The Hunger: Film Writing, 2012–2024 by Melissa Anderson

$25.00

Published by Film Desk Books, 2025
Perfect bound softcover
First edition of 1,500
276 pages
8×5.5 inches

Click here to read an interview with Melissa Anderson about The Hunger at Interview

Click here to read an interview with Melissa Anderson about The Hunger on Mubi

Click here to read an interview with Melissa Anderson about The Hunger on ScreenSlate

The Hunger assembles the best of Anderson’s film writing from, among other outlets, Bookforum, Artforum, the Village Voice, and 4Columns, where she has been the film editor and lead film critic since 2017.

Including not only reviews of contemporary and older movies but also essays devoted to the work of a single performer (such as Candy Darling and Shelley Duvall),
The Hunger showcases an exceptional voice in criticism—one that is queer but undoctrinaire, homophilic yet heterodox. The collection concludes with a wide-ranging discussion between Anderson and the critic and scholar Erika Balsom about the role of pleasure and sexuality in writing, assessing stardom in the 21st century, covering repertory cinema in New York City, and the exhilarations that the movies still provide.

On December 12 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, Anderson will sign copies of The Hunger before introducing a 7pm screening of Town Bloody Hall.

At MoMA on Friday, January 23, Anderson will introduce a 7pm screening of Nighthawks.

Anderson will introduce Trenque Lauquen at noon on January 24 at Film at Lincoln Center and will sign copies of The Hunger before and after the screening.

Other events to be announced soon.

Published by Film Desk Books, 2025
Perfect bound softcover
First edition of 1,500
276 pages
8×5.5 inches

Click here to read an interview with Melissa Anderson about The Hunger at Interview

Click here to read an interview with Melissa Anderson about The Hunger on Mubi

Click here to read an interview with Melissa Anderson about The Hunger on ScreenSlate

The Hunger assembles the best of Anderson’s film writing from, among other outlets, Bookforum, Artforum, the Village Voice, and 4Columns, where she has been the film editor and lead film critic since 2017.

Including not only reviews of contemporary and older movies but also essays devoted to the work of a single performer (such as Candy Darling and Shelley Duvall),
The Hunger showcases an exceptional voice in criticism—one that is queer but undoctrinaire, homophilic yet heterodox. The collection concludes with a wide-ranging discussion between Anderson and the critic and scholar Erika Balsom about the role of pleasure and sexuality in writing, assessing stardom in the 21st century, covering repertory cinema in New York City, and the exhilarations that the movies still provide.

On December 12 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, Anderson will sign copies of The Hunger before introducing a 7pm screening of Town Bloody Hall.

At MoMA on Friday, January 23, Anderson will introduce a 7pm screening of Nighthawks.

Anderson will introduce Trenque Lauquen at noon on January 24 at Film at Lincoln Center and will sign copies of The Hunger before and after the screening.

Other events to be announced soon.