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Martin Wooster
 It’s with great sadness that we share that Martin Wooster passed away in November, at the age of 64. Martin was a fixture at DCFS events, most notably the trailer programs. He would sit at the front, as he usually did, and would make cheesy jokes and corny one-liners, after trailers for less-than-promising movies. It got to the point where we would begin the program wondering what Martin would say and when. While we would laugh at some comments and groan at others, we will miss all of them at our next event. Over many years, Martin and I got to know each other before and after film screenings. Martin was intelligent, well-read, and saw almost every movie. My friend Andrew reminded me that Martin had a particular love for Takeshi Miike movies, which are bold and exhilarating, but not for the easily-offended. He always had interesting opinions and was quick with an anecdote. I learned many of them by heart, including his love of the “New York City is Hell on Earth” triple features (one example was Death Wish, Fort Apache: The Bronx, and Escape from New York) in the early 80s and his depressing sci-fi movie club, which would always catch a showing of the original Solaris. My favorite was how he got mugged in the bathroom of a theater, but still went back in to see the rest of the film. When I began running the Cinema Lounge film discussion group, Martin became a regular, first at Borders, then Barnes and Noble, and finally at Teaism. When we went online, he would often call in. Martin added so much to these discussions and was just as open to hear others’ thoughts as he was to express his own. In his day job, Martin was an accomplished writer, authoring three books and many magazine articles. You can learn more about him here, and here, and here. Martin was not Jewish, but was very interested in the faith, and we would joke that he saw more films at the Jewish Community Center than I did. He loved asking my wife Sarit, a native Israeli, about her take on films or news from that country. So, I hope he would appreciate that he is "Zichrono L'brachah" (of blessed memory). Adam Spector February 1, 2023 Contact us: |
