I have been interested in film and film-making since I was a teenager, but I have never really taken it any further than watching a few films! I’m not sure why I didn’t pursue it, I think because I had feelings of apprehension and embarrassment about it as you didn’t really see many 15 year old girls who liked to watch vintage films for example:

Gone with the Wind

film by Fleming [1939] Starring Vivien Leigh & Clark Gable.

Online Source: Bauer, P. (2020). Gone with the Wind | Plot, Cast, Awards, & Facts | Britannica. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gone-with-the-Wind-film-by-Fleming.

Fred Astaire

• BornMay 10, 1899 · Omaha, Nebraska, USA
• DiedJune 22, 1987 · Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)
• Birth name Frederic Austerlitz Jr.
• Height: 5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Online Source: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000001/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Ginger Rogers

• BornJuly 16, 1911 · Independence, Missouri, USA
• DiedApril 25, 1995 · Rancho Mirage, California, USA (congestive heart failure)
• Birth nameVirginia Katherine McMath
• Nickname Feathers
• Height: 5′ 5″ (1.65 m)

Online Source: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001677/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Penélope Cruz in All About My Mother. Photograph: Allstar

More recently, my son did an essay for his Spanish A Level. He had to write an essay about and watch a Spanish film, he chose All About my Mother, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. “This supremely confident black comedy, for which Pedro Almodóvar won the Best Director award at Cannes, is his finest film to date.” I watched the film, (with English subtitles) with my son, and I wasn’t expecting to, but I very much enjoyed it.

A link to an article in The Guardian newspaper online

Online Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/aug/26/features.philipfrench

One of my favourite documentary films is Finding Vivian Maier. At first I was interested in the article about John Maloof. One such article I found in the New Yorker. (link below)

Online Source: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/vivian-maier-and-the-problem-of-difficult-women

But then I later realised her black and white photography, (another area of interest of mine).

Its an amazing story and I was interested in both the article and the documentary.

Actor Bob Hope

• BornMay 29, 1903 · Eltham, Woolwich [now in Greenwich], London, England, UK
• DiedJuly 27, 2003 · Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)
• Birth nameLeslie Townes Hope
• Nickname: Old Ski Nose
• Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)

Online Source: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001362/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm