Happy New Year.
We survived another covid year and we are facing another one of uncertainty as the new strain runs rampant.
Ain’t life grand?
As this posts we are days from the start of the first festivals of the year- things that are shifting around. I have plans for covering a good number of them – so keep reading.
We are now about 39 days away from Unseen turning 12 (happy birthday to us). I never expected this to still be running. I guess we’ll be going for at least a while longer…
I need to stress that the filmmakers list will be continuing shortly- just as soon as I regroup from the insanity of the last few months.
As we take some steps into 2022 I wanted to say a couple of things. First and foremost thank you all for coming along. Its been fun and I’ve had a good time doing all of this.
That said, complications in the real world are going to be affecting the way things go up at Unseen and how I cover stuff for the foreseeable future.
Without going into it things are becoming complicated in the real world. Things in the personal life are taking some of my attention. I wish it was something like a new girlfriend or kids or a vast fortune, but its more mundane stuff. Additionally the day job has become complicated and has been wearing me down. The time it takes me to recover from the stress has made writing more time consuming.
Additionally while up until recently I had a steady stream of helpers life has made many people who haven written for Unseen turn to take care of their own lives. Yes, they will occasionally throw a piece in here or there, but more and more over the last two years Unseen has become pretty much a one man show. The result is up until the last two weeks I have been spending four to eight hours a night working on the site- doing behind the scenes things that are boring. I spend as much time doing Unseen as I do at my day job most days and it has taken its toll. It, along with life, has worn me down. Two weeks ago I stopped sitting with the computer in my lap every minute from when I got home and it kind of helped.
Things have to change and I am taking steps to do that.
The plan is to try and continue as I have tweaking things as I go. However I am not going to trying to devour everything that comes my way anymore. Yes, a number of the festivals will still get my full attention but I’m now going to be more selective in what I see and write on simply because I don’t have the bandwidth. I started doing this after the New York Film Festival and went whole hog in December when I really cut back. While you will be seeing a lot of films this month, its because I wanted to see the films. I’m going to take everything after Slamdance as it comes.
I will say expect the film of the day to start to have more oldies appear. I have films banked into October in case I don’t have a new film and it may be time to start letting them run.
While I am continuing the slow withdrawal I am remaining open to everything thrown my way.
If you are a PR person I will still consider everything you send my way. Just be aware I may turn something down if it doesn’t connect with me. Its nothing personal but I’m tired of seeing films that I knew going in were not going to click. While being open has resulted in a lot of great finds (which why I do it) lately there has been a lot of drek, the result no doubt the covid shuffling of schedules needing something, anything, to appear in slots. That has to stop, so I will say no more.
If you are a filmmaker I will still take a look at your films (especially if you can be forgiving with the time frame for me to do so). If you are high on your film and want me to look I will. As always- if you send me the film I WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY GIVE IT A POSITIVE REVIEW. I say that because I recently had a couple of filmmakers get very pissed off at me for not loving their film. While I am willing to look at a film, anything beyond that depends upon the film itself.
As you can see I’m not planning on going anywhere, and I am taking steps to make sure I can continue.
And lastly there is not going to be any Unseen Film Award for 2021.
I know that I had announced that a few weeks ago, but recently there was some discussion about whether to award one for one thing or another, but despite some intriguing ideas I couldn’t get it to work.
Ultimately after two years of this Covid nonsense the mere fact that most of us are still standing despite having been kicked in the ass means more than a meaningless award. The fact we are still here, and still conversing is enough for me.
Hopefully when we get to this point next year we will have something real to celebrate
For now- Happy New Year to everyone.
Let’s hope 2022 brings greatness to everyone.
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