From the Editor

When this publication began, it had a specific objective: to facilitate discussion between film production and film studies. Over the past two years, these objectives have guided the Tisch Film Review’s development as an impassioned, student-centered journal on film and filmmaking. In effect, our presence inside the Tisch School of the Arts and, more recently, within the online film community is beginning to take shape. Now, however, we hope to expand to other communities. 

A film journal – this film journal – cannot be limited to the methodologies and attitudes of a film studies department. As aspiring creators, writers and viewers of film, it is necessary that we be curious. If film criticism is going to remain as fruitful and productive as it ever has, it cannot always make distinctions between the cinema and other mediums, other experiences, other domains. And other ideas.

The spirit and creative energy of this publication remains symptomatic of our cinephilia. But we also believe that there are more responsible, productive ways of being cinephiles. Being curious, again, is a good start; being more inclusive, more awake, more passionate is our goal. By no longer making the movie house our only home, we hope to disband the stigma of provincialism that so often characterizes the film community. Home, as a place we feel most comfortable in and curious about, must have no limits.

Since September, I’ve been fortunate to work with an enthusiastic group of new voices that have contributed to TFR’s entrance into the wider, richer world of online film culture. I’m pleased to introduce these new voices to you, and I believe the differences in their backgrounds and interests will be vital to this publication’s growth as a dynamic and serious forum for the discussion of cinema. 

- Ricky D’Ambrose