I kind of saw this coming. I hadn’t seen Gerald Wright at a screening in quite a few weeks, and I worried he might be ill. I Emailed him to no response and asked another colleague who told me he had retired. I tried not to worry too much, but I had gotten so used to seeing Gerald at screenings, often in his regular seats — us film critics are nothing if not consistent— that his absence was felt quite quickly. Maybe he had retired, but surely, he would have told someone… or maybe he did, because I only just realized that he was no longer on the NYFCO roster that went out in mid-August. He loved being a part of NYFCO, so he must have known that he wasn’t well to retire.
Imagine my shock when I received a text from a mutual colleague pointing to this post by Gerald’s girlfriend. This was posted in late July that he had died three days earlier, and I have no idea why I didn’t see it… or maybe I just didn’t think to check on Facebook since he didn’t really post much there. Anyway, this is actually a video, although I just took a screenshot.
Since not everyone even in the NYC film critic circles knew Gerald, I’m going to tell you about him from my perspective, having spent probably 14 to 15 years chatting with him at screenings. He was a regular, and he would go to many screenings each week despite being at least 70, and he would put many younger film critics to shame, especially the fact that he continued to come to movies once COVID and after movie theaters and screening rooms reopened.
He was extremely diligent, often printing out the press notes or screening invite so he’d have all the pertinent info like run times, cast, etc. I mean, he took this job really seriously even at a point where he could have probably retired and not gone through all the rigamarole that comes with being a film critic. Gerald showed the kind of dedication that I wish I saw in more of New York’s current film critic roster, who would rather get a screener than get off their ass, and watch a movie the way it’s meant to be seen. But honestly, Gerald would never complain about that. He’d just do what he did and let everyone else do whatever they wanted. He was quite laid-back even if he did take his job seriously.
I believe that at one point Gerald was a musician, and we spoke about that a bit, but I never learned too many details. Would love to know more about that if anyone else can share.
Anyway, this was really sad to learn about, especially since I’ve lost so many good friends and colleagues in the last couple years: William Wolf, Louis Proyect, Stephanie Green… and that’s just part of getting old or older when there’s so many awful and incurable diseases out there taking down some of our best and most wonderful friends.
R.I.P. Gerald… you were a good person and a good friend, and I hope you’re somewhere better than this city that you loved so much.
(I was going to write this in the morning, but I figured I should just write something now while the feelings are fresh.)