Gerald Peary

Gerald Peary (born October 30, 1944) is an American film critic, filmmaker, editor of the University Press of Mississippi, and a former curator of the Harvard Film Archive.

Early life and education

Peary graduated from Rider University in 1964, went on to earn an MA in drama from New York University 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 Belgrade, studying Yugoslavian film comedy.

Career

Peary moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1978 to work as a first-string critic for ''The Real Paper'', an alternative weekly, which closed in 1981. He is married to producer and filmmaker Amy Geller, former artistic director of the Boston Jewish Film Festival. Peary is the brother of American film critic and sportswriter Danny Peary.

He was a reviewer and columnist for the ''Boston Phoenix'' from 1996 until its demise in 2012. He is now a critic-at-large for The Arts Fuse, a Boston-based online arts magazine.Boston University College of Communication
/ref> He was from 1998 to 1999 the Acting Curator of the Harvard Film ArchiveThe X-list: the National Society of Film Critics
/ref> and was general editor of the University Press of Mississippi '' Conversations with Filmmakers Series''. From 1997-2021, he was the programmer/curator of the Cinematheque at Boston University's College of Communication, bringing independent filmmakers to show their works. He has programmed for the Institute of Contemporary Art-Boston, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and helped choose films for the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

His cinema articles have appeared in the ''Boston Globe'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The Globe and Mail'', ''Chicago Tribune'', and '' The Real Paper''. Peary has also contributed to numerous magazines, including ''Positif'', ''Film Comment'', '' Cineaste'', ''Sight & Sound'', the '' Boston Review'', ''Flare'', and ''Maclean's''.

Peary is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the National Society of Film Critics, and FIPRESCI (the International Film Critics Association). He has frequently served as president of international critics' juries at film festivals including Rotterdam, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Karlovy Vary, San Francisco, and Mar del Plata. Peary has taught film studies and screenwriting classes at many universities, including The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Livingston College-Rutgers University, Boston University, Concordia University (Montreal), and Simon Fraser University (Vancouver). He taught for over 30 years at Suffolk University, Boston, where he was a professor of communication and journalism. He retired and was named Professor Emeritus in 2015.

Peary also made the feature documentaries ''Archie’s Betty'' (2015) and ''The Rabbi Goes West'' (2019). He made his acting debut playing a chess champion in Andrew Bujalski’s acclaimed independent feature, ''Computer Chess'' (2013).

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."Gerald Peary interview
by Robin Berghaus of ''BU Today'', 12 Nov 2008

Work

Books

* ''Rita Hayworth: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies'' (1976). .
* ''Women and the Cinema: A Critical Anthology'', edited by Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary (1977). .
* ''The Classic American Novel and the Movies'', edited by Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin (1977). .
* ''The Modern American Novel and the Movies'', edited by Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin (1978). .
* ''The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology'', edited by Danny Peary and Gerald Peary (1980). .
* ''Little Caesar'' (Wisconsin/Warner Brothers Screenplays series) edited by Gerald Peary (1981). .
* ''Quentin Tarantino: Interviews'' (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (1998). .
* ''John Ford: Interviews'' (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (2001). .
* ''Samuel Fuller: Interviews'' (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (2012). .
* ''Mavericks: Interviews with the World's Iconoclast Filmmakers'' (2024). .

Films

* ''Twist'' (documentary, 1992) tory editor* ''Old Warrior'' (documentary short, 1994) roject consultant* ''Spanish Fly'' (comedy, 1998) tory editor, script consultant* ''Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero'' (video documentary short, 2005) ppeared as himself* '' For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism'' (documentary, 2009) irector and writer* ''Computer Chess'' (comedy, 2013) ctor* ''Archie's Betty'' (documentary, 2015) irector and writer* ''The Rabbi Goes West'' (documentary, 2019) o-director and writer* ''The Holdovers '' (comedy, 2024) xtra

References

External links

Gerald Peary interview
by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan of ''NewEnglandFilm.com'', 1 January 2007

Gerald Peary interview
by Robin Berghaus of '' BU Today'', 12 November 2008

Gerald Peary interview
by Scott Macaulay of ''FilmMaker Magazine'', 24 March 2009

Gerald Peary interview
by Shlomo Porath of ''Midnight East'', 23 July 2009

Gerald Peary interview
by David Cairns of ''Shadowplay'', 28 July 2009
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peary, Gerald
American film critics
National Society of Film Critics Members
Film theorists
American male screenwriters
Boston University faculty
Rider University alumni
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Suffolk University faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication alumni
Living people
1944 births
Academic staff of Concordia University
Academic staff of Simon Fraser University
American male non-fiction writers