Phil Hall (US writer)

Phil Hall (born 1964) is an American writer, publicist and actor. He is best known for his work as a contributing editor for the online magazine "Film Threat", where he has championed independent and underground cinema. [ [http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2008/09/26/entertainment/doc48dc5cb21a90d693444890.txt "Head Underground: Taking a look at the real independents," New Haven Register, September 26, 2008] ]

Hall's "Film Threat" reviews have helped many previously unheralded filmmakers gain theatrical and home entertainment release for their motion pictures. His weekly "Film Threat" column "The Bootleg Files" highlights classic and off-beat movies that can only be seen via bootleg videos or unauthorized online presentations. [ [http://www.filmthreat.com Film Threat] ]

Career and writing

Hall graduated with a B.A. from Pace University in 1986, majoring in journalism and minoring in religious studies. [http://www.myspace.com/philhallsuperstar MySpace.com - Phil Hall Superstar - 43 - Garçon - Connecticut - www.myspace.com/philhallsuperstar ] ] .

His film writing has also appeared in numerous publications including the "New York Times", "Wired Magazine", the "New York Daily News", "American Movie Classics Magazine", Tower Records' "Pulse!" Magazine, and "Video Librarian". Since 2002, he has been a member of the Governing Committee of the Online Film Critics Society. His work in film journalism was honored in 2005 with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the B-Movie Film Festival in Syracuse, NY. [ [http://www.b-movie.com B-Movie Theater ] ]

In addition to his film journalism, he has written extensively on technology, business, history and social sciences. His writing has appeared in the "Hartford Courant", "EDGE Boston", "New Architect", and "Nation's Business". His book review column for the weekly "New York Resident" was submitted for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism for 2006, making it the newspaper's first-ever entry in the Pulitzer competition. Hall has written book reviews for "Publishers Weekly", "Kirkus Reviews", "Organica Quarterly", and "NYCPoetry.com". In September 2006, he joined Zackin Publications and became the editor of two monthly magazines: "Secondary Marketing Executive" and "Alternative Energy Retailer". [ [http://www.aer-online.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.598 Alternative Energy Retailer] ] .

Hall is the author of three books: "The Encyclopedia of Underground Movies: Films from the Fringes of Cinema" (2004) and "Independent Film Distribution" (2006), both published by Michael Wiese Productions [ [http://www.mwp.com Michael Wiese Productions] ] , and "The New PR" (2007), published by Larstan Publishing. [ [http://www.larstan.com Larstan Publishing] ] A new book, tentatively titled "The History of Independent Cinema", is scheduled for release in 2009 from BearManor Media. [ [http://www.benolmert.com] ]

Other work

From 1994 through 2004, Hall ran Open City Communications, a public relations agency specializing in the promotion of small and mid-sized businesses. He was quoted on contemporary PR issues in the "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times", and he was a guest speaker at many business conferences. [ [http://rowanmoon.com/clients/occ/ Open City Communications ] ] After Open City Communications closed, Hall went on to become the editor of PR News, a weekly trade journal; he previously authored a marketing column for the trade newspaper "Credit Union News". During 2007, he wrote a weekly column called "The PR Gospel According to Phil" for the public relations industry online site Strumpette.

Outside of publishing, Hall worked for two years as a United Nations radio correspondent for Fairchild Broadcast News.

Hall is also an actor who appeared on the VH-1 reality series "BSTV" and in the films "Land of College Prophets," "Matutitnal Reverie," "Bikini Bloodbath," "Bikini Bloodbath 2," "London Betty" and "Bikini Bloodbath 3."

In October 2007, Hall became the director of the New Haven Underground Film Festival. He had previously programmed the Light+Screen Film Festival in New York. [ [http://www.courant.com/entertainment/movies/hc-nhuff.art0sep25,0,6050409.story “Underground Film Festival Moves To West Hartford,” Hartford Courant, September 27, 2008] ]

In 2007 Leszek Drozd made the documentary short, "A Writer Named Phil Hall", which features Hall talking about his career in the media, the books he authored, and his advice for young writers who want to get published. [ [http://www.storytellersfilms.com/videos/ story tellers productions ] ]

References

External links

*imdb name|id=1843684|name=Phil Hall
*Phil Hall online: [http://www.myspace.com/philhallsuperstar]
*Entrepreneur Magazine article on Phil Hall at Open City Communications: [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_n1_v24/ai_18587839]
*Phil Hall interview at The House Next Door: [http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2006/10/planning-patience-and-reality.html]
*Phil Hall podcast interview on Fat Free Film: [http://www.fatfreefilm.com/indexPHall.html]
*Online link to the film "A Writer Named Phil Hall": [http://www.storytellersfilms.com/videos/]