ROBOAPOCALYPSE IS NOW
THREE YEARS OLD!
By Joshua Handler
Today marks the anniversary of one of the wildest journeys I've ever been on. It has now been three years since Roboapocalypse was founded. Each year, this site grows exponentially. The support from the film community has been overwhelming and I would like to thank all of the film festivals, PR firms, studios, distribution companies, publicists, and filmmakers who have helped to make Roboapocalypse what it is.
Over the past year, I've made quite a few changes. You may have noticed that not one review has been posted of a film that I've given below a 3/4. Because I am a filmmaker, first and foremost, I have an obligation to support my fellow filmmakers and by writing negative reviews, I hurt them. Don't mistake this for lenience, as I still hold movies to the same high standards that I always have and am always completely honest when writing a review. I still view movies I dislike (in the past year, I saw 200 films, a chunk of which were terrible), but simply choose not to review them. My time is better spent supporting filmmakers than hurting them. I'll leave the negative review-writing to the people who do this as a full-time job.
Another change is the amount of interviews I've been conducting. I've always had opportunities to conduct interviews, but it's just in the past six months that I've had any real desire to do them. Through talking with filmmakers from around the world, I've learned an enormous amount about them and their respective films and hope you have too.
While the number of mainstream films I've reviewed has increased over the past year, that doesn't mean that Roboapocalypse will not still be dedicated to independent and world cinema. Roboapocalypse has been, and forever will be dedicated to shining a spotlight on films that need recognition.
I want to give a special thank you to John Wildman, David Ninh, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. No two people or organization has been as supportive of Roboapocalypse as them. Aside from being kind enough to give me press accreditation for the New York Film Festival and reserving me a complimentary ticket to cover just about any event at FSLC that I've wanted to cover, John, David, and FSLC as a whole have just been great people to work with and be around. They're incredibly generous and kind, and I cannot thank them enough for everything that they've done over the past year.
I also would like to give a special thank you to Adam Walker and Jenny Jediny from Film Forum and Harris Dew from IFC Center for their continued very generous support.
And, most importantly, thank you to you, my readers. There would be no Roboapocalypse without you. While Roboapocalypse may not be the biggest blog out there, it is going strong thanks to you. If reading one of my reviews gets one of you out to see a movie you wouldn't have seen or known about before, I'm doing my job.
As always, I encourage you to leave comments on any reviews or articles. Let's build a community. Happy movie-going!
Best,
Joshua Handler
June 30, 2014
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