About This Blog

I love film, and like most people, was raised on a skewed Hollywood diet of cinema, with the occasional ‘foreign’ film thrown in. I love horror films especially, but after an 8-month overdose of B-grade slashers, I decided it was seriously time to broaden my horizons. There is, after all, a whole world out there.

Then I had a mad idea: I was going to watch a film from every single country in the world. Clearly, I was strolling down Insanity Parade on a clear trajectory towards Loony Avenue. I obviously had no idea just how difficult such an undertaking would be. After all, not all of the 193 recognised nations in the world even have a film industry, and many that do have a very small output only seen by a local audience or at film festivals in Belgium. I don’t live in Belgium, I’m not planning to fly there anytime soon, the local dvd rental store is god-awful and Netflix doesn’t exist where I live.

So quite sensibly, I decided to have a go anyway. World On Film chronicles the attempt. I make no promises. I can’t even make a decent poached egg.

The core of the blog is film reviews – I was just planning to review what I’d seen and send it in to the Internet Movie Database. Then someone pointed out that I should compile my efforts into a blog or a podcast. I pretended to be deaf regarding the second suggestion and so invaded WordPress instead. Reviews are still posted to IMDB under a pseudonym (just in case anyone happens to find a remarkable similarity between the comments expressed here and there), but embellished here with images and extra meandering waffle.

The Criteria

The films must have been produced in the country of origin, preferably by locals. One thing I’ve discovered already is that this is not always possible. Some of the smaller countries like Barbados are strictly international co-production only, for appreciably obvious reasons. In a situation like that, it’s a judgement call where I just have to choose something that features the country in some way. Actually, some of the larger nations such as (cough) Belgium also output a high number of co-productions, muddying the waters further.

Preference goes to a feature film, but if that’s not possible, a short film (or two), and then if all else fails, a documentary – again, produced locally. Why I have this 3-pronged approach brings me neatly into

The Selection Process

I use that excellent repository of film information, the Internet Movie Database, to help me choose something to watch, often simply to tell me what even exists. In an ideal situation, I select something strongly-recommended by others. In a less than ideal situation, I simply watch whatever I can get my hands on. This is often the deciding factor. Either way, I’m not after a representative film – in some cases, just getting ‘a film’ is challenging enough.

I’ve decided to do this alphabetically by country, which is sufficiently randomised, though, and I can’t stress this enough, it isn’t always possible and skipping to a later unknown date is inevitable. Hence the insanity of the whole thing.

And yes, it will probably take years.

Availability of Films

Depending on where you live, you may have a decent rental store or online rental service. Or you may live in Belgium, or in some other locale where film festivals occur. Amazon is also good and there are even sites where you can download/rent some hard-to-find films for a small fee legally, such as http://www.eztakes.com/. The internet is obviously a good place to start and some independent films, such as the Antiguan film I selected, are posted online for free by the producers. Obviously, the internet provides other possibilities, but no, I’m not going to tell you where you can get this stuff for free.

Update Frequency

Probably once a week, maybe twice if time permits. I’ve already watched several films and written the core of the reviews, guaranteeing material for most of the ‘A’ countries.

The Title

I wanted something simple and couldn’t get a certain Duran Duran song out of my head.

Who are you, anyway?

Merely someone who enjoys watching and writing about film and should have started doing so years ago simply for the fun of it.

Images

No copyrighted photos/stills appear on this blog. All are screen grabs I took myself from the video.