Charlie Thomason is an artist and web developer from Chicago. This site used to be his blog, but has been inactive since May 2012. You can find his new blog, web development portfolio, art gallery, and online store at Bleachwave.com.
“The Recycled Film” was the original name of this blog when it was first launched in 2007 and recycledfilm.net was the original URL. Over the years though, the blog has undergone a number of name changes (e.g.: Recycled Cinema, CharlieChicago, et al.) and there was even a 2-year period where recycledfilm.net was owned by someone else.
The name “Recycled Film” is a reference to the concept of “Recycled Cinema” coined by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, who wrote in a 1994 issue of the Chicago Reader:
“One of the more deceitful explanations for the compulsive repetition that informs most contemporary movies is that Hollywood is simply giving the public what they want … A more likely explanation for all the recycling is that it serves business interests — and contrary to what you read in Variety and Premiere, that is not necessarily the same thing as serving the public. “They liked it before, so I guess they’ll like it again” is an argument that implies first that people always like what they’ve spent their money on, and second that they want their pleasures endlessly repeated rather than varied.”
This basically sums up why I love independent film so much, which always offers something new and exciting rather than the same old Hollywood rehash. If you want to see the best and most original films the world has to offer, you need to go to places like the Music Box Theatre or even Sundance.
The Recycled Film features content on a much broader array of subjects than just film—everything from Ruby on Rails programming to grunge music history to random iPhone photos. Occasionally, you’ll find a lot of my own, original art work on this blog, as well.
