Wednesday, April 07, 2010

It's... the Return of the Curse of the White Elephant Blogathon!


A little over three years ago, Ben Lim and his buds over at Lucid Screening came up with one of the more entertaining blog phenomena I’ve seen- the White Elephant Blogathon. It was based on the concept of a White Elephant gift exchange, in which participants will each bring one gift, usually something less than desirable, and draw names to see who goes home with which gift. Ben’s inspiration was to do the same for movies- you submit one movie, then write about another blogger’s submission. Sometimes you’ll end up with one that’s surprisingly good- in 2008 I drew Seijun Suzuki’s Princess Raccoon- and other times, well, not so much .

Sadly, Ben wasn’t able to continue the tradition this year. However, he was gracious enough to accept my offer to take over hosting duties. Due to being tied up with the Muriels and other stuff, I wasn’t able to get the Blogathon up and running in time for April Fool’s Day, the date Ben has hosted it for the past three years. Instead, I’m going to be holding it a little over two months from now, on June 15.

Why June 15, you ask? Aside from giving everyone enough time to submit their choices then procure the titles that I’ve selected for them, I thought it just seemed like a normal, boring-sounding day, one that could stand to be livened up a little by something like this. Besides, should it go well this year, I’m hoping to move it back to the original date next year.

Naturally, I’ll be sticking to the rules that Ben has laid down in previous years:

1) Submit the title of a movie that you want someone else to review (preferably something available via Netflix).
2) Review the movie that you get assigned and post the review on June 15th.
3) Have fun!

So if you’re interested in taking part this year- and you know who you are- send your submission to me at lastwordsquiz@yahoo.com no later than May 1. Please don’t submit through the comments section- I’d like to keep this year’s selections a secret if possible. And if you’d like to know more about the White Elephant Blogathon, visit your local library. Or, failing that, leave a message in the comments box.

See you on June 15th! And spread the word, will ya? The more the merrier, says I.

4 comments:

Stacia said...

DANGIT. Is it really too late to sign up? I was hoping to do it this year but heard nothing over at Lucid Screening, and just now found this announcement.

Thanks for keeping the White Elephant alive!

Paul C. said...

Stacia,

Alas, all the submitted movies have been distributed so it'd be impossible. However, if you'd like to do an "unofficial" entry, feel free to post on a favorite bad movie on your blog. Just shoot me an e-Mail at the link here if you end up doing this and we can kinda-sorta include you.

Anyway, thanks for your interest, and watch this space for next year's announcement in February or so.

Stacia said...

Ah well, at least I found it for next year!

Unknown said...

Belladonna Productions is working on some films that are really worth blogging about. Is this a good day/event to share?