My love for movies

Hi, my name is Emmanuel. Ever since I was 8 years old, I have always cherished and loved going to the movies. In my lifetime, I even had the pleasure of working at three different movie theaters 🎭. Everytime was a different experience, but easily the best jobs ever. Today I want to talk about the joy and pleasure of a great movie going experience.

The Anticipation

I grew up in the 80’s. The birth of MTV, some of the best pop music you could imagine, and Movies that were fundamentally important in my life. There were only 2 ways of finding out if the movies were worth watching, word of mouth, and Trailers. I remember around the time “Star Wars :Return of the Jedi” was coming out. My neighbor hood friends would talk about it. My friend Shawn had a red Star Wars shirt and I thought it was so cool. There was an electric feeling in the air. It was my destiny to see this movie. Unfortunately going to the movies was an absolute luxury for my family, but I begged my Mom. Back then I almost felt like I had Jedi mind powers ,plus I was really cute. So my mom finally caved in. Siskel and Ebert use to have a show that would come on every Sunday. I remember loving listening to them argue, but when they would agree on a good movie they would give it two thumbs up. 👍🏿 I always trusted and loved their reviews. Movie trailers were a good way of making you excited too. Now a days you have at three different trailers before the release of the movie. Back in the day, you were lucky to catch one on television 📺. Which is why making to the movies on time was really important . I remember seeing the trailer for “Gremlins” in the movie theater and being excited but terrified at the same time. To this day, “Stripe” makes me uncomfortable. 😂 Anticipation is just the start of celebration. There is the moment of truth.

The moment of truth

Finally Watching “Return of the Jedi” for the first time was special. It was the first movie that I could not only see , but I could touch, taste and smell it as well. For example, in the forest of Endor chase scene was on screen, that is the first time the biker scout is shown. I remember whispering in my sister’s ear, “That’s my biker scout!!!” He was indeed my favorite action figure. I remember opening him up and smelling that glorious new action figure smell. I loved his cool little blaster that I would put in his hand. Over time it was tough keeping in his hand . I loved my biker scout and all those thoughts and memories flooded my mind in the theater. I could taste the chocolate quick I would make in my Burger King “Return of the Jedi” glass. The colors of Jabba’s palace would pop and almost seem to come to life with the chocolate background. The movie was pure joy for 8 year old me. It was everything I could ask for in a movie. Kudos to George Lucas. Recently well two years ago watching “Avengers:Endgame” gave me that child like joy in the movie theater. The movie as a whole was fantastic, but the “On your left” moment put me over the moon. It was an almost out of body experience. I wanted to cry 😭, laugh, and just go crazy. It was Amazing and even saying that seems like an understatement.

Reflecting

So much of my identity came from loving and cherishing movies. As you can imagine, 2020 was quite a challenge for me. Most theaters shut down and that left a huge void in my heart. I began to think maybe this is a great time to start creating. I eventually started a podcast/Instagram live show called “Special delivery show 🍀” This forced me to prepare and write . This website also brought back my love for writing. As the world, slowly starts to open back I will continue to create and watch movies. This is who I am. Thank you to all the creators out there.