Every programming choice needs its counter, and every canon should be challenged. The Great Movies: The Counter Programming series seeks to undermine the ongoing Great Movies Project. By recognizing the glut of white, European and Anglo-American, straight dudes who generally constitute what we think of as “the masters,” it becomes necessary to widen the frame.
This is an ongoing project to watch a set of films from non-white, non-Western, non-straight, and/or non-dudes. It will be ongoing, probably, forever. Please feel free to chime in about titles and movements I have overlooked, as I know beyond all doubt there are many. The point is not to slam universally loved and respected films. The point is simply to broaden a conception of where films have been made, by whom, and to what ends or concerns. The larger point, as always, is to discover hidden gems in the rich history of cinema. I hope you enjoy it.
