About the Author

Agnes Varnum is a freelance writer, film programmer and communications manager for the Austin Film Society. She is the primary contributor to doc it out and Tribeca Film Institute's Resources.

See All Posts by This Author

There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

1. 

   Comment by Mark Schoneveld on 16 October 2009:

   Agnes! Your blog died and turned into a Twitter aggregator! Wha happened!? Please make it stop!
2. 

   Comment by Agnes Varnum on 18 October 2009:

   I’m sorry to disappoint you Mark, and thanks for the shout out. I’ve been thinking about posting for a while but to be perfectly honest, I don’t have anything to write about documentary and I’m not sure that the other stuff going on in my life at the moment is blog worthy, or whether I even want to write about what I’m up to these days. If you read my recent article in the IDA e-zine, I noted how much I identified with Josh in We Live in Public. Not the uber noterity or money certainly, but the constant attention to my digital life feels like it might be taking away from my real life.

   My blogging life has given me so much. I’ve gotten to travel and meet interesting people, including you. I’ve gotten to see films that bear witness to the real things that are happening all over our globe, and I’ve gotten to talk with people who have brought those stories back. Those of us who have made a career in documentary really are witnesses to the world. I have always taken that very seriously and I take work seriously and I’m worried that I’m missing out on other aspects of life. I don’t blame documentary for anything bad in my life, but perhaps such a singular focus is not a healthy thing. My work at the Austin Film Society doesn’t require this blog, it requires me to blog about their stuff and Austin stuff. While I’m thinking of posts for this blog, it takes away from my energy to do it at work, as I’m now devoting much more time to non-digital activities.

   I can’t say that this will last forever or that I won’t want to blog again. But I can only do it when I’m self-motivated, so, if I have the urge to chitty chat, it probably be over at AFS or on Facebook an Twitter is where you are more likely to find me. I can modify the Twitterfeed to include Facebook posts, so hopefully the feeds won’t be too annoying. I don’t want to take the blog down because the writing I’ve done here helped filmmakers and I’d like to leave up those posts so that they can continue. We’ll just have to see about the rest.

   Thanks again Mark!
3. 

   Comment by Mark Schoneveld on 19 October 2009:

   Well, I definitely don’t blame you and I completely understand what you mean. Absolutely. I think you should turn this well-put comment into a post and put your blog on hiatus. We’ll all still love you and yes, we know where to find ya.