An Update From The Birth.Movies.Death. Team

This site has always prided itself on speaking its mind, and it’s in that spirit that we want to say the following: the ongoing epidemic of sexual harassment and assault revelations have been difficult for this site to cover, largely because we were caught up in that story, as well.

As you might expect, this created complications on every imaginable front. Every demand that we talk about these events might be accompanied by a charge of hypocrisy, a concern that left this team in a precarious position: trying to balance our obligation and desire to cover this ongoing story with our unique position within that story. Obviously, this was a situation we wanted to navigate properly, and that meant not navigating it quickly. 

In grappling with how to handle the situation, we understand that our silence read to many as inaction. For that, we are sorry. 

What we’ve witnessed in the industry over the past six weeks is no longer a handful of scandals; it’s a full-blown seismic event, one that will likely continue to instigate change throughout Hollywood and beyond. Something this important and unprecedented deserves to be treated with no small amount of care, respect and thoughtfulness. 

That this ongoing tsunami of revelations came on the heels of our own troubled history has weighed heavily on us here at BMD. Given everything that’s happened, we honestly weren’t sure how to proceed. Responsibility and humility collided, and to be frank, we froze. A site that’s had its own struggles in this area is putting itself in the crosshairs simply by wading into these waters. We could hear the comments before you wrote them, because if you thought it, we thought it, too. But we had to get past that. We had to get past worrying that it looked bad if we did report, and that it looked bad if we didn’t report, and as we debated it internally, we left you guys hanging. We’re human, and we’re learning as we go.

But we know that isn’t a satisfactory answer. Letting past baggage keep us from shedding a light on what’s going on in our culture is perpetuating a wrong, and none of us are okay with that. This movement is impacting the industry in substantial ways, bringing about important and much-needed change, and going forward we’re going to report on that change. It is our goal to be more comprehensive in our coverage and to spend our time amplifying the right voices in these stories. We believe that doing so will help create a safer, more inclusive environment at both the Alamo Drafthouse and BMD. If we didn’t believe this to be possible, rest assured we would not still be here.

We want to advance this important dialogue while acknowledging our own involvement in it. We understand we may have lost some of your trust with the delay, but we’re taking that step now, and we hope you’ll take it with us.

Respectfully,

The Birth.Movies.Death. Team