PHILM SKOOL Is a collection of movies that have moved me in some way. Some are classic. Some are contrived. A few presented themselves. But all are worthy of mention. As long as I can remember, I have loved film. When I was 3 my mother and godmother took me to see The Goodbye Girl at the Waverly in Greenwhich Village. I enjoyed it so much so, they kindly honored my request to stay seated for a second viewing. A good portion of my adolescence was spent double VCR dubbing any and all films that held Steve Martin in celluloid. When I was 14, alone I walked, seven miles round trip to see Ernest Saves Christmas at the Cine 10. By 19 I was schlepping about the Empire State Plaza in a rubber caucasian conehead, pulled over my cornrows, passing out flyers promoting Coneheads, all to gain access to Weekend at Bernie’s 2.

After college under the bright lights of the big city I began my career in film working as a PA on Jungle to Jungle starring Tim Allen. Although not quite the king of new york, I did procure a modest gig as a personal assistant to the director Abel Ferrara, which, among other things, had me duplicating VHS copies of La Dolce Vita to generate interest in a potential remake. This short stint in the Industry drove me to Austin, where despite the risk of becoming a slacker, I felt I had a better shot at actually making films. In the early aughts, Texas was a mecca for the no budget filmmaker with any version of a vision. But the true source of my film knowledge was two distinguished jobs at Americas most substantial film repositories, the video store “I Love Video” in Austin (RIP) and “Le Video” in SanFrancisco (RIP). The inventory of these stores alone, puts the streaming arm of Netflix into question. I rounded out my education with a 7 year stint as a Projectionist at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany, NY. To put it fairly, I’ve seen a few fistfuls of film and after a good book (or even beside one) there is nothing so demonstrative as a movie watched, with appropriate regard and attention, that speaks to the nature of existing… as far as has been collectively deduced and logged. This is the record of a few, referenced in clay, riddle, metal, paper, cloth and allusion. 236 all together. Selected for a variety of reasons, but mostly out of respect, can you find them all?

Good will hunting.

T’chaka Anghelos Sikelianos, December 2018