With 52 weekly episodes now completed, the Film at 11 podcast has reached its milestone one-year anniversary. Rather than review another movie this week, we’ve decided to take a look back at the past year, decide which films were our favorites, which were our least favorites, and maybe consider whether any of our initial ratings need some adjustment.
As someone who’s been obsessed with movies for most of my life, and as a parent who has struggled to share that love of cinema with his children, I started the Film at 11 podcast as a thinly-veiled excuse to make my twin 11-year-old sons watch some movies with me and discuss them afterward. Much of that effort (but not all) has focused on films from when I grew up or came of age in the 1980s and 1990s. What I’ve found is that those episodes tend to do better in terms of views on YouTube than than the episodes devoted to newer movies from the last couple decades. I guess that means I’ve struck a chord with other parents my own age.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m only ever going to watch movies from the ’80s and ’90s with my kids from now on. I believe that a real film education requires viewing a broad range of content, of all types and from all time periods, new and old. If anything, I’m going to try to push my kids to watch things outside their comfort zones – perhaps some serious weighty dramas, perhaps more classic films from the early days of cinema. If that means I never reach Mr. Beast viewership levels, I suppose I’ll just have to live with that somehow.
Not to worry, I’m going to ease them into that. The boys are still ‘tweens, after all. Finding things that will hold their attention is the top priority.
If you’re capable of doing math, you should be able to put together that the boys aren’t 11-years-old anymore. In fact, they haven’t been for a few months. I’ve held off acknowledging it publicly, but yes, I now have a set of 12-year-olds. As such, I’ve debated what to do about the podcast title. When I started the show, I felt that Film at 11 was a clever pun, but it’s not technically accurate anymore.
Should I change the title to Film at 12? That doesn’t have nearly the same ring, and would require that I change the name of the podcast every year for as long as this goes. It’s difficult enough to build an audience under the best of circumstances. Repeated breaks in continuity would probably kill any momentum I have.
Should I just keep the title as Film at 11 and acknowledge that it doesn’t really mean anything now? I don’t love that idea either.
After some deliberation, we’ve decided that, going forward, the podcast should be rebranded with the new title Film After 11. It sounds close enough that some viewers may not even notice the change, while at the same time it’s broad enough to work for however long we need it to.
In other respects, this should be a seamless transition. The podcast will retain the same style and format, just with a slightly updated logo. I hope you’ll continue to follow our cinematic journey and find some entertainment in it.
The Video File Blog 
Joseph is speaking my language with his two requests for Terminator and Aliens. The first one being literally the reason I watch, love, and collect movies. When I was their age, I was pretty close minded about movies myself. I only liked action , horror, and comedy. No dramas or old movies (with a few small exceptions).I don’t even remember when I started to show interest in all genres from different countries and eras. Probably my mid to late twenties. When my daughter was their age, she used to love watching movies with me, now not so much. I definitely miss that. Anyways, congrats on the one year milestone and keep it up.
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