Eric Melin is a freelancer for the Lawrence Journal-World and lawrence.com. He writes the Scene Stealers blog.
Recent Stories

The top 10 films of 2015
Looking back at a madcap year in movies
2015 was an unpredictable year for movies.

Between 'Chi-Raq' and a hard place
Kevin Willmott on the strong reactions to his and Spike Lee's bold, timely new film and how it has been misconstrued from the start.

'Mass' effect: How a KU graduate wrote a gangster film starring Johnny Depp
Kansas University graduate Mark Mallouk is having quite a week. On Friday, “Black Mass,” starring Johnny Depp as notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger — the movie he wrote — opened in over 3,500 theaters nationwide.

Kevin Willmott talks Spike Lee, 'Chiraq,' teaching at KU
The KU professor and filmmaker dishes on his controversial new project with Spike Lee, his favorite movies and one thing every budding screenwriter should know. Principal photography recently wrapped on the new Spike Lee film “Chiraq,” which he co-wrote with the director and stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett and will debut in December, in time for awards consideration. By Eric Melin

The films of the Free State Festival
This year's film portion of the Free State Festival features locally made student films to major festival darlings and their filmmakers.

See/Saw Film Festival to take viewers back to childhood
“What does it mean to grow up in the 21st century?” That’s the tagline for the See/Saw Film Festival, April 24-26 at the Lawrence Public Library.

Predicting this year’s Oscar races
Film critic makes his picks for who will take home Oscars this year and who will be snubbed.
The 10 best films of 2014
This year's list features films about vampires, aliens and teenage punk rockers, plus the most disappointing films of 2014..
The films of the Free State Festival
Because of all the other media and art-related events and activities, it may be easy to forget that the Free State Festival started as the Free State Film Festival. Here’s a preview at some of the movies showing this year.
KU professor spotlights pair of influential filmmakers in new books
Douglas Fairbanks and Peter Weir are two filmmakers who have fascinated Kansas University film studies associate professor John Tibbetts for a long time.