A place for film…

Well, after six years, we finally did it! Back in 2010 we thought that it would be a good idea to create an online venue for dialogue between IU Cinema programs, devoted cinephiles who attend, and a broader public who might be interested.

The goal of IU Cinema’s blog, A PLACE FOR FILM, is to help develop the Cinema’s online audience by engaging them through quality, relevant, interesting, and sometimes provocative writing on subjects linked to its program. The blog is an extension of IU Cinema’s website and has more of a literary or journalistic presence than its social media pages, while hopefully maintaining the sense of dialogue that social media platforms have democratized.

It is a place for the Cinema’s enlisted contributors to share personal thoughts and insights while developing their own individual voice. You may not agree with, nor even appreciate all of the writing, but hopefully you will connect with some of our regular contributors or occasional guest writers.

Our starting line-up of regular contributors have five things in common; 1) they are all frequent patrons of IU Cinema; 2) they are all current or former IU students; 3) they all have led public conversations with prominent filmmakers; 4) film is an integral part of who each one of them are; and 5) they all know how to articulate their own, personal feelings and insights on film—an artform dear to each of them. We think that we have a great ‘starting line-up’ of regular contributors to kick this off well. Their interests are varied, but passion united.

Barbara Ann O’Leary will manage and edit the blog, as well as contribute. Along with being IU Cinema’s social media and web specialist, she is the creator of Directed by Women, an online international initiative to recognize and celebrate women filmmakers around the globe. She was far ahead of the curve with this—launching the program long before the trade magazines and other platforms began to take a stand on the lack of parity in the industry.

We hope that you visit often as there will be multiple postings each week. Also look for exclusive interviews with filmmakers, special reports, and all types of content—hopefully in tune with what we are doing at IU Cinema.

We look forward to this dialogue with all of you—and hope the feeling is mutual!

~ Jon Vickers

Jon Vickers is the Founding Director of IU Cinema. He has been ‘building community’ through film experiences since the early 1990s, having opened and built programs for three thriving art cinemas in the Midwest. Favorite film: Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995).