I have always loved movies, something I owe to my mother. When I would stay home sick from school, or there were days too hot to go outside during the summer, she would show my siblings and myself movies like "Indiana Jones", "Back to the Future", and "Lord of the Rings". I grew up with these great stories and fantastic characters, some of which have remained in my heart until today.
I took my first film class on a whim, 3 years ago. Initially, I thought that I wanted to be involved in the production side of the entertainment industry, but now I release that isn’t for me. Over the last year, I have been writing film reviews on my personal blog, and I have loved it from the very beginning. Not only can I talk about the techniques a filmmaker uses, but the positive or negative effects it has not only the film world, but our society as a whole. I have recently become interested with the issue of gender within the entertainment industry as I attended the Athena Film Festival this year, and have taken a Women and Gender Studies class at Hunter College. At the Athena Film Festival, I got to view the movie "Belle," a period piece about a biracial heiress who must find her own identity in the white, male dominated society of 19th century England. The film's director, Amma Asante spoke about the film afterwards, and noted the importance of having a woman of color on screen, as the film's lead.
At the same time, the entertainment industry is ever changing, with new platforms like YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix, growing immensely everyday. Along with the “golden age of television” we appear to be in, the content that we are all exposed to is entering the palms of our hands, instead of being on the big screen. I am interested in how these new platforms change how we consume media, and the impact they have on someone’s everyday life.
While I may not be interested in the production side of filmmaking, I hope to find myself somewhere within the publication or business side of the industry. At the end of the day, I want to be apart of something one kid watches, or reads, and remembers for their lives, something so many fantastic artists did for me.
