Birth.Movies.Death Editor-in-Chief Devin Faraci Steps Down After Sexual Assault Allegations Surface
Movie blogger Devin Faraci has stepped down as editor-in-chief of the influential blog, Birth.Movies.Death, after being accused of sexual assault.
In a message to friends and readers, Faraci wrote, “This weekend allegations were made about my past behavior. Because I take these types of claims seriously I feel my only honorable course of action is to step down from my position as Editor-in-Chief of Birth.Movies.Death. I will use the coming weeks and months to work on becoming a better person who is, I hope, worthy of the trust and loyalty of my friends and readers.”
The accusations surfaced on Twitter after Faraci shared his views on video tapes of Donald Trump bragging to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush about groping women. The movie blogger tweeted that he was “terrified” of the Republican presidential nominee and labeled his running mate, Mike Pence, an “ideological monster.” Faraci’s condemnation was widely retweeted, but one woman took issue with his statements, tweeting under the handle @spacecrone, “quick question: do you remember grabbing me by the p—y and bragging to our friends about it, telling them to smell your fingers?”
Other women offered their own stories of Faraci’s inappropriate behavior. He did not deny @spacecrone‘s accusations, tweeting, “I can only believe you and beg forgiveness for having been so vile.”
Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas owns Birth.Movies.Death, which offers up casting stories, reviews, and trailers for cinephiles. The company declined to comment. In an exchange with Variety, @spacecrone said that Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League spoke with her about her allegations and was “empathetic.”
“I am really happy that it sounds like Devin is interested in getting help about this, and I’m open to any accountability processing that might be part of his treatment,” she wrote. “I really hope this can be a moment of self-interrogation for all of us, myself included, about the ways we might use positions of power to silence people, and the ways we all turn away from things that might seem a little too complicated to deal with.”
Faraci was part of a rising generation of movie bloggers, who wrote with wit, authority, and edge, and came to define internet coverage of the entertainment business in the early aughts — a group that included Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News, Steven Weintraub of Collider, and Peter Sciretta of Slashfilm. He got his start on Chud, a movie fan site, leaving in 2010 to launch the website that became Birth.Movies.Death with Alamo Drafthouse’s backing.
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