Re: Examples of personal documentaries... And where to get them

From: Pablo de Ocampo (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Jan 26 2007 - 07:36:14 PST


Roger,

Thanks for piping in on this one! It disturbs me how much people use Netflix
without thinking twice about it.

Another option that is often overlooked is your local library. I do realize
that from city to city, funding will dictate what a library is able to do,
but often libraries are open to taking suggestions for their catalogues and
librarians LOVE documentaries. Distributors like Women Make Movies, Facets,
First Run, Arab Film, even Video Data Bank often have work at public
libraries. I've put in many requests for such work with the Multnomah County
Public Library system in Portland, Oregon. Over the years they've acquired
work by Peter Watkins, Su Friedrich, John Gianvito, Leslie Thornton, Walid
Raad, Jayce Salloum, Jill Godmillow, Harun Farocki, and many others....

And if you live in Sioux Fall SD, I imagine you might have more luck getting
the library to get things like this than you would at the corner video
store.

Just a thought.

-p

}- - - -- - - - - - {

Pablo de Ocampo
Artistic Director
THE IMAGES FESTIVAL
448-401 Richmond Street West
Toronto. Ontario M5V 3A8 Canada
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20th Edition>>>> 5-14 April 2007 >>>>>>
    

> Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:08:46 +0100
> From: Roger Beebe <email suppressed>
> Subject: Re: Examples of personal documentaries
>
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> Y'know, if you live in NYC, instead of renting from Netflix (which is
> really the Starbucks of video rental), you could go to a REAL VIDEO
> STORE. How about Kim's? While it's great that Netflix has lowave &
> Other Cinema & Peripheral Produce DVDs (if I remember correctly),
> wouldn't it be nice to encourage people who really care about these
> things & make an effort to support independent/experimental work
> (beyond just adding it to their catalogue of 60000 titles)? If you
> live in Sioux Falls, SD, then maybe Netflix is your best option. But
> if you've got a good local video store in your town, USE IT. They
> may not have all 60000 titles, but I'm sure they'll care a lot more
> about the ones they do. And what about all the great stuff on VHS
> that's never made it to Netflix--like the Peter Rose Facets tapes,
> for one of a thousand examples. Or for a more pertinent example,
> what about Alan Berliner's great personal docs Nobody's Business and
> Intimate Stranger. VHS only, I'm afraid. (You can still get his
> penultimate film, The Sweetest Sound, on DVD, presumably from
> Netflix--although Kim's devotes a section to his work.)
>
> Jeez,
> R.
>
> p.s. Full disclosure: I own a video store in Gainesville, FL with a
> section of experimental films (as many as we can afford--but we could
> afford more if people would realize that as convenient as Netflix is,
> they're still a massive corporation of the kind we're mostly supposed
> to be uncomfortable about).

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