When I used to edit listings, I learned that everybody needs them and nobody wants to do them, because the compilation and checking of details are thankless labors. That’s just one of many reasons why Screen Slate (screenslate.com) deserves thanks and honors. Not only does the site’s staff assiduously gather and continuously share repertory-screening schedules (plus news of cinema-centered exhibitions) both for New York and for the Bay Area, it does so with a sense of mission that it puts into action.
There’s something inherently democratic about Screen Slate’s practice. Sure, moviegoers can readily check schedules on the websites of theaters they know, but Screen Slate — with its comprehensive attention to the city’s repertory screenings, along with cinema-centered exhibitions — puts an unusual spotlight on venues and events that may otherwise remain in oblivion for all but the innermost circle of enthusiasts. Thus, by sheer evenhandedness, giving 30-seat spaces equal billing alongside endowed institutions, Screen Slate goes beyond convenience into implicit advocacy.
The site’s explicit advocacy is equally admirable, practicing curation in the best way, in the form of criticism: along with its listings, Screen Slate offers articles, usually one a day, of remarkable quality, covering the world of movies as wide-rangingly as the city’s repertory venues and art houses do — with special attention to less-familiar works — along with insightful surveys of the repertory scene at large.
The site also features a remarkable series of interviews with movie notables far beyond celebrity: for instance, Luke Rathborne’s conversation with Paul Grimstad, the musician who has acted in only two films — Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland and One Battle After Another — and whose remarks about both films are among the most insightful that I’ve read; an interview by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer with the director Tom Schiller on his rarely shown masterwork Nothing Lasts Forever and his short films for Saturday Night Live; and Bingham Bryant’s talk with the French director Axelle Ropert, which delves knowingly into her background as a critic.
On the brink of its 15th anniversary, Screen Slate is a crucial part of the city’s cinemascape — and of the world of movies in general.