Article from Scratching the Belly of the Beast catalogue, 1994

The opportunity to recount here the early history of Filmforum (known as Pasadena Filmforum between 1975 and 1983) has come at a momentous juncture in my life. A veteran film programmer from New York City, with whom I had had no contact for nearly a decade, telephoned me recently and seemed surprised and somewhat relieved to hear my voice. This gentleman proceeded to advise me that a rumor had been circulating around the Big Apple that I had passed away several years ago. I found this report of my premature demise to be very entertaining and something of a tonic for the lethargy that has befallen me in recent months. (I truly must get out more often!) In the spirit of another returned-from·the-dead enfant terrible of experimental cinema, Kenneth Anger, I was busily preparing my obituary for the Village Voice when the request came to write this brief essay on Filmforurn's origins. So consider the following as either my return to the living or as notes from the "hereafter."

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