Happy 11th Birthday to and from FILM ALERT 101

Vale David Stratton 1939-2025

Happy Birthday to Film Alert 101. This blog started up in November 2014. Since that time there have been 3177 posts and, allegedly according to the stats kept by the blog itself 2,321,193 page views. Over the last twelve months the page views have exceeded 708,000. The highest viewed post over the last 12 months may perhaps be a surprise to many, myself included, but it was signposted as an Open Letter to Bill Mousoulis about Angie Black’s THE FIVE PROVOCATIONS. It was posted way back on 13 September 2018 and I cant really explain why it would continue to be so favoured. If you want to read it  click here  

The highest page views of all time have been recorded for a fiery piece from the late David Stratton who, back in August 2020 took serious exception to MIFF caving in and withdrawing the film THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN from its line-up. David’s piece click here  followed an earlier one by Tom Ryan, also in the top ten of all time click here and both of them led to a strong response from critic Karl Quinn which is also in the Top Ten. click here Nothing like a bit of film festival controversy, as I discovered when, way back in 2016, I published what was for a long time the most read post, a piece by Tony Rayns about the state of the Busan Film Festival and the sacking of its then director click here 

Here’s Tony’s final paragraph of that one.

“I had very little first-hand knowledge of the “dark days” under military governments in Korea (my first visit to the country was in 1988, when the worst was over), but I know from Russia, China and Singapore amongst other countries how authoritarian governments work. They don’t believe in debate and don’t tolerate opposing points of view. Their first instinct is not to meet opposition with counter-arguments but to silence it. When Busan Metropolitan City Council tells BIFF not to screen a documentary that’s critical of the government, it’s a textbook example of an attack on free speech and an impulse to silence opposing voices. Apparently Korea’s right-wing politicians haven’t noticed or understood the changes since 1993. Apparently they are nostalgic for the “dark days” of censorship, of silencing dissenting voices and of strict social control. I’ve always thought that Korea has a very bright future, and I’ve said so in public many times, but the pig-headed political tactics of Busan’s city council mark a step back into the past. It makes no sense to me.”

 

Sentiments that are still relevant all over…

 

Over the last twelve months the following people were contributors and I thank them all: Janice Tong, Rod Bishop, Bruce Hodsdon, Barrie Pattison, Tom Ryan, David Hare, John Baxter, Joel Archer, Frank Shields, Pat Fiske, Adrian Danks, Michael Organ, Ray Edmondson, James Vaughan, Bruce Beresford, Alena Lodkina, Peter Tammer, John Timlin, Barrett Hodsdon and Zac Tomé.

If you click on any of the names above it will take you through to one of their contributions.