Introduction: My decade under the influence of cinema

Hello, my name is Catherine, and I'm a film addict. Good films, bad films, classic films, new films. I will pretty much watch any movie once. To quote the first essay I ever wrote about my love of cinema: "For as long as I can remember, I've had a love for movies. Seeing people get to act like these extraordinary people and go to extraordinary places was something truly amazing for me. I had a passion for movies that hasn't quit yet."

The decade started with Catherine, the 13-year-old writer with an internet connection, TCM, IFC and parents who took her to the movies at least once a week. A month and a half later, I turned 14, and I suppose you could say that's right around the time my obsession with pop culture narrowed down to film. Armed with burgeoning interests in writing, Hollywood history and filmmaking, I set out to watch, read and write about anything cinema-related that I could find. In this decade, I made my first pilgrimage to Hollywood (that I was old enough to remember), created my own movie-centric website, worked two paying film critic jobs, was president of Mizzou's Film Club, decided that I want to pursue a career in film and a bunch of other film-related things.

I started working on this project in my spare time in August, so I have a good share of it together, I just wanted to wait until closer to the end of the decade. I have the idea broken up into fifteen posts - the Introduction, Part One: Writing About Film, Part Two: Watching Movies, Part Three: Going to the Movies, Part Four: The Oscars, Part Five: Reading About Film, Part Six: Stuff, Part Seven: Pilgrimage to L.A., Part Eight: Studying Film, Part Nine: A Major Change, Part Ten: The College Film Experience, Part Eleven: Film Festivals, Part Twelve: The Best Franchises of the Decade, Part Thirteen: The Best Films of the Decade, and the Wrap-Up. I plan on getting most of the posts up by the end of the year, with the exception of the best films of the decade, as I will most likely still be seeing some of the 2009 films for the first time into the beginning of 2010. My goal is to have that one going by the middle of January.

I hope whoever reads this blog will enjoy it as much as I have; going through all the pictures, writing, movies, books, places, websites and memories has been a pretty enjoyable experience for me.