Announcing Three New Books From The Critical Press

RALEIGH, N.C., June 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Critical Press announces three new titles to join its list in 2015.

In April the Press will publish Shots in the Dark, the collected film criticism of novelist Jonathan Baumbach. Baumbach wrote for The Partisan Review (and other publications) in the Golden Age of film criticism of the 1970s. In addition to pieces touching on topics such as the New Hollywood and Pauline Kael, the book will include an autobiographical essay about Baumbach's relationship to the movies as well as an essay about acting in his son Noah's films.

The collection will be edited by Miriam Bale, who is also writing her own book of film criticism for the Press. She is Me: The "Persona Swap" Film, to be published in July 2015, will examine an overlooked sub-genre: films about women who swap personas. Often dreamlike, sometimes verging on the nightmarish, this uniquely feminist sub-genre includes films such as Mulholland Dr., Céline and Julie Go Boating, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and of course Persona.

Finally, in September 2015 the Press will release I Lost it at the Video Store: An Oral History Of A Vanished Era From The Filmmakers Who Were There. Journalist and former Premiere senior editor Tom Roston will be interviewing filmmakers to construct a personal history of an important touchstone to a generation of cinephiles: the video store. For two decades these stores were the primary way film buffs and filmmakers learned about the movies. Even if they are now mostly gone, replaced by VOD and streaming services, they have irrevocably shaped modern film culture.

These books will join several other recently announced books as part of the Press's 2015 lineup: Robert Greene's study of contemporary American documentaries, Present Tense: American Nonfiction Cinema, 1998-2013; Matthew Dessem's biography of silent film writer Clyde Bruckman, The Gag Man: Clyde Bruckman and the Birth of Film Comedy; and Steve Carlson's exploration of shot-on-video horror, Screaming In Analog: Two Decades of Shot-on-Video Horror.

All of the Critical Press's books will be available for sale in both print and digital formats directly from thecriticalpress.com, major online retailers, wholesalers, and bookstores. The Critical Press also maintains a blog that features discussions of their books, guest posts from authors, and other happenings from around the world of film culture. You can also find the Critical Press on Facebook at facebook.com/thecriticalpress and on Twitter @criticalpress.

The Critical Press is committed to publishing criticism on classic and contemporary cinema in print and digital formats. The primary focus of the Critical Press is short and medium-length books: topics and arguments that delve into subjects thoroughly and make them accessible within 100 to 150 pages.

The Critical Press is actively looking for new projects. Writers who think they might have a book topic that's appropriate for the Critical Press should visit thecriticalpress.com/submissions for more information.

SOURCE The Critical Press