Amy Taubin (born September 10, 1938) is an American author and film critic. She is a

contributing editor A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a "high-end" freelancer, consultant, or expert who has proven ability and has readership dra ...

for two prominent film magazines, the British ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' and the American ''

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...

''. She has also written regularly for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', '' The Millennium Film Journal'', and ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'', and used to be curator of video and film at the non-profit experimental performance space

The Kitchen The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was foun ...

. Taubin attended Sarah Lawrence College as an undergrad and received an MA from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. Taubin is also a filmmaker,

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, and educator. She is one of the people visible in

Michael Snow Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are '' Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the ...

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

Wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, t ...

''. Taubin has served on the board of trustees of the Anthology Film Archives; She was named as a Distinguished Art Historian-Teacher at the New York School of Visual Arts, Department of Humanities and Sciences; and has served on the selection committee for the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In 2020, Taubin was awarded a writer grant, in the short-form writing category, by the Warhol Foundation. In her statement on receiving the prize, she said she planned to use the funds to survey the '"time machine of cinema available on our home screens."'

Selected works

Books

* ''Ghosts in the Machine'', Village Voice, 1998. * ''Douglas Gordon: through a looking glass'', co-authored with Gagosian Gallery, Hal Hartle and Kay C. Pallister, Gagosian Gallery, 1999. * ''Taxi Driver'', BFI Publishing, 2nd ed., 2012. * ''James Nares'', co-authored with Glenn O'Brien and Ed Halter, Rizzoli International, 2014. * ''The complete films of Agnès Varda'', co-authored Michael Koresky, Ginette Vincendeau, So Mayer, etal., (The book is part of a 15-disc Blu-Ray collection) The Criterion Collection, 2020.

Articles

* ''"So there, Orwell": 1984: a video review'', co-authored with John Howell, Louisiana World Exposition, 1984. * ''Stands by his man on Peter Fonda's The hired man'', Artform international, October 2003. * ''Eastern exposure on recent Asian cinema'', Artform international, November 2004. * ''Common sense'', Film comment, Vol. 52, no. 6, November/December 2016.

References

1938 births Living people American film critics National Society of Film Critics Members The Village Voice people American women film critics 20th-century American journalists American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American women 21st-century American women {{film-critic-stub