I suppose we’ve been working toward this moment for a long
time. I’ve known Jon Fisher for many years now, though we’ve never (yet) met in
person. Jon and I became acquainted through an Ebert and Roeper Facebook group,
and began networking our movie blogs. His delightful website, The Film Brief,
has gone through many phases, looks, styles, functions. My own has gone through
more. From ‘Go See a Movie’, to ‘Ghost on Screen’, and now as ‘Wide Angle
Iris’, we have frequently sampled each others’ reviews, recorded podcasts
debating our divergent opinions and convened annually for three years now to
compile our Pantheon of the greatest films of all time. We linked to each
others work on social media and grew each others’ web presence. We were two
college kids on opposite ends of the world with a love of great film and a
passion for the conversations they elicit. But over the years life has made the
upkeep of our respective sites more difficult and inconvenient. Full time jobs
and the burden of adult responsibilities post-graduation have slowed our
output. And so it is with great pleasure now, that I announce that Jon and will
be combining our efforts to maintain a single site, right here at WAI.
Jon is my ideal foil, irreverent, warm, empathetic to the
myriad ways and reasons that people go to the movies, smitten by competence,
gleeful and impartial in his conveyance of the joy, the thrill, the visceral
immediacy of entertainment in the classical sense. In other words, everything I
am not. In the closed chamber drama of amateur movie blogs, Jon is the
sympathetic and eloquent Ebert to my smug, hard-nosed Siskel. Our friendship
and collaborations are a frequent reminder of what drew me to movies in the
first place.
Jon will begin contributing movie reviews soon, and we will
push each other to maintain a formidable output. Be sure to keep an eye out for
the 2013 Pantheon later this summer, and stop by in September when I live blog
my trip to Australia
to meet Jon face to face for the first time. Oh, and of course, check back in
for the reviews. That is why we are here.
The motion is put forth that Wide Angle Iris be now a
two-man operation. The motion is so adopted.
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