Miles at the Movies: A Personal Look at the Silver Screen

By Miles Cigolle

It all started when I was just four or five years old. I was a shy little boy. We were living in Albuquerque on 17th Street in the adobe house with its high adobe wall around the enclosed backyard - paradise really, where my parents had someone construct a wishing well and we four kids played in the covered portal for days. My father Edward surprised us. He brought home a 16mm home movie camera, a Honeywell, complete with a set of flood lamps. It was compact, heavy and made a smooth clicking sound like a cat's purr. Edward kept it hidden away in the front hall closet. He brought it out for special occasions: birthdays, family vacations, Christmas mornings for sure when we opened up our presents under the tree. Over the years Dad made dozens of short 5-minute movies including the family trip to Cuba. Decades later as adults, my brother Mark had them all digitized onto easy-to-watch DVDs. They were the best gift I ever received. Every few years Abbey and I pull them out and take a leisurely stroll down memory lane. They really are complete little movies, each with a story line, actors and actresses, cameo appearances, even surprise endings. I always cry. The cinematography is uneven, sometimes someone's head is cut off. But it has its moments of utter brilliance, like with a record Christmas Day snowfall in the backyard with Mark pushing the red sled by the cameraman Edward, with my sister Debbie onboard upfront waving wildly, my twin Melanie following behind, trudging through the heavy snow to catchup, her hands overflowing with presents and me and my mother Terry, standing close by, looking on in total astonishment. Over a decade later when I was a senior in high school, Edward surprised me again and gave me my own movie camera, this time a Rollei. He must have understood I was lonely. Mark and Debbie were off to Princeton and Brown. The house was too quiet with just Melanie and me. I filled the time with m Rollei. This round I'd be both the director and cameraman. My only actress would be Melanie and our Siamese cat Tania. That camera helped me through a lonely senior year. I took it with me to Cornell making amateur movies of that strange new beautiful place. At Cornell I soon discovered the Cornell Cinema where art films were shown nightly in a real cinema auditorium. That was a godsend. My film buddy Philip introduced me to the wonderful worlds of Bergman, Kurosawa, Antonioni, Fellini, Truffaut, Hitchcock and so many more. My love affair with the movies was launched. It would become a lifelong passion. This collection of movies varies greatly. The common thread is movies that love and want to share with others. Many are overlooked films that deserve more attention. I purposely limited the number of blockbusters in this group. It's the smaller scale, more personal films that attract me the most. Many of the films come from the emerging genre known as "queer cinema." My hope is that someday that label will disappear and all cinema will belong in one family of man. Miles Cigolle

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BYR7SPLZ
• ISBN13: 9798387572784
• Release Date: March 2023
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 112 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"