As you can tell, by glancing through our website, we take film lists very seriously. It is our bread and butter. We love to compile them, we love to refer to them, and we love bringing them to you. We - quite frankly and embarrassingly - have databases and spreadsheets coming out of our a---s. Make no mistake, referring to and utilising film lists is an extremely useful tool (otherwise, we probably wouldn't be here) that can assist in the discovery of many wonderful films and filmmakers that you may have previously not encountered. They Shoot Pictures is indeed primarily a film list resource, and, as we mention above, we make no bones about that: We firmly believe that They Shoot Pictures is, if nothing else, an excellent starting tool for aspiring movie buffs to begin (and also plan) their 'serious' film-viewing experiences. Jonathan Rosenbaum in one of his recent Chicago Reader blogs (in which he cited They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?) stated that “lists have always played an important role in my own film education, and over the last decade or so they’ve taken on an increasing importance in my writing.” ‘Important role’ is the key phrase here. The importance of film lists cannot be underplayed, however, as useful a tool as they are, in helping us make decisions on what to watch next – they should not be considered the be all and end all of a film lover’s reading diet. Additionally, no matter how many films one watches, a deeper understanding of film, as an art form, cannot be attained unless one hits the shelves and digests some of the more important, educative and influential texts on cinema. These texts assist us in thinking about film in a new, and more often enlightened way, and subsequently aid us in our analysis of an individual film or of a director’s body of work. The internet is a wonderful resource for film lovers. There is a wealth of intelligent material available to us, and we should be incredibly thankful for that. Unquestionably though, it will always run a distant second-best when compared to the incredible range of essential books written on the cinema (by the likes of Manny Farber, Andrew Sarris, David Bordwell, James Monaco, André Bazin, and many, many others), but it is still an important avenue of information and insight for all serious film followers, and thus cannot be dismissed. An influential film-friend of mine once suggested to me that for every 50 films you see, you should try and read at least one academically-inclined film book. This comment came from a gentle, complex man who had just finished reading Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie Guide from cover to cover! - Bill Georgaris