Gerald Peary is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film critic, who has been a reviewer and columnist for the
Boston Phoenix since 1996. He was formerly (1998–1999) the Acting Curator of the
Harvard Film ArchiveThe Harvard Film Archive is a film archive devoted to cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It maintains a collection of over 9000 films and related documents, and regularly screens films in its 210 seat theater...
[Professor Gerald Peary at Suffolk University, Boston][The X-list: the National Society of Film Critics] and is currently the General Editor of the
University Press of MississippiThe University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi:*Alcorn State University*Delta State University*Jackson State University*Mississippi State University...
Conversations with Filmmakers SeriesThe Conversations with Filmmakers Series is part of the University Press of Mississippi which is sponsored by Mississippi's eight state universities. The mission of the Series is to publish collected interviews with world-famous directors. The current Filmmakers Series editor is Gerald Peary, a...
. Since 1997, he has been the programmer/curator of the BU Cinematheque at
Boston University's College of CommunicationBoston University's College of Communication was founded on May 27, 1947, then called the School of Public Relations. Since 1947, the college has gone through many changes in both name and location Boston University's College of Communication was founded on May 27, 1947, then called the School of...
, bringing independent filmmakers to show their works. He has programmed for the Institute of Contemporary Art-Boston, the
Vancouver International Film FestivalThe Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...
, and currently, he helps choose films for the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.
His cinema articles have appeared in many newspapers, including the
Boston Globe,
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
,
Toronto Globe and Mail,
Chicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, and
The Real PaperThe Real Paper was a Boston alternative weekly newspaper with a circulation of 50,000. It ran from August 2, 1972, to June 18, 1981, often devoting space to counterculture issues of the early 1970s. The offices were located on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts.The Cambridge Phoenix...
. Peary has also contributed to numerous magazines, including
Film CommentFilm Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
,
Cineaste,
Sight & SoundSight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
, the
Boston ReviewBoston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
,
FlareFlare is a Canadian fashion magazine. It is owned by Rogers Communications.Flare magazine was created in 1979, as a rebranding of Miss Chatelaine magazine. Flare promotes itself as "Canada's Fashion magazine"...
, and
Maclean'sMaclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
.
Peary is a member of the
Boston Society of Film CriticsThe Boston Society of Film Critics is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, based publications.The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make "Boston's unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the...
, the
National Society of Film CriticsThe National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
, and
FIPRESCIThe International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
(the International Film Critics Association). He has frequently served as president of international critics' juries at film festivals including
RotterdamThe International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
,
BangkokThe Bangkok International Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Bangkok, Thailand, since 2003. In addition to film screenings, seminars, gala events and the Golden Kinnaree Awards.-First years:...
,
Hong KongThe Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...
,
Karlovy VaryThe Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
, Mannheim-Heidelberg,
San FranciscoSan Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting an average of 150 films from over 50 countries...
, and
Mar del PlataThe Mar del Plata International Film Festival is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina...
. Peary has taught film studies and screenwriting classes at many universities, including The
University of Wisconsin-WhitewaterThe University of Wisconsin–Whitewater is part of the University of Wisconsin System, located in Whitewater, Wisconsin. It became Wisconsin's second public college on April 21, 1868 when it opened its doors to 39 students taught by nine faculty members...
,
Livingston College-Rutgers UniversityFrom 1969 to 2007 Livingston College was one of the residential colleges that comprised Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's undergraduate liberal arts programs. It was located on Livingston Campus in Piscataway, NJ. In the Fall of 2007 the New Brunswick-area liberal arts undergraduate...
,
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, Concordia University (Montreal), and
Simon Fraser University (Vancouver)Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
. Since 1981, he has taught journalism and film studies courses at
Suffolk UniversitySuffolk University is a private, non-sectarian, university located in Boston, Massachusetts and with over 16,000 students it is the third largest university in Boston...
,
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, where he is Professor of Communication and Journalism.
Biography
Gerald Peary graduated from
Rider UniversityRider University is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian university located chiefly in Lawrenceville, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States...
in 1964, went on to earn an MA in drama from
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1966, and received a Ph.D. in Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 with the dissertation,
The Rise of the American Gangster Film, 1913-1930. Peary was a 1986 Fulbright Fellow in
BelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, studying
YugoslavianThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
film comedy.
Peary moved to
Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, in 1978 to become first-string critic for the legendary alternative weekly, The Real Paper, which folded in 1981. He is married to producer Amy Geller who, among her credits, produced
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film CriticismFor the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism is a 2009 documentary film dramatizing a hundred years of American film criticism through film clips, historic photographs, and on-camera interviews with many of today’s important reviewers, mostly print but also Internet...
, a 2009 feature documentary which Peary wrote and directed. Gerald Peary is the brother of American film critic and sports writer
Danny PearyDanny Peary is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written many books on cinema and sports-related topics.-Biography:...
.
Upon being asked "What drew you to film criticism?", Peary replied, "I’m a film critic for my love of film. I want other people to see the same films that I saw and love. From the age of four, I was going to movies all the time."
Books
- Rita Hayworth: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies (1976). ISBN 0-515-04116-5
- Women and the Cinema: A Critical Anthology, edited by Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary (1977). ISBN 0-525-47459-5
- The Classic American Novel and the Movies, edited by Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin (1977). ISBN 0-804-42681-3
- The Modern American Novel and the Movies, edited by Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin (1978). ISBN 0-804-42682-1
- The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology, edited by Danny Peary and Gerald Peary (1980). ISBN 0-525-47639-3
- Little Caesar (Wisconsin/Warner Brothers Screenplays series) edited by Gerald Peary (1981). ISBN 0-299-08450-7
- Quentin Tarantino: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (1998). ISBN 1-578-06051-6
- John Ford: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (2001). ISBN 1-578-06398-7
Films
- Twist (documentary, 1992) [story editor]
- Old Warrior (documentary short, 1994) [project consultant]
- Spanish Fly (comedy, 1998) [story editor, script consultant]
- Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero (video documentary short, 2005) [appeared as himself]
- For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism is a 2009 documentary film dramatizing a hundred years of American film criticism through film clips, historic photographs, and on-camera interviews with many of today’s important reviewers, mostly print but also Internet...
(documentary, 2009) [director and writer]
External links