Joel Gunz

Host, HitchCon, The Darkness of Future Past & MacGuffin Film Club

Joel Gunz believes that the search for meaning is among the highest of human pursuits, and it’s this impulse that drives his work. He’s a writer, filmmaker, the host of the annual HitchCon International Alfred Hitchcock Conference and an annual David Lynch-themed film conference as well as the weekly MacGuffin Film Club. His recent publications include “Hitchcock’s Hermetic Hermeneutics” (Anthology title TBA, David Sterritt, ed., forthcoming 2026), “Travels in Hitchcock’s Multiverse” (Re-viewing Hitchcock: New Critical Perspectives, Robert Kapsis, ed., 2025) and “A Comparative Look at Hitchcock’s Murder! and Mary” (Hitchcock Annual, Sidney Gottlieb, ed., 2025). His 2021 film essay Spellbound by L’Amour Fou was selected by several festivals and won Best Short Documentary at the Medusa Film Festival. Joel and his partner, Christy La Guardia, live with their beagle, Charlie, in Seattle, Washington.