Godfrey Cheshire III (born June 3, 1951) is an American film critic, film writer and director. He was instrumental in the founding of Raleigh's ''Spectator Magazine'' in 1978. He served as chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. In 2001 and in 2005, he received three awards for best arts criticism from the

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. AA ...

Personal life

Cheshire was born and grew up in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

. 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 ''Moving Midway'' is a 2007 American documentary film directed by film critic Godfrey Cheshire. The film follows Cheshire's cousin Charlie moving the Midway Plantation House and Outbuildings to a new location, and what the Midway means to his famil ...

'', 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 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 Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', '' Variety'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'', ''

The New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hent ...

'', ''

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

'', '' Film Comment'', ''

Oxford American The ''Oxford American'' is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South. First publication The magazine was begun in late 1989 in Oxford, Mississippi, by Marc Smirnoff (born July 11, 1963). The name "Oxford American" is a play on ''T ...

'', the ''

Independent Weekly ''Indy Week'', formerly known as the ''Independent Weekly'' and originally the ''North Carolina Independent'', is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and distributed throughout the Res ...

'' and

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times' ...

. Of special interest to him are cinematic representations of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

Iranian film The Cinema of Iran (Persian: سینمای ایران), also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame a ...

, and the transition from analog to digital technology. Cheshire participated in the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', '' Ali: Fear Eats the Soul'', ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», ''Bronenosets Potyomkin''), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by S ...

'', ''

Close-Up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long s ...

'', '' The Godfather: Part II'', ''

Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system * ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith * ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly o ...

'', '' A Man Escaped'', '' The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'', '' The Passion of Joan of Arc'', and '' Rear Window''.

References

External links

''Moving Midway''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheshire, Godfrey Iii 1951 births American film critics National Society of Film Critics Members Living people Writers from Raleigh, North Carolina