The 25-Year Legacy of NewEnglandFilm
After 25 years, NewEnglandFilm.com plans to close. Read more about what's next.
Founder of NewEnglandFilm.com talks about the forthcoming closing of NewEnglandFilm.com.
Twenty-five years is a long time to run a business—and in that way, NewEnglandFilm.com has been a resounding success. It has helped countless people choose cast and crew, discover local companies, find jobs, make connections, learn about the local industry and local filmmakers, and access festival reports, how-to’s, and filmmaker interviews. We’ve promoted thousands of local filmmakers and their projects over the past two and a half decades, and we have helped support local film business and production throughout New England.
Since it is time for me as the founder/publisher to move on, I put out a call for new leadership in 2020. I’m pleased to report that NewEnglandFilm.com’s jobs page, directory, and Star Award will live on through the organization Women in Film and Video New England. You can access their new jobs page at https://wifvnejobs.org/.
In addition, I have spoken with several New England universities about archiving NewEnglandFilm.com, and I am working with the Internet Archive to ensure that the news/magazine articles, interviews, film festival listings, and profiles of the past 25 years will be preserved for historical prosperity. I plan on keeping the site online as an archive as long as possible as well. I have not exactly decided what is to come of the Online New England Film Festival—for now, I can say that it will not be happening in 2022 and I’m looking into film archiving options for this facet separately. I’m open to your thoughts if you have them!
In many ways, I let go of NewEnglandFilm.com over ten years ago, when I decided to get a Ph.D. and pursue a new career in academia. Since then, I performed a TEDx talk; published books; made films; wrote for Salon, Ms. and Entrepreneur; and accepted a tenure track job at Bridgewater State University. I have many more projects in the works—my book Consent Culture and Teen Films: Adolescent Sexuality in U.S. Films is forthcoming with Indiana University Press in 2023; I’m working on a short film Bay Creek Tennis Camp; and I have a narrative feature screenplay and a feature-length essay documentary in the works. I truly hope you check out what I’ve been up to and subscribe for updates via my website at https://michelemeek.com.
Although this change feels like an ending, it is also a beginning of sorts. For myself, I hope to free up my time, energy, and resources to focus on new creative, scholarly, and pedagogical projects. For all of you in the local film community, my hope is that the gap NewEnglandFilm.com leaves can spark innovation by someone else—or you.
As a New England filmmaker myself, I know how valuable NewEnglandFilm.com has been, and I know it will be missed. It has been a good run, and I am deeply grateful to you all for being members, fans, contributors, and readers of the site for the past 25 years.
Best,
Michele Meek, Ph.D.
Founder of NewEnglandFilm.com
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