Seth Barry Watter
@sbwatter.bsky.social
new york, ny | author of The Human Figure on Film (SUNY, 2023) and of articles on film, media, the human sciences, psychiatry
scholarly writing here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seth-Watter
scholarly writing here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seth-Watter
Pinned
Seth Barry Watter
@sbwatter.bsky.social
· Sep 22
Seth WATTER | New York University, New York City | NYU | Department of Media, Culture, and Communication | Research profile
Seth WATTER of New York University, New York City (NYU) | Read 14 publications | Contact Seth WATTER
www.researchgate.net
I'm in the process of porting all my stuff over from Academia dot edu to ResearchGate, at least until I can get my own website back up and running: you can now find most of my writing (academic or otherwise) over at www.researchgate.net/profile/Seth...
Reposted by Seth Barry Watter
If you’ve been inspired by the Video Data Bank #VDB in the past, consider adding your name to an open letter to #SAIC urging them to reinstate the staff and support the mission of this unique #VideoArt distribution resource:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reinstate VDB Staff
Please click here to see signatories
To the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Administration and Board of Governors:
We write as concerned stakeholders who have no confidence in SAIC's current ...
docs.google.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:32 PM
If you’ve been inspired by the Video Data Bank #VDB in the past, consider adding your name to an open letter to #SAIC urging them to reinstate the staff and support the mission of this unique #VideoArt distribution resource:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
As soon as I saw that Frank Gehry died my first thoughts were of Mike Davis' hardboiled poetry in City of Quartz: "Frank Gehry as Dirty Harry"
December 5, 2025 at 8:41 PM
As soon as I saw that Frank Gehry died my first thoughts were of Mike Davis' hardboiled poetry in City of Quartz: "Frank Gehry as Dirty Harry"
Syllabus construction: the eternal struggle between making life boring but easier (through repetition of material) and making it interesting while driving yourself crazy (with lots of new prep).
December 5, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Syllabus construction: the eternal struggle between making life boring but easier (through repetition of material) and making it interesting while driving yourself crazy (with lots of new prep).
Reposted by Seth Barry Watter
NYU folks, come join us next Thursday!
December 4, 2025 at 9:33 PM
NYU folks, come join us next Thursday!
Joan Crawford on acting: "The written words weren't too important.... I knew that the writer would be grateful to me. His words were dead words. They were brought to life by me."
December 4, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Joan Crawford on acting: "The written words weren't too important.... I knew that the writer would be grateful to me. His words were dead words. They were brought to life by me."
Where the real battles in higher ed are fought
December 3, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Where the real battles in higher ed are fought
Interesting film of the South Bronx before it became the torched landscape you see in Wolfen. I came across this title in a book of film reviews for mental health workers; it was commissioned by Lincoln Hospital, later famous for a strike that locked the white drs and management out of the building.
Portrait of the South Bronx 1965 | Full Film HD
YouTube video by Buyout Footage Historic Film Archive
www.youtube.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Interesting film of the South Bronx before it became the torched landscape you see in Wolfen. I came across this title in a book of film reviews for mental health workers; it was commissioned by Lincoln Hospital, later famous for a strike that locked the white drs and management out of the building.
Come to think of it, I've never used a formal grading rubric, nor has anyone ever asked me for one. Sometimes we don't realize how good we have it.
December 1, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Come to think of it, I've never used a formal grading rubric, nor has anyone ever asked me for one. Sometimes we don't realize how good we have it.
Love Letters (1983)
December 1, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Love Letters (1983)
"A suitable audience, one which would find this film meaningful and a constructive use of their time, has not been conceived by the reviewer." This seems to be about as close as a professional medical writer can get to true bitchiness.
November 27, 2025 at 2:57 PM
"A suitable audience, one which would find this film meaningful and a constructive use of their time, has not been conceived by the reviewer." This seems to be about as close as a professional medical writer can get to true bitchiness.
I gave this a listen recently because the cover was so striking and it took me a while to even find the band's name on it. Glorious, especially the B-side—somewhere between prog, jazz, and psychedelic folk. Is this sui generis, or is there more Canadian music like this that I just don't know about?
HARMONIUM - LES CINQ SAISONS - FULL ALBUM - CANADIAN UNDERGROUND - 1975
YouTube video by MECA PD CHANNEL
www.youtube.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:12 AM
I gave this a listen recently because the cover was so striking and it took me a while to even find the band's name on it. Glorious, especially the B-side—somewhere between prog, jazz, and psychedelic folk. Is this sui generis, or is there more Canadian music like this that I just don't know about?
I don't see how you can both attend SCMS next year and "stand in solidarity" with those who aren't. Academics are typically good at twisting words around, but this one truly defies comprehension.
November 26, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I don't see how you can both attend SCMS next year and "stand in solidarity" with those who aren't. Academics are typically good at twisting words around, but this one truly defies comprehension.
RIP to the great Jimmy Cliff. I never cared much for his work after Harder, but his soundtrack for the film and his performance in it have been a major part of my imaginative life for at least 15 years. The energy, the intensity, the ecstasy and also the inwardness of this scene are unparalleled.
Jimmy Cliff Recording The Harder They Come In Studio Session
YouTube video by Perry Henzell
youtube.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:15 PM
RIP to the great Jimmy Cliff. I never cared much for his work after Harder, but his soundtrack for the film and his performance in it have been a major part of my imaginative life for at least 15 years. The energy, the intensity, the ecstasy and also the inwardness of this scene are unparalleled.
While everyone else is enjoying Noirvember, I'm still basically in the throes of a long October. (from I Walked With a Zombie)
November 23, 2025 at 10:54 PM
While everyone else is enjoying Noirvember, I'm still basically in the throes of a long October. (from I Walked With a Zombie)
It's amazing that people still write books that are just summaries of films. This approach might have made sense in the twentieth century when many films were hard to see—and the author's main achievement was simply having seen them—but with today's easy availability it should be analysis or bust.
November 23, 2025 at 9:06 PM
It's amazing that people still write books that are just summaries of films. This approach might have made sense in the twentieth century when many films were hard to see—and the author's main achievement was simply having seen them—but with today's easy availability it should be analysis or bust.
My reading aloud of Justin Chang's delightfully witty takedown of the new Wicked has only succeeded in my child insisting we re-watch the first Wicked sooner than later
November 23, 2025 at 2:10 PM
My reading aloud of Justin Chang's delightfully witty takedown of the new Wicked has only succeeded in my child insisting we re-watch the first Wicked sooner than later
I don't know what to make of Sirat. Very effective in its own way as a sort of L'Avventura + Wages of Fear + Squid Game experience, but like so many other films released by Neon, it feels wrapped around a core of emptiness.
November 22, 2025 at 1:57 PM
I don't know what to make of Sirat. Very effective in its own way as a sort of L'Avventura + Wages of Fear + Squid Game experience, but like so many other films released by Neon, it feels wrapped around a core of emptiness.
Yesterday, while highlighting passages in a very dull book about neurology, a waiter asked me if I was an actor studying a script. I am going to interpret this as meaning that I am extremely attractive and should appear on TV
November 21, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Yesterday, while highlighting passages in a very dull book about neurology, a waiter asked me if I was an actor studying a script. I am going to interpret this as meaning that I am extremely attractive and should appear on TV
Is there any especially good writing on film and "persuasion," in the rhetorical sense? It seems to have a presence in research on documentary, but as a theme it is largely absent from the nontheatrical field.
November 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Is there any especially good writing on film and "persuasion," in the rhetorical sense? It seems to have a presence in research on documentary, but as a theme it is largely absent from the nontheatrical field.
Remember when Michael Rapaport was really funny in Spike Lee's Bamboozled? If there's anything I've learned from Facebook reels recently, those days are long over
November 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Remember when Michael Rapaport was really funny in Spike Lee's Bamboozled? If there's anything I've learned from Facebook reels recently, those days are long over
People who know about Bollywood: Can you think of any films that specifically thematize psychiatry in some way? I recently came across a statement in a history of shock therapy to the effect that Indian films often depict ECT inaccurately, but the authors gave no film titles or examples.
November 19, 2025 at 6:42 PM
People who know about Bollywood: Can you think of any films that specifically thematize psychiatry in some way? I recently came across a statement in a history of shock therapy to the effect that Indian films often depict ECT inaccurately, but the authors gave no film titles or examples.
Gaslighting starts earlier than I realized. Apparently a contingent of boys in my daughter's first-grade class has started telling the girls, "Ladies, ladies, calm down." The speakers include a boy notorious this year for breaking open a can of paint and permanently defacing the schoolyard with it.
November 17, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Gaslighting starts earlier than I realized. Apparently a contingent of boys in my daughter's first-grade class has started telling the girls, "Ladies, ladies, calm down." The speakers include a boy notorious this year for breaking open a can of paint and permanently defacing the schoolyard with it.
I just saw that the great Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai has passed away. Ichikawa's Conflagration, while a mediocre film, has one of Nakadai's finest performances as the disabled student Togari. His halting, twisted walk in the schoolyard has to be one of the most striking entrances in cinema.
November 11, 2025 at 12:14 PM
I just saw that the great Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai has passed away. Ichikawa's Conflagration, while a mediocre film, has one of Nakadai's finest performances as the disabled student Togari. His halting, twisted walk in the schoolyard has to be one of the most striking entrances in cinema.
If I had to live in any American city other than New York, I'm starting to think it should be Baltimore
November 10, 2025 at 9:08 PM
If I had to live in any American city other than New York, I'm starting to think it should be Baltimore