Hey, I know that I haven’t been able to update this blog as often as I used to when I started this out, but I think it’s also time I announce that this site will be changing up its appearance later within the month so that we know something much bigger can come out from here in the future. For those who have still stuck around reading everything on my blog, need no worry, you will still be able to find my old reviews lying around as they are but there’s a whole lot more that I want this site to become.

The first big change that is set to come forth is that this site will no longer be called “Jaime Rebanal’s Film Thoughts,” but instead “Cinema from the Spectrum” in order to coincide with a podcast that I had planned on starting up later within the month for I am recording every Monday and will be published once ready. I also planned that this site will not solely be about myself for I am planning to invite new writers in order to form another team on our own behalf – so I want to create a sense of that openness first by taking my name off the site title. This won’t be just “Jaime Rebanal’s Film Thoughts” as much as it is cinema from a spectrum – for I’m only one person speaking on my own behalf as I offer my own perspective as an autistic individual that happens to be in love with the movies.

What I’m also planning is that these changes is that I’m going to develop this blog as a collaborative project in order to emphasize the lens of autistic individuals, for we still happen to remain a minority voice in the world of film criticism and the film industry – and soon enough you will be seeing our first collaborative post together with a new writer, Mercedes May. As we are continuing to assemble a team of writers in order to highlight the essence of how our views all are formed right from a spectrum, we’re taking smaller steps in order to amplify our voice to be as loud as we possibly can.

I’m also changing up the “Reviews” section in order to make newer content stand out. Every new post you see had once been plainly named “*insert X film here* – Review” but beyond changing up the familiarity of each headline, we will also include a separate section for other reviewers so that they will also have their time to shine. What’s also planned is another section for spoiler-filled essays if they were ever going to come by, because this won’t be a site dedicated just to reviewing films but we plan to go beyond that in order to give a glimpse at how cinema affects people like myself and others from the spectrum.

Those of you who have also been following me over on Letterboxd would find it easy enough to recognize my writing for I copy and paste what I write there and place it onto this template for the benefit of those not on the site. It gets a bit boring when that’s all I do, so here’s hoping we can take this site up a notch because hearing more from the voices of autistic individuals is unbelievably important to people like myself, who want to find their ways into the film industry. And to those who have been so kind enough to follow me on this journey, I think a Casablanca quote sums it all up, “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

Need not worry, my old reviews will still be up the way that you remembered them being, but there’s a whole lot more that I want to take this site to become and I feel this would be the best direction for me to take.

—Jaime Rebanal

image via IFC Films.