Introducing My “Favorite Film From Each Year I’ve Been Alive (FFFEYIBA)” Project

That Acronym's Not As Catchy As I'd Hoped It Would Be (TANACAIHIWB)

Me, watching Thomas Edison threading film through his movie camera, probably. Or maybe it’s actually Henry Eastman watching Edison. He’s not quite as famous as Tommy, perhaps, but without Henry, there might not even have been movies.

This is all Sean’s fault.

Well, Sean’s and Karsten Runquist’s.

OK, Fine. Sean’s and Runquist’s and mine, because I totally misread the title of his “My Favorite Movie From Every Year I’ve Been Alive” video as claiming to list the “Best Movie From Each Year” and I flew into an ungovernable rage because “best” is an objective word that I’m increasingly convinced cannot be applied with any accuracy to such things and I always tell folks who use it that they really mean and need to use is “favorite” because it’s subjective and can’t actually be wrong. But best? Best’s just crazy. How can you pick a “best” film? Best according to what metric? By which lights? And who has set you up as judge and jury, anyway? WHO?!?!

…

…in the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede. I am accordingly dictating the rest to my secretary. Now that the transformation is complete, I recognize it as a periodical phenomenon. And now that I’ve calmed down a bit further, I can see just how much I like Runquist’s project. It’s a great idea. So, like any good online “commentator,” I’m going to steal it.

Some ground rules: I’m going to pick one film a year as my favorite. I’m going to explain a bit about why it’s my favorite. And I’m going to be unapologetic. But I’m not going to restrict myself to only talking about one film a year. I’ve got a whole host of “honorable mentions/also-rans” that I want to discuss, so I will. I’m going to be unapologetic about those, too. I’m going to use the IMDB date as my “official” date. And I’m going to post one entry a week, which means I should be able to get through the whole list in a year. …if I’m not too old to remember how old I am. Monday’s are my target days, starting tomorrow (with 1978).

I welcome your thoughts/suggestions/criticisms/outrage over various errors and omissions (real or perceived). Just remember that it’s “favorite,” not “best,” which will help everyone avoid inadvertent centipedes.

And away we go.

Me, hand-cranking a camera as I turn my FFFEYIBA posts into vlogs, probably. Or I guess it might be Dziga Vertov, working on his astonishing and genre-bending “Man with a Movie Camera,” which I found on VHS at Salzer’s, back in the day.