Andrew Tracy – Editor

For the last 15 years, I’ve been fortunate to be able to combine my work as an editor and writer with my love of film — first with the independent film journal Cinema Scope Magazine; then with the Toronto International Film Festival, where I edited their triannual programming publication (the mystifyingly named 180°) for the past decade; and also during an interesting detour as a consultant and scriptwriter for the VICE TV series The VICE Guide to Film.

During my time at TIFF I also worked on the organization’s book publications, including two exhibition catalogues, final-stage copy editing and proofing for the 2nd edition of James Quandt’s anthology Robert Bresson, and more recently overseeing the entire production of Steve Gravestock’s monograph A History of Icelandic Film.

(I can also avow that I added no editorial flourishes whatsoever to the latter author’s tribute to me in his preface, which immodesty permits me to quote here: “I’ve had the privilege of working with some stellar collaborators […] especially my editor, Andrew T. who has worked tirelessly to make this book immeasurably better, clearer, cleaner, and sharper, and worked miracles with some very raw first drafts.”)

While film has been my focus, my academic background in 20th-century history and politics (including an indeterminately paused dissertation on the thrilling subject of British-Soviet cultural exchange programs), as well as my early work as a researcher, writer, and web editor for a series of government-sponsored educational websites about Indigenous culture, have helped make me a careful and astute editor for a wide variety of non-fiction material.

My emphasis as an editor is on clarity of expression above all else, from the sentence to the overall structure. I believe that every text should adhere to some form of internal logic, and over the years I’ve worked with a wide range of authors, from the novice to the greatly experienced, to help them identify and strengthen their own unique logic in their work.