By Travis Johnson
There was quite a furore recently when it was discovered that the ABC, in what can only be described as a fit of shortsighted lunacy, removed the publicly available online archive of At the Movies, the film review show fronted by living legends David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz from 2004 to 2014, effectively neutralising a huge resource of film criticism of almost immeasurable value to scholars and regular punters alike. The ABC has promised to return the missing content at some point in the future, citing a ballpark figure of “about a year.”
Meanwhile, in a brilliant bit of timing and nose-thumbing, SBS announced a mere two days later every review and interview from the entire run of The Movie Show is now available to stream on SBS on Demand.
Stratton and Pomeranz hosted The Movie Show from 1986 to 2004 before making the jump to the ABC, but the show survived their departure, being hosted by Megan Spencer, Fenella Kernebone, Jamie Leonarder, and Marc Fennell from 2004 to 2006, and Lisa Hensley and Michael Adams from 2007 to 2008. Clips from the entire run are now available – check ’em out here.
Top marks to SBS not only for making this wealth of film knowledge and opinion available, but also to perfectly timing it to take full advantage of the internet outrage against the ABC for torpedoing the At the Movies site, a bit of sibling rivalry that borders on the Machiavellian.
