From: email suppressed
Date: Wed Feb 18 2004 - 13:10:07 PST
I think Rohesia hits the nail on the head with this:
> I doubt that the fee-charging organizations are even
> half as capable of changing this situation as are
> certain people at federal and state budget-allocating
> levels (or foundations).
Maybe they're not the majority, but the most vocal protesters against fees, "institutions" and "gatekeepers" strike me as having a remarkably naive view of how film exhibition works.
Places like Ocularis are run by people donating their time, who work fulltime jobs to support themselves, and have very limited funds. Even at museums, film programmers tend to be underpaid and working with tiny budgets. They have to find a way to justify programming experimental work, which will not result in much in the way of ticket sales, to the beancounters they work for. To rail against abstractions ("institutions") is no help to anyone. A lot of the people within these abstractions are working very hard for very little pay to help filmmakers, indeed many of them are filmmakers themselves.
I think it's crucial that filmmakers understand these dynamics, because, really, it's in everyone's interest to do something about the atrocious cultural climate in the US, of which filmmakers and venues are both victims.
Tom Vick
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