Join n+1 contributor A. S. Hamrah, author of The Earth Dies Streaming (n+1 Books), for two events in Seattle!
On Wednesday, February 19, Hamrah will be presenting John Sayles’s 1987 film Matewan at SIFF. Hamrah recently wrote an essay about the film (“All We Got in Common”) for the Criterion Collection.
6 PM
Wednesday, February 19
SIFF Film Center
305 Harrison Street
Seattle, WA
And on Thursday, February 20, he’ll be appearing in conversation at the Elliott Bay Book Company to discuss The Earth Dies Streaming:
7 PM
Thursday, February 20
The Elliott Bay Book Company
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle, WA
A. S. Hamrah was n+1’s film critic from 2008 to 2019 and was the editor of the magazine’s film review supplement. He has worked as a movie theater projectionist, a semiotic brand analyst, a political pollster, a football cinematographer, a zine writer, and for the film director Raúl Ruiz.
Praise for The Earth Dies Streaming
“Hamrah’s writing on movies . . . is form-bending, disobedient, saturated with history, and at times deliciously nasty. Neither hatchet man nor pushover, Hamrah makes exacting technical judgments while maintaining both levity and a sense of moral stakes. His book is a totem to the crucial role of scrutiny in the era of the fanboy and the recapper.”
—Christian Lorentzen, New York Best Books of 2018
“A. S. Hamrah’s criticism is hilarious, irreverent, full of passionate and ingeniously defended judgments. He can be relied upon to push things to a point of delightful perversity, which is part of what makes his work so fun (truly fun) to read. But he is also up to something subversive and political: his work brilliantly torpedoes the tedious conventions, commodifications, and clichés of the corporate entertainment complex.”
—Dana Spiotta
“Indispensable . . . A procession of ideas that speak with unrivaled immediacy to the cultural moment . . . Operating outside of the model that Hollywood expects and relies upon in its advertising, A. S. Hamrah’s columns stand alone in their ability to evoke what it feels like to go to the movies in the 21st century . . . The Earth Dies Streaming solidifies Hamrah’s place as our age’s most irreplaceable critic.”
—Kyle Paoletta, Guernica
“A. S. Hamrah’s writing on film is a delight. I don’t know anyone else who does roundups like that, where he goes through like ten movies and it always feels cumulative and hilarious and somehow life-affirming, like everyone is unwittingly—some less wittingly than others—working through the same problems facing film-producing civilizations at the moment. Like all the best criticism, The Earth Dies Streaming makes art and life feel less lonely.”
—Elif Batuman