Godfrey Cheshire III is an American film critic and film writer and director.

Personal life

Cheshire was born and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

. His parents are Sis and Buddy Cheshire. He has one brother, Sprague, and a sister, Sugar. He has two nieces, Sarah and Davi, and one nephew, Joe. He lives in New York.

Filmmaker

In 2005, he began shooting a documentary named Moving Midway, which shows the effect on his family of the moving of the family's plantation house from a site near a busy road back into the woods and a proper, tranquil setting, and at the same time, the effect on his family of learning of and meeting descendants of slaves his family had owned, including those descended from a slave and his great-grandfather.

Film Critic

He was instrumental in the founding of Raleigh's Spectator Magazine in 1978. At that time he began writing film criticism professionally. He moved to New York in 1991, and has written for numerous national and international publications, including The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

, The Village Voice

The Village Voice

The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

, New York Press

New York Press

New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...

, Interview

Interview (magazine)

Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...

, 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...

, Oxford American

Oxford American

The Oxford American is an American quarterly literary magazine "dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South."-First publication:...

, and the Independent Weekly

Independent Weekly

The Independent Weekly is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States and distributed throughout the Research Triangle area and counties .The Independent is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and has a...

.

Of special interest to him are cinematic representations of the South, Iranian film, and the transition from analog to digital technology.

He has also served as chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle.

In 2001 and in 2005, he received awards for best arts criticism from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies

The Association of Alternative Newsmedia is a diverse group of covering every major metropolitan area and other less-populated regions of North America. AAN members have a combined weekly circulation of over 6.5 million as well as a print readership of nearly 17 million active, educated and...

.