(Just) 215 hours on screen

Back in November, I realized with dread that my annual list of films seen was falling behind where I was at the same time last year. Like, significantly behind. In 2015, I apparently found the time to see over 160 feature films. I have no idea how. On the last day of 2016, the year ends and I’ve fit in just a shabby 146 movies.

I know, it’s sad.

I logged the films I saw on own spreadsheet, of course. Because I’m a big ol’ movie nerd. But this year I also added them to my Letterboxd profile; you can visit that beauty and peruse the films I found time for here.

It’ll say I only saw 137 films in 2016, but trust me, it’s 146. Where’d those other 9 films come from? Those would be obscure film festival submissions I screened over the summer, so obscure they neither made it into the Festival nor into movie databases. I watched them so you didn’t have to.

Here’s what I know about the movies I saw this year:

• 40 of them (27%) were documentaries, down from 44 (28%) in 2015.
• A measly 16 appear to be from foreign countries. I honestly have no idea how this happened and am a bit ashamed by the paltry showing. 2017 resolution: get back to seeing good foreign films.
• In an effort to understand my viewing habits, I looked at how many movies I watched in each month. June saw me squeeze in 22 films in 30 days, while I only managed five films in April and September. Consistency is not my strength.
• I only saw six films made before 2000, 11 made in 2014 or earlier. Clearly, catching up on older films is less of a priority than seeing what’s in current release.
• I saw 43 films in theaters, or roughly 3 and a half films per month. I mostly watched films on a variety of streaming platforms, from Netflix to iTune to various screening links.

I know it sounds silly to say, but I’m really not proud of this list. That is, I’m totally happy with the quality of films I saw – there’s a lot of good stuff in there to choose from. But I’m disappointed it isn’t more robust overall. There’s so much I haven’t yet seen! I suppose that’s what January is for. That, and starting my list of films seen in 2017.