Aaron Hillis is an American writer, film critic, director, film festival programmer, and curator.

Career

Hillis has been active in

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

, especially within the fields of indie festivals, exhibitions, indie film distribution and programming, filmmaking, marketing, and journalism. As a film journalist, he has written film reviews and features articles and conducted hundreds of interviews with celebrities. He wrote, among others, for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', ''Vice'', ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', '' Vanity Fair'', ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'', '' Indiewire'', ''

Filmmaker Magazine ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Fil ...

'', ''

GreenCine Daily GreenCine Daily was a film and film criticism news site operated by the defunct video rental service GreenCine. The site was originally edited by David Hudson, who developed a format that curated links to articles, reviews, interviews and podcast ...

'' (editor from 2009 to 2013), and ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

''. Furthermore, Hillis is a frequent moderator of panels in the indie film world. Between 2006 and 2009, Hillis was the vice-president of ''Benten Films'', a boutique

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

label, founded by Andrew Grant. Responsible for acquisitions, art direction, disc production and marketing, releases include

Joe Swanberg Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker. Known for micro-budget films which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film movement. His films often focus on relationships, sex, tech ...

's ''

LOL LOL, or lol, is an initialism for laughing out loud, and a popular element of Internet slang, which can be used to indicate amusement, irony, or double meanings. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widesprea ...

'' (2006), Aaron Katz's '' Dance Party USA'' and '' Quiet City'' (2007),

Matthias Glasner Matthias Glasner is a German film director. Selected filmography *'' The Meds'' (1995) *''Sexy Sadie'' (1996) *''Fandango'' (2000) *''High Score'' (2001, TV film) *''Tatort: Flashback'' (2002, TV series episode) *''Die fremde Frau'' (2003, TV f ...

's '' The Free Will'' (2008). In 2007, Hillis directed the documentary feature ''

Fish Kill Flea A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed fish ...

'' (together with Brian M. Cassidy and Jennifer Loeber). The film premiered at ''

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

'' where it was praised by Premiere Magazine as "one of SXSW's pleasant surprises, with a great, early Errol Morris feel for American weirdness. (''Premiere Magazine'') and as "a wistful, thought-provoking rumination on the cost of progress. (''

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

'') gave a similarly positive review, calling it "a wistful, thought-provoking rumination on the cost of progress." Hillis is one of the programmers at ''

Cucalorus Film Festival The Cucalorus Film Festival is a film festival held annually in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is one of the largest film festivals in the U.S. South and recognized as a destination film festival for indie filmmakers. MovieMaker magazine recogni ...

'' (in Wilmington, North Carolina), where he curates the "Convulsions" genre program since 2013. Between 2012 and 2018, Hillis owned ''Video Free Brooklyn'', a DVD and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

rental Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the use of a good, service or property owned by another over a fixed period of time. To maintain such an agreement, a rental agreement (or lease) is sign ...

boutique. The store was awarded the title of "Best Video Store in NYC" on three occasions between 2012–2013, by ''

Time Out NY ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

'', ''The Village Voice'', '' The L Magazine''. In 2016, Hillis sold the library to the ''

Alamo Drafthouse The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the film, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

'' in Brooklyn. The 2019 documentary ''At the Video Store'' by James Westby features a conversation with Hillis about his time as a video rental store owner. Since 2020, Hillis has been curating and hosting "Playtime with Hillis," a

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Zoom'' (2006 film), starring Tim Allen * ''Zoom'' (2015 film), a Canada-Brazil film by Pedro Morelli * ''Zoom'' (2016 Kannada film), a Kannada film * ''Zoom'' (2016 Sinhala film), a Sr ...

screening series of rare cinema. Guests included

Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scor ...

Alice Cooper Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...

Steve Buscemi Steven Vincent Buscemi (,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself. It is not uncommon for people to pronounce his name or instead. ; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor. He is known for his work as an acclaimed character actor. Mul ...

Rian Johnson Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film ''Brick (film), Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget ...

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

, Robert Townsend,

Heather Matarazzo Heather Matarazzo (born November 10, 1982) is an American actress. She is known for playing Lilly Moscovitz in '' The Princess Diaries'' (2001) and its 2004 sequel, and Martha Meeks in ''Scream 3'' (2000) and '' Scream'' (2022). Matarazzo made ...

Joe Dante Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with Counterculture of th ...

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the ...

Guinevere Turner Guinevere Jane Turner (born May 23, 1968) is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She wrote the films ''American Psycho'' and '' The Notorious Bettie Page'' and played the lead role of the dominatrix Tanya Cheex in '' Preachin ...

Alessandro Nivola Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor. His work includes both screen and stage, and his accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and an Independent Spirit Award. Ni ...

, and band Sparks."The Dantes - the playtime with hillis awards show"
(October 3, 2021)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillis, Aaron Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American film critics Writers from New York City American male journalists Film curators American documentary film directors