Mike Clarke

cinema is a performing art.

This isn’t just a nostalgic or romantic idea. It’s an argument for understanding cinema not as a static object, but as an event—something that happens, something experienced, something that lives in time and space. Cinema is not merely a file, a product, or a commodity to be consumed; it’s an encounter occurring in a... See more

I used to be totally dismissive of the idea that automation could lead to bad economic outcomes because my view was people “always” had this fear about new technological developments, and it was “always” wrong. But it wasn’t actually always wrong. The Neolithic Revolution set average living standards on a downward trajectory for a few thousand... See more

One key issue we must urgently address is the democratization of in-person exhibition. Our Latin American ancestors from the 1960s and ’70s—those who coined the term Third Cinema —understood this well. They identified three distinct forms of cinema: the industrial Hollywood model (now replicated by global streaming platforms), the European... See more

As in politics, the real beneficiaries are not the communities they claim to represent, but larger forces that profit from local dynamics. Similarly, in cinema, the primary stakeholders—filmmakers and audiences—are often an afterthought, while the center of the equation is dominated by what is called the film industry. There is an urgent need to... See more

Why on earth are there no merch tables at film screenings?

we need to recognize and embrace the microverses —those local, specific, heterogeneous ecosystems where cinema can actually thrive.

Eggers, a longtime San Franciscan, said: “When I read Boots’s script, I’d just published ‘The Circle’ ” — a 2013 dystopian novel set in Silicon Valley — “and it struck me that we were both picking up on changes we’ve seen in the Bay Area. There’s this strangely sinister cast to life here sometimes, where it’s still idyllic and free and open but... See more

Resonance over scale. Be like Rastafarians. Numerically small. Enormous in cultural influence.