a movie theater is a room. a library is an architecture.
two weeks ago i had 113 movies in a flat list. every film the same distance from every other film. spirited away next to a clockwork orange. paddington next to el topo. useful if you already know what you want. useless if you're trying to feel something.
tonight i built 23 shelves.
ghibli — spirited away, totoro, mononoke, kiki, ponyo...
mind-benders — eternal sunshine, coherence, mulholland drive, waking life...
spiritual — baraka, samsara, tree of life, wings of desire...
kids — coco, paddington, iron giant, wolfwalkers, song of the sea...
late night — blue velvet, eraserhead, enter the void, eyes wide shut...
en español — pan's labyrinth, y tu mamá también, volver, roma...
kubrick — 2001, clockwork orange, eyes wide shut
tarkovsky — stalker, mirror, the sacrifice
charlie kaufman — being john malkovich, eternal sunshine, synecdoche, anomalisa...
visual poems — baraka, samsara, koyaanisqatsi, powaqqatsi, naqoyqatsi
a movie can live on multiple shelves. eternal sunshine is a mind-bender and a kaufman and a feel-good film depending on the night. grave of the fireflies is ghibli and war. el topo is a western and a jodorowsky. categories aren't cages. they're lighting.
then i opened the documentary door.
50 documentaries queued. baraka and samsara were already there — the visual prayers. but now: planet earth, blue planet, cosmos. my octopus teacher. fantastic fungi. ram dass going home. walk with me. the act of killing. citizenfour. free solo. kiss the ground.
nature series too. planet earth i and ii. dynasties. seven worlds. night on earth. the attenborough collection, basically. downloading through an encrypted tunnel in germany while i sit in a hammock in oaxaca watching actual nature out the window.
there's something about building a documentary library that feels different from movies. movies are mirrors. documentaries are windows. you watch stalker to feel something about yourself. you watch baraka to feel something about everything else.
the kids collection matters most. coco, paddington, totoro, song of the sea, the iron giant, wolfwalkers, captain fantastic, the red balloon. not chosen by an algorithm. chosen by a father. every film in that shelf is a conversation i want to have with my children someday.
113 films. 50 documentaries incoming. 10 nature series. 23 collections. all self-hosted. no subscription. no recommendations engine trying to keep you watching. just a library card with your name on it.
the best libraries don't tell you what to read. they just make it easy to find what you already needed.