Film Book Reading - Michael Atkinson and other contributors to Exile Cinema (SUNY Press) reading at the KGB complex. June 11, 2008

A few years ago a lot changed at the Village Voice, including in the film section. Soon after the Phoenix-based New Times chain purchased the paper in late 2006, the section could no longer find space for such longtime contributors as Michael Atkinson; New Times fired longtime section editor Dennis Lim soon thereafter, along with many other familiar Voice bylines.

So what did the film writers do? Lim increased his contributions to the New York Times, and also landed as editorial director at the Museum of the Moving Image; Atkinson launched a blog, started contributing to the websites of two television channels (Warner Brothers' TCM and Cablevision's IFC), and increased his freelance contributions elsewhere. Atkinson has also stretched further into books, putting out a Flickipedia to suggest movies for every occasion, and developing a series of murder mystery novels with a character called Ernest Hemingway.

But in one of his post-Voice volumes, Atkinson has also brought the old gang back together. The anthology Exile Cinema features essays by such Lim-era contributors as B. Kite, Jessica Winter, Mark Peranson, Howard Hampton, Guy Maddin, and Ed Halter; Lim and Atkinson themselves have essays, too, as do Stuart Klawans, David Sterritt, and Godfrey Cheshire, among others.

The book technically came out a few months back, but on June 11 at 7pm, Atkinson and the gang get together for a reading and book party of sorts at the KGB Complex at 85 East Fourth Street in Manhattan. Atkinson, Halter, Kite, Klawans, and Sterritt are all scheduled to read (and drink). (A certain Winnipeger might also show up, but that's not for sure.)

There's no cover charge. Come on out. We probably have too many readers scheduled in our time slot, so you can also hope for a fistfight as writers reach for the rostrum.

Official Website: http://cinemapurgatorio.com