c/o Intercut
Intercut serves as the University’s film and moving image journal, publishing thoughtful opinion pieces, personal essays, and analyses covering film, TV, and media culture. Since its first publication in September 2017, students have covered topics ranging from female connections in the Czech New Wave film library to the history of adapting the animated Scooby-Doo franchise to live action. Regardless of its subject matter, Intercut approaches each edition by carefully considering varied opinions and representations.
The types of articles Intercut publishes are varied. They tend to consist of concise and well-written essays on various pieces of media, ranging from beloved TV show “Gilmore Girls” created by Amy Sherman-Palladino to cinematic horror classics like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” Intercut serves as a way for the cinematically-inclined among the student body—regardless of major—to write about what really excites them in the film world.
Currently, the magazine is part of a number of student publications that saw a post-pandemic revival. Previously run by Hannah Carroll ’23, Intercut is now headed by Sloane Dzhitenov ’24 and Owen Wiley ’24 as editor-in-chief and assistant editor, respectively. Noelle Schultz ’26 and Arla Hoxha ’25 now head the arts section of Intercut, which features all the lovely original film-inspired art seen in every issue of the publication.
Though writing an extra essay isn’t for everyone, it can’t be denied that Intercut occupies an important niche in the University’s film culture and community.
“As Wes is such an arts-based community, Intercut just provides another avenue for people to share their passion for and/or experiences with a specific form of art (film/TV in this case),” Wiley said. “It’s sort of like a feature-length version of Letterboxd. As someone who has written pieces for Intercut, I appreciate the ability to speak about pieces of media that have made a large impact in my life but may not be particularly well known to most people.”
Of course, the making of Intercut is (as all worthwhile endeavors are) not an easy task. The editorial team is required to manage a multitude of moving parts, including appointing student editors to work with student writers. Sometimes, editors are also writers, making scheduling a logistical nightmare. With that in mind, we asked Wiley what he thought the most difficult aspect of running Intercut was.
“In terms of running Intercut, Sloane takes care of most of the heavy lifting, but it definitely seems like the hardest part is making sure everyone meets their deadlines,” Wiley said. “We’re all busy college students with way too many commitments, and choosing to write a whole extra essay for fun is a brave and noble task that not all may survive.”
The magazine publishes one edition each semester that is completely managed, written, edited, and illustrated by students. This semester, Intercut’s publications will be expanding beyond film essays to include film and TV reviews, in hopes of making the magazine more accessible for all readers and writers.
Although the application deadlines to write or edit for this semester’s edition have already passed, there will be another chance to participate around the beginning of the spring semester. Students can expect a new edition of Intercut to be published sometime toward the end of the fall semester. All past issues are viewable on Intercut’s website. Keep an eye out for physical publications as well! While last spring’s issue of Intercut, Issue 13, has yet to be published, word is that previous Editor-in-Chief Carroll, and previous Creative Director Olivia Miller ’23, are working hard to get the issue out into the world.
For more news on Intercut, contact either Sloane Dzhitenov at adzhitenov@wesleyan.edu or Owen Wiley at owiley@wesleyan.edu to be added to the magazine’s Listserv, and to be notified once applications to write for this coming spring’s edition of Intercut open.
Nicole Lee can be contacted at nlee@wesleyan.edu.
John Earling can be contacted at jearling@wesleyan.edu.