by Sam Juliano
The Fifth Annual Allan Fish Online Film Festival was a huge success, in fact the biggest triumph of any we’ve hosted. One of the reasons was the re-emergence of veteran Australian film writer Tony D’Ambra who did all that was humanly possible to inspire discussion, embolden analysis and resurrect the spirit of the old days, when Wonders in the Dark was the place to be for cinephiles. We still have plenty going for us here – even if nothing like the glory days – because enthusiasm does surface several times during the year. Jim Clark and J.D. Lafrance have been brilliant constants and Jamie Uhler has always come up big for the horror festival and for the just-completed AFOFF. Thank you Tony! Your generosity and inimitable scholarship was just what we needed! Somehow I feel Allan is up there saying “Well done, Tony!” The sublime Ozu post is of course one of the greatest ever published at the site, and I had the great privilege of seeing it during incubation. What many probably don’t even know or remember is that Tony was crucially instrumental in getting the site launched. And his philosophy on not changing what has worked for over a decade has been heeded. Tony is the most modest of men and will demure from taking any serious credit, but I know what happened back in the day, and his scene-specific involvement allowed us to survive. Both Tony and I have Italian blood, meaning we both can sometimes exhibit tempers. But I had no right to show this side of me, ever, considering this man has given so much of his time, efforts and expertise in behalf of this site. There is nobody online I have ever known as good-hearted as this man, and few as resilient. His return is truly a Godsend and I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for what he has done for the lion’s share of our nearly fourteen years as a blog-site. I was thrilled to see that superlative action in the comment section under his post too! So well deserved!
Thank you Jamie Uhler. Thank you Jim Clark. Thank you Roderick Heath. Thank you Sachin Gandhi. Thank you Jon Warner. Thank you J.D. Lafrance. Thank you Joel Bocko. All of you contributed astounding posts. To all those placing comments like Duane Porter, Rick Chinigo, James H., Celeste Fenster, Todd Sherman, as well as the writers, thank you. What a great project this was! One to next year God willing!
We missed last week’s MMD but I guarantee that will almost never happen moving forward. I decided against interrupting the flow of the AFOFF. Have a great week all!