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Be Kind Rewind feels like an anachronism.
Im not an influencer, but Im not technically a critic.
Its a gray area.
Typically, my patrons are choosing my videos.
I give my $10-level patrons a list of five or six options to choose from.
Once I have that, I kind of think about the presumptions I have.
Then I look up interviews and see what they have to say about what theyve been in.
I look for threads that connect between different interviews and news articles and start carving out an argument.
But really, my scripts could double easily as an article.
On YouTube, the video essay sometimes extends past a medium and into a genre.
It could be documentary.
It could be a video essay.
It is kind of social media because its YouTube, but Im not really an influencer.
I sit in a weird space where I dont think there are too many people.
But a lot of my friends whom Ive connected with online are very traditional video essayists.
Theres no job description to teach you how to do those things.
Im in their cohort, kind of.
I dont want to copy anybody.
I dont want to accidentally pick up stuff from people or retread the same path.
I dont want people to assume that because its old that its antiquated or has poor quality.
People take classic film too seriously or think of it as an intellectual exercise because its film.
Sometimes I make a run at describe something that Im watching to people that Im so enthusiastic about.
Im like, You cannot relate to this at all, and Im so sorry for that.
But at the end of the day, I think its about framing more than anything.
Im very interested in politics in my personal life.
When I started the channel, it wasnt meant to have political resonance.
I was making these videos because I needed to build out a video resume.
I see the same arguments being had that we had in 1931.
You mentioned that you started the channel with the intention of building out a video resume.
I wasnt putting them on YouTube for people to actually watch.
Did turning it into a career change the content?It didnt much.
One of my goals is to check that that Im staying true to myself.
Im never going to be a creator thats for everybody.
Ill do it if itsMank, but Im not going to do it withFantastic Beasts.
Is that pressure from advertisers or just from yourself?Myself.
I want to check that theres relevant content.
Very quickly, I was branded as an awards content creator.
I didnt want people to think I was saying, This is who I think should have won!
Theres so much of that.
I wanted to build something different.
I dont want people to be put off from my channel because they think Im only awards.
Its almost only white women.
Breaking away from that formula allows me to raise up other figures that dont get attention from institutions.
I can quote other people and do research, and I diligently do that.
Its tough in terms of audience because so many classic film fans are older and theyre not on YouTube.
Well, its not an authoritative source, so what does it mean that Im watching this?
Were both analyzing them through our own lenses and looking at them in context.
Do you feel the need to show your work more because of YouTube?Totally.
One of the contradictions comes when Im writing the video title.
It is like filling in gaps in a world.
I think about them as interconnected and telling a singular story in a separate way.
Did you read the recentGuardianarticle about critics versus influencers?
[Laughs] Yeah.
Whats strange about the dichotomy is that getting into film criticism is harder than ever.
Even critics who work for reputable outlets struggle because you cant make a ton of money.
That requires nuance in the way that we read influencer or creator culture around film.
Not having access to films is frustrating as well.
Its a difficult situation that I dont think blaming influencers is going to solve.
This comes from studios and marketing.
Were you intending to make a video aboutBarbie?I thought about it.
I kind of had an idea, but then it became easier not to.
Are the strike guidelines clear to you?They are now.
It wasnt clear within the first 48 hours.
A bit of that was just being too cautious.
Just tell me what to do!
But now everybody knows what to do.
Its not like Im giving 20th Century Fox attention forYoung Frankenstein.
I think anything I want to say that is criticism in the work I do online is fair game.
I dont mind logging anything on LetterBoxd, I dont mind tweeting about stuff.
If I had to do a video about a current release, I probably would do it.
The work Im talking about is older; some of them are on streaming services.
Do I support Max right now?
So I dont mind sharing that information.
So criticism is fair game.
You dont call yourself a critic, but earlier you said your pieces could largely function as articles.
Where does the reticence to call yourself a critic come from?Its partly impostor syndrome.
There are early-career critics.Its true.
I probably do need to be a little bolder in saying that.
Im not the person whos going toOppenheimerand writing about it as a structural piece of art.
I could do that.
But its not what Ive been doing.
I would love to be called a critic.
I would feel much better about that than being a YouTuber.
