Henry Adams’ glasses rest on a page in the June 2023 issue of French film magazine La Septiéme Obsession on Aug. 12. The issue, centered around director Christopher Nolan, included discussion of Nolan’s once-unavailable short film “Tarantella.” Photo by Melissa Houston
One day during the COVID-19 lockdown, I decided I wanted to start watching as many classic movies as I could.
Since that day — sometime in early 2021 — I’ve carved out being a “big movie guy” as a part of my identity. I’ve watched almost 600 movies since then – over 100 in the past 3 months alone – discovering some of the greatest stories and impactful wisdom throughout my adventures.
That simple decision to educate myself on movies has had ramifications far beyond developing a love for cinema. Naturally, it helped me discover my creative side, but its ripple effects were further reaching than that.
Before I had an inkling of what I wanted to study in college, my love for the movies drove me toward an oddball completist endeavor.
As one of my early forays into serious movie-watching, I did a deep dive into Christopher Nolan’s filmography. I didn’t just watch every one of the “Inception” director’s movies, though. I also noticed his Wikipedia page listed two short films from early in his career from before he directed a feature film or achieved a shred of fame. Each had been publicly shown three decades ago – one on an obscure local PBS program, the other at a mid-sized film festival – but never been made available since.
I wanted to change that. So, I got in contact with the local television producers who — unbeknownst to them — had aired the first-ever Christopher Nolan film. Months later, after setting in motion a major search effort in a Chicago VHS archive, one of these shorts, “Tarantella,” was digitized, uploaded online and seen by humans outside of Nolan’s personal circle for the first time in about 30 years.
Now, hundreds of thousands of fans have seen this once-locked-away 5-minute film. Is it anything great? Not really. But it sure is neat to be able to peer into the early career of one of today’s most famed filmmakers. Several news outlets have since reported on the unearthing, and a British film academic even wrote a detailed analysis of the film for a book about the director.
Consequentially, it became an experience I looked back upon to inform my career decision. By becoming a student journalist, I could continue chasing down stories — big and small — that add something to the world bigger than myself.
But without deciding on a whim that I wanted to start watching more movies, I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today.
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