Before there was CineScene, there was Cinema-l, a listserv devoted to the discussion of movies. A kind of community grew up around Cinema-l. We knew each other's tastes and styles, although we rarely met in person. After years of reading interesting and provocative views on film, most of which vanished into the e-mail ether, some of us had the bright idea in 1999 of starting an online zine where we could post our writing. Foremost among the movers and shakers was our first editor, Sasha Stone. Since then, the editor's chair has been filled either by myself or by my colleague Ed Owens. But the character of the website has remained essentially the same - an outlet for movie lovers who happen to enjoy writing about film.

I like to think of CineScene as an alternative to the run-of-the-mill film reviewers and sites, with their systems of stars, letter grades, and thumbs pointed up or down. There are more interesting things to say about movies than merely rating them with an eye to the market. CineScene contributors are encouraged to write about films from a personal perspective, and state their opinions without fear or favor.

By going online, we have gone beyond our origins. You don't have to belong to Cinema-l to write for us. Just send your stuff to: dash_filmsnob@yahoo.com, be it a film review or a think piece about a trend in movies, or anything else related to cinema. We write about films of the past as well as the present, about the careers of filmmakers as well as individual films, shorter pieces along with big essays. There really are no limits.

Everything we publish belongs solely to the writer, and will be withdrawn if the writer requests it. We do reserve the right to edit submissions for reasons of length, grammar, etc. We never deliberately alter the sense or purpose of a piece. There is, unfortunately, no remuneration for our writing. We are all doing this for the sheer love of movies. And that, I think, adds a certain freedom to our work as well.

Thanks for visiting CineScene, and please feel free to write to the above address with any comments or suggestions.

Chris Dashiell
Editor