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True StoriesJoan Ellis: Homemaker to Film Critic After three years at Vassar College, I was married at 19. For the next 40 years while my husband built a company he started in a garage, I did the scattershot work of home and family. In the early days I kept the books, raised three children, did the school volunteer work so typical of the '50s. I had a hunch that a full academic year needed full attention, so I waited until my last child had gone off and then applied to Princeton. I was one of the first candidates for a degree under their continuing education program. Because I had met all my requirements before leaving Vassar at the end of my junior year, I was free to roam through the Princeton catalogue. My own interest in the Bill of Rights led me straight to Constitutional Law in the Woodrow Wilson Graduate School, an evening seminar with the historian, Eric Goldman, in historical writing, a seminar with Don Obedorfer, on leave from the Washington Post, plus a couple of other courses. The year was absorbing and demanding (the dean had said "You better do well, you're one of the first and they'll be watching.") Since I had been doing alumnae work for my class of 1951 at Vassar for years, I decided I wanted the degree from Vassar. So at the age of 48, I became an official member of '51, graduating that spring. With three children gone and eight grandchildren arriving, my husband and I faced our new life and realized that he wanted to travel full time and I wanted to work. At the end of five years of floundering, we ended our 40 year marriage in a thoroughly amicable divorce, and have proceeded to do both those things, independently. I have always loved both movies and writing and decided to put the two together. But becoming a critic was not easy. Getting published so I would have clips was the challenge. Finally, the local paper took me, then another, then another. I found an agent who fashioned the web page with a Dartmouth professor. Together they do the mechanics, I do the seeing and writing. Once you get published even in the smallest paper, you get the chance to prove your reliability. There's a good deal to be said about meeting commitments in older age. I was about 58 when I started reviewing, and I still do one or two a week with more in bursts when things come along like the New York Film Festival. My life now is a terrific mix of seeing movies, writing about them, friends and family, and working outdoors. The weekly deadlines of the reviews are demanding but keep the mental muscles moving while I think about several other writing projects I want to undertake. A screenplay has written itself in my head but not a word has yet made it to the page. I am interested in documentary film, a short memoir, and finding my way into writing about life in the later years. I can almost not bear it when I hear someone my age say "I'm too old for computers." The only bad thing about aging is the shrinking time frame to try new things. After years of being an average skier, I had a major breakthrough. I was about 65 when a ski instructor on Aspen Mountain showed me how to dive into my turns. For some reason, I saw it for the first time in my skiing life. At first I thought it was about '.....nothing left to lose,' but later realized I had simply figured it out intellectually It's been all pure excitement from that point on. Getting Started Joan Ellis Movie Reviews Home | True
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