live physical media!

I really want to watch REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940) but I own an Indicator region 2 Blu Ray and we can’t find our remote control to change the region on our region-free Sony player. A first world physical media cinephile problem if there ever was one.

Shout out to everyone figuring out how to make quality movies in the worst of times.

Humble brag: my family still owns the VHS tape.

The Chuck Jones directed HOW THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS (1966) with Boris Karloff narration will always be the best Grinch. I don’t make the rules. 🎄

For the latest @iamhist.bsky.social Blog, Mark Williams (Dartmouth College) writes an overview of the Media Ecology Project, promoting the study of archival and historical moving image collections: iamhist.net/media-ecolog...

An utterly charming Christmas movie to add to your list—IT WAS JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS (1948) follows 5-year old Sally up the Pacific Northwest in search of Santa. Shot by her dad Herbert F. Sturdy of the Amateur Cinema League. Beautiful Kodachrome! Watch here: www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-fi...

"2025 felt like an assault on what it means to be human: everything from this administration’s disregard for the sanctity of life to the imposition of AI to the erasure of history." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-top-ten...

Back in 2022 I interviewed @alecmac.bsky.social about his book "Fulfillment," about Amazon's unjust practices - incl. the exorbitant prices charged to school districts: wfmu.org/playlists/sh... Three years later, it's only gotten worse.

From WSJ today — "Companies Are Desperately Seeking ‘Storytellers’” 🤔 (archive.org link bypass paywall) archive.is/202512161446...

Important correction from DePaul faculty member: there are (and will still be) other libraries on campus even if this one is cut. But my indignation still stands for TL;DR erosion to library staff, funding, being forced to do more with less, etc.

😮 A university without a library ceases to be a university. Full stop. I’m flabbergasted that a “determination” about a library’s future — besides FUND IT AND STAFF IT — needs to be made by an institute of higher learning.

This spring Liz Czach published on Judith Crawley’s FOUR APPLE DISHES (1940) in @femmediahist.bsky.social issue on “Nontheatrical Medias” ed. by @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social + @tanyagoldman.bsky.social. We’re excited to learn more abt. her in new issue of Canadian Journal of Film & Media Studies!

Representing oligarchs as working class heroes is a new low…even for us.

“Telling the truth is a belly rub.” Netflix spent upwards of $200 million on Wake Up Dead Man but won’t pay for a human to provide or check (or both) subtitles that don’t turn the script into nonsense.

Because when the Netflix-ing of the entire entertainment world is finally complete, you will still be able to watch your favorite movies because you own them.

Two time Academy Award winning editor Anne V. Coates, who cut LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, OUT OF SIGHT, and FIFTY SHADES OF GREY was born 100 years ago today. She made one of the most iconic edits in film history.

Two screening at MoMA: VICTIMS OF SIN: crowd breaks into uproarious when heroine shoots baddie ENAMORADA 1. man arrives late, drops plastic CVS bag that rolls alll the way down entry ramp 2. Woman checks phone 3x, same man yells at her 3. Couple debates whether to go to bathroom for 10 minutes. 👌

Ooh! In honor of Frank’s birthday, go watch THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. Postwar antiracism and music, from the future blacklist Albert Maltz. You won’t regret it! Only 10 minutes. 🗃️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwH...

This is Charles Clyde Ebbets, the photographer who took the iconic “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” picture. Look at this fearless, dapper fuck wearing spats, suspenders, and a tie 850 feet above the ground. Absolute legend.

I never miss an opportunity to tell New Yorkers that the DVD section of the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center has a better selection than any video store I've been in aside from Mondo Kim's

Very thorough grader!

This term I went w/ in-person written final essay exams for 1st time. Distributed Qs one week in advance. Students were allowed to bring one-page of handwritten notes. Q1 was independent viewing/reading; second Q was choice btw three thematic essays re: course content. Really happy with outcomes!

And well-paid staff that aren't desperately overworked.

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

Somehow I missed @alisalebow.bsky.social's piece on documentary “preenactment” earlier this year!? 😮 So happy I’ll have this piece to think with next time I teach my documentary storytelling course! Thank you for writing it, Alisa.

Cheers to my co-editor @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social + our authors (including: @dmissero.bsky.social @garloso.bsky.social who “live" here) for publication of our @femmediahist.bsky.social special issue on “Nontheatrical Medias” earlier this year. Check it out! online.ucpress.edu/fmh/article-...

As 2025 comes to a close, I want to reshare the two issues I co-edited this year. The first is an InFocus of the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, which I put together with Leo Goldsmith. The topic was science fiction and documentary, and included so many amazing essays. Check it out!

Thank you @jennblaylock.bsky.social @stephbrown.bsky.social @lisawj.bsky.social for convening such a thoughtful event. Here’s link to @jcmsjournal.bsky.social's "Teaching Media" dossier page for links to all the “Experiments in Ungrading” contributions quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/tm-pa...

Can't say I ever expected to see a "That Font was No Angel" headline. But here we are.

Jan 31 orphan films at MoMA www.moma.org/calendar/eve...

Oh look, it’s the newspaper mocking the movies for losing cultural relevance ⬇️ www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/b...

Public media stations in danger of closing down will receive $26 million in emergency funding. The first wave of grants from a philanthropic initiative will "sustain vital local news and cultural programming" at 186 stations – many in rural communities. publicmedia.co/bridge-fund-... #PBS #NPR

Computer scientists: "So with machine learning we can extract subtle patterns from massive datasets. What shall we do with it?" Business school professors, every single time: "You know, I think phrenology got a raw deal in the late 1800s."

Brody, sage, restrained, charts a history of mergers while focusing us on what’s at stake: “The control of history, in movies as in politics, is a crucial form of power over generations to come….The future transcends the fate of any group of companies; the past remains concentrated in their hands.”

What @nontheatricalscms.bsky.social said!👇

As a born and bred Long Islander — where one is required, as if by law, to love Billy Joel — I feel obligated to share this excellent gift idea for the Long Islander in your life. (Plenty of other options for those with geographic freedom to love other artists/bands 🤣)