Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Fresh from the Berlin Film Festival...
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I'm technically writing to you from Toronto, where the snow is starting to melt, and the skies are still stubbornly grey. Even though I'm not at the Berlinale in person, my disembodied voice was there this morning at a panel on how we're discussing, talking about, and thinking about film in 2026. (Which means my talk was something I recorded, and you can listen to it! Even if, like me, you're on a different continent right now.) Most of the wonderful panellists were discussing their work to put films in front of new audiences (through online platforms, TV stations, and programming) or how film criticism has evolved beyond written reviews. (The Hollywood Reporter is on YouTube. And OFC people like me are in your podcast feed.) I talked about something else. Not how we find or watch films — but what we do once we’ve seen them. Film festivals give us an excellent structure for discovering films. They make encountering new work easy and exciting. We don't have the same kind of structure for what happens after we've watched them. Most spaces are about stating a take, talking about a film once, and moving on. But what if you’re not done with it yet? At Seventh Row, I've been designing spaces that give you the structure to discover something new in a film — not just discover a new film. That's what I spoke about at the Berlinale. Now on the podcast feed, you can hear me (and my still disembodied voice) talk about:
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Seventh Row
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
If you're considering joining The Long Arc: Looking Season 1, which starts next Tuesday, June 30 — I haven't actually talked about the most important thing. Why a 10-week commitment lets us have a better conversation than something you can drop in and out of. So let me walk you through the long arc you — and the group — will go through, too. (Yup, I'm not just talking about the long arc of a season of TV!) In Week 1, you'll start learning how to investigate this show. As soon as you join,...
Quick question for you, Reader — Have you ever walked away from an episode of TV knowing something about a character without being entirely sure how you learned it? Most of us can tell when a character feels lost, comfortable, trapped, hopeful, uncertain, or in love. We don't usually stop to ask how the show taught us that. And even if we did, where would we start? Because it's usually not any one thing. It's how the dialogue, performances, costumes, shot choices, directing, and editing all...
I've spent the last couple of weeks talking about Looking, the show I've programmed for the inaugural season of The Long Arc this summer. But I haven't really answered a pretty basic question yet... What does it actually feel like to be inside The Long Arc? Over the first eight weeks, we'll watch one episode a week. Before each episode, you'll get the question we'll be exploring. Then, we'll gather online to investigate it together. Not by debating interpretations. But by getting curious...