Gerald Peary is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film critic, who has been a reviewer and columnist for the Boston Phoenix since 1996. He was formerly (1998–1999) the Acting Curator of the Harvard Film Archive

Harvard Film Archive

The Harvard Film Archive is a film archive devoted to cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It maintains a collection of over 9000 films and related documents, and regularly screens films in its 210 seat theater...

Professor Gerald Peary at Suffolk University, BostonThe X-list: the National Society of Film Critics and is currently the General Editor of the University Press of Mississippi

University Press of Mississippi

The University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi:*Alcorn State University*Delta State University*Jackson State University*Mississippi State University...

 Conversations with Filmmakers Series

Conversations with Filmmakers Series

The Conversations with Filmmakers Series is part of the University Press of Mississippi which is sponsored by Mississippi's eight state universities. The mission of the Series is to publish collected interviews with world-famous directors. The current Filmmakers Series editor is Gerald Peary, a...

. Since 1997, he has been the programmer/curator of the BU Cinematheque at Boston University's College of Communication

Boston University College of Communication

Boston University's College of Communication was founded on May 27, 1947, then called the School of Public Relations. Since 1947, the college has gone through many changes in both name and location Boston University's College of Communication was founded on May 27, 1947, then called the School of...

, bringing independent filmmakers to show their works. He has programmed for the Institute of Contemporary Art-Boston, the Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...

, and currently, he helps choose films for the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.

His cinema articles have appeared in many newspapers, including the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, Toronto Globe and Mail, Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

, and The Real Paper

The Real Paper

The Real Paper was a Boston alternative weekly newspaper with a circulation of 50,000. It ran from August 2, 1972, to June 18, 1981, often devoting space to counterculture issues of the early 1970s. The offices were located on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts.The Cambridge Phoenix...

. Peary has also contributed to numerous magazines, including Film Comment

Film Comment

Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...

, Cineaste, Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...

, the Boston Review

Boston Review

Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...

, Flare

Flare (magazine)

Flare is a Canadian fashion magazine. It is owned by Rogers Communications.Flare magazine was created in 1979, as a rebranding of Miss Chatelaine magazine. Flare promotes itself as "Canada's Fashion magazine"...

, and Maclean's

Maclean's

Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...

.

Peary is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics

Boston Society of Film Critics

The Boston Society of Film Critics is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, based publications.The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make "Boston's unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the...

, the National Society of Film Critics

National Society of Film Critics

The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...

, and FIPRESCI

FIPRESCI

The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...

 (the International Film Critics Association). He has frequently served as president of international critics' juries at film festivals including Rotterdam

International Film Festival Rotterdam

The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...

, Bangkok

Bangkok International Film Festival

The Bangkok International Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Bangkok, Thailand, since 2003. In addition to film screenings, seminars, gala events and the Golden Kinnaree Awards.-First years:...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong International Film Festival

The Hong Kong International Film Festival is a platform for filmmakers, film professionals and filmgoers from all over the world to launch and experience new film work. There are seminars, conferences, exhibitions, and parties celebrating the festival community...

, Karlovy Vary

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....

, Mannheim-Heidelberg, San Francisco

San Francisco International Film Festival

San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting an average of 150 films from over 50 countries...

, and Mar del Plata

Mar del Plata Film Festival

The Mar del Plata International Film Festival is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina...

. Peary has taught film studies and screenwriting classes at many universities, including The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

The University of Wisconsin–Whitewater is part of the University of Wisconsin System, located in Whitewater, Wisconsin. It became Wisconsin's second public college on April 21, 1868 when it opened its doors to 39 students taught by nine faculty members...

, Livingston College-Rutgers University

Livingston College

From 1969 to 2007 Livingston College was one of the residential colleges that comprised Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's undergraduate liberal arts programs. It was located on Livingston Campus in Piscataway, NJ. In the Fall of 2007 the New Brunswick-area liberal arts undergraduate...

, Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, Concordia University (Montreal), and Simon Fraser University (Vancouver)

Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...

. Since 1981, he has taught journalism and film studies courses at Suffolk University

Suffolk University

Suffolk University is a private, non-sectarian, university located in Boston, Massachusetts and with over 16,000 students it is the third largest university in Boston...

, Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, where he is Professor of Communication and Journalism.

Biography

Gerald Peary graduated from Rider University

Rider University

Rider University is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian university located chiefly in Lawrenceville, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States...

 in 1964, went on to earn an MA in drama from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 in 1966, and received a Ph.D. in Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 with the dissertation, The Rise of the American Gangster Film, 1913-1930. Peary was a 1986 Fulbright Fellow in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, studying Yugoslavian

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

 film comedy.

Peary moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

, in 1978 to become first-string critic for the legendary alternative weekly, The Real Paper, which folded in 1981. He is married to producer Amy Geller who, among her credits, produced For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism is a 2009 documentary film dramatizing a hundred years of American film criticism through film clips, historic photographs, and on-camera interviews with many of today’s important reviewers, mostly print but also Internet...

, a 2009 feature documentary which Peary wrote and directed. Gerald Peary is the brother of American film critic and sports writer Danny Peary

Danny Peary

Danny Peary is an American film critic and sports writer. He has written many books on cinema and sports-related topics.-Biography:...

.

Upon being asked "What drew you to film criticism?", Peary replied, "I’m a film critic for my love of film. I want other people to see the same films that I saw and love. From the age of four, I was going to movies all the time."

Books

• Rita Hayworth: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies (1976). ISBN 0-515-04116-5
• Women and the Cinema: A Critical Anthology, edited by Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary (1977). ISBN 0-525-47459-5
• The Classic American Novel and the Movies, edited by Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin (1977). ISBN 0-804-42681-3
• The Modern American Novel and the Movies, edited by Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin (1978). ISBN 0-804-42682-1
• The American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology, edited by Danny Peary and Gerald Peary (1980). ISBN 0-525-47639-3
• Little Caesar (Wisconsin/Warner Brothers Screenplays series) edited by Gerald Peary (1981). ISBN 0-299-08450-7
• Quentin Tarantino: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (1998). ISBN 1-578-06051-6
• John Ford: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (2001). ISBN 1-578-06398-7

Films

• Twist (documentary, 1992) [story editor]
• Old Warrior (documentary short, 1994) [project consultant]
• Spanish Fly (comedy, 1998) [story editor, script consultant]
• Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero (video documentary short, 2005) [appeared as himself]
• For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
  For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
  For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism is a 2009 documentary film dramatizing a hundred years of American film criticism through film clips, historic photographs, and on-camera interviews with many of today’s important reviewers, mostly print but also Internet...
  
  (documentary, 2009) [director and writer]

External links

• Gerald Peary interview by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan of NewEnglandFilm.com, 1 January 2007
• Gerald Peary interview by Robin Berghaus of BU Today, 12 November 2008
• Gerald Peary interview by Scott Macaulay of FilmMaker Magazine, 24 March 2009
• Gerald Peary interview by Shlomo Porath of Midnight East, 23 July 2009
• Gerald Peary interview by Andrew Sarris
  Andrew Sarris
  Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
  
  of Shadowplay, 28 July 2009