katherine

There's a conversation I've engaged in several times now. I've lost count of exactly how many, but enough to notice a certain pattern no matter whom the individual is on the other side of things.

I begin by freely admitting that I'm simply not sure what it is I want to do for a career. The response is always sympathetic in nature with varying levels of sage-like reassurance, depending on the age of the person. I then continue by definitively stating that, while I am unsure of what I want to do, I do know that I don't want to make films. For those that know me, this is hardly surprising and even those that do not know me are unconcerned by the fact. Plenty of people end up in careers that have little or nothing to do with what they studied in school, I am told. So then I proceed to tell them that I've discovered I don't even like films that much. It is precisely at this point then everyone falters for a moment, some more noticeably than others. To the average individual, this is odd. To fellow film majors and the stray film fanatic, it's downright blasphemous.

But such is my revelation. I've grown incredibly critical of movies, and not in the cool, I'm-a-choosy-film-critic sort of way. I'm overly critical. But I cannot help it. On the odd occasion I find a movie I do like, I'm the world's biggest fan of filmmaking. But the other 90% of the time, I need a pretty attractive incentive to be coerced into sitting through a movie.