About US
Like so many others, we love cinema. We love good stories, unforgettable characters, long run times, film grain, dolly zooms, third acts plot twits, theater houses, retrospectives, production trivia, academic theory, and everything in between and beyond. There is so much to love that we needed a creative outlet to convey our thoughts, to capture that indescribable feeling generated by cinema. Cinema As We Know It aims to do just that with reviews, essays, and features that provide loving thoughts on the world of cinema. We don’t want to claim we know better than anyone else, or that we have the definitive take on a subject. Rather, this is simply cinema as we know it, and we hope you’ll join us for the ride.
Greg Arietta
Favorite Film: Back to the Future
Starting from a young age when his dad put on classic creature features, Greg can’t remember a time when he wasn’t a connoisseur of cinema. He graduated from the University of Washington with a double degree in Cinema & Media Studies and Business Finance, and while attending, he was the president of the UW Film Club for four years, helping transform the student organization into a hub for film culture on campus. There he launched a podcast and website for students to openly express their opinions as well as fostering the club’s presence in the Seattle film community. He has since taken residence at CAWKI where his fascination with American blockbusters, B-rate horror films, and all things Francis Ford Coppola flourishes. He is a current member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
THEO ROLLASON
Favorite Film: Princess Mononoke
Theo is a film writer based in the United Kingdom. Theo completed his bachelor’s degree in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh before going on to do an MA in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, where he wrote his thesis on neoliberalism and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He now lives in London, where he can be found reading, watching movies and grumbling about politics. Theo loves Varda and Miyazaki, and won’t shut up about Ratatouille.
Kevin connEr
Favorite Film: The Social Network
At too young an age his parents left copies of The Princess Bride and The Exorcist in the VHS player, leaving Kevin with a fear and fondness of the inconceivable. Over the years, he has been President of the University of Washington's Film Club, a Program Researcher at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and a volunteer Documentary Office Assistant during the Sundance Film Festival. Kevin is currently a Senior Programmer for the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, the world's largest film festival for emerging filmmakers.
Megan Bernovich
Favorite Film: Alien
Megan is a film publicist from Tacoma with a pair of degrees in Communication and Cinema & Media Studies from the University of Washington Seattle. She has worked for the Seattle International Film Festival’s PR team as well as Washington State’s film commission office. She spent a couple years with a global marketing firm representing studios including A24, Disney, Warner Brothers, and Paramount. Most recently she was the Film Marketing Coordinator at the Austin Film Festival. She has a serious penchant for the Avant-doc and early-80s sci-fi.
Ivy Pottinger-Glass
Favorite Film: Me And You And Everyone We Know
Ivy studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh and now works in publishing. She’s also a filmmaker who debuted her first film at local festivals in 2019 and has recently worked as part of a team on a BBC Scotland documentary. Ivy started reviewing films in 2016 for The Student, Europe’s oldest student newspaper, and whilst on a year abroad in Seattle studying at the University of Washington, she became a member of the university’s Film Club and undertook an internship at the Northwest Film Forum. Ivy has a real soft spot for mumblecore and is a big fan of experimental cinema.
Dante Hay
Favorite Film: A Clockwork Orange
Dante likes long takes and 80s synthwave. Dante is a sensitive soul, appreciative of films of feelings from the formal looseness of Hou Hsiao-hsien to the sustained anxiety of Paul Schrader. He dreams of one day making that film, you know, that one. He is pursuing a degree in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University, but is only so educated that his favorite Kubrick is A Clockwork’s Orange. He has worked the frontlines, manning the popper behind the counter at a movie theater, and he has worked small productions as an understudy. He is ready to get talking and get walking in the world of cinema.
