Anna Shechtman is the film editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books. A PhD Candidate in English Literature and Film &amp; Media Studies at Yale University, she also writes crossword puzzles for The New Yorker and The New York Times.

Anna Shechtman

In Which New York City Is Also a Character

"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it." — Frank Zappa

Art &amp; Architecture

J. D. Connor is an associate professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Hollywood Math and Aftermath: The Economic Image and the Digital Recession (2018) and The Studios After the Studios (2015). 

Beginning in April 2023, J. D. Connor has written the City of Industry column for LARB: City of Industry offers monthly dispatches on the collisions between the art … the industry … and the experience of contemporary Hollywood. The art is often underestimated and demands closer analysis. The industry is undergoing profound and rapid changes that demand explanation. And our experiences of movies and TV and everything that has grown up around them demand more precise description. City of Industry tries to do all those things at once. Neither an insider’s guide nor a view from nowhere, this column is about what it means to think inside the Hollywood slipstream.

J. D. Connor

Gil Robertson is one of the United States’s foremost authorities on African-American pop culture. He is a journalist, author, lecturer, media consultant, and the president and co-founder of the African American Film Critics Association, the leading body of Black American film critics.

Gil Robertson

Best Picture Academy Award® winning producer, Cathy Schulman began her career in the movie industry in 1987 and has been a producer and film executive ever since. Most recently, she served as the head of production for STX Entertainment, Hollywood’s newest global media company. Prior to STX, Schulman was president of Mandalay Pictures. Since 2011, she has been the President of Women In Film, the leading organizing supporting women in the film industry, advocating to create 50-50 gender parity in Hollywood across all platforms, all opportunities, and all content.

Cathy Schulman

Justin Chang is a film critic for the Los Angeles Times and a regular contributor to NPR’s Fresh Air Weekend and FilmWeek. Before joining The Times, he was chief film critic at Variety. He is the author of the book FilmCraft: Editing and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Justin Chang

FILM NOW: A Roundtable on the Films of 2016

"There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education." — Will Rogers

Film

The Novel in Utopia

David Foster Wallace’s Closed Circuit

Too Faithful to Succeed: On "Inherent Vice"

<h4>Peter Raccuglia is a Ph.D. student in the English department at Yale University.</h4>

Peter Raccuglia

<h4>Susan Morrow is a PhD student in Germanic Languages and Literature at Yale University. Her work centers on the formulation of systems of thought, particularly with respect to German Idealism.</h4>

Susan Morrow

Foucault’s Risks

"You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." — Molly Ivins

Politics

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." — Lorraine Hansberry

Philosophy &amp; Religion