From: Freya (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Sep 09 2008 - 04:37:49 PDT
Heres some of the really good things about Frameworks:
The posting about a badge for American party politics, has evolved into a discussion about the politics of the list, the politics of the experimental film scene, the relationship betwen plitics and art, and sometimes even about experimental film and the nature of Rules in an experimental film context, i.e. the postings have drifted more and more on-topic instead of the other way around as you might find on many internet lists. I suspect that if you did post about the green socks or whatever, then it would also quickly mutate onto a related topic, like people with green socks in experimental films or even the nature of colour and B&W in experimental film.
Generally all the people on this list are genuinely intrested in experimental film to some extent, even if they are not super knowlegable on the subject. There are probably a few exceptions but there are always exceptions.
Frameworks is generally largely left unmoderated. In fact I notice that Pip always stays far away from silly discussions that may happen. It's up to us to work it out and we usually do, because we talk about things and come to a greater understanding. There are guidelines about what Frameworks is about but there is nobody really imposing rules on anyone (even if some people might like to try and have a go!) ;)
There are different people with different ideas about how Frameworks should be and yes, some of those people may try and impose their view of what Frameworks should be like or even occosianally will come here and tell us what Frameworks *is* all about but as someone pointed out we all have Freedom of speech so people are free to put that point of view and other people are free to put their point of view to the contrary or to disagree. Ultimately it's a moot point as Frameworks is the sum of it's parts and what Frameworks is, is down to the people who post here. Frameworks may be one way today and in the future it might be different again. Some may think there was a golden age of Frameworks and people may disagree about when it was completely! Maybe that golden age is right now even, :)
There is quite a diversity of people on Frammeworks, okay we often try and make it seem like there are only two factions, the filmmakers and the academics, probably because it neatly leads into all kinds of discussions that we just love to have here! The truth is that there are all kinds of people here. There are all kinds of filmmakers, there are all kinds of academics and there are people a little into both or either camp, and people involved in all kinds of other things, festivals, distribution, organisations, labs etc. There are also people with different outlooks on life etc generally whoever they are. These different outlooks are really helpful because it gives us a rich tapestry of perspectives and plenty to disagree about and to come to greater understandings and even fresh perspectives!
Of course, as with people, what we most hate about someone is also what we most love about them at the same time! It's what makes individuals special.
So it is with Frameworks also, where we sometimes have discussions that include personal remarks or put downs of individuals. Thats a bad thing but the good thing about this is that Frameworks always seems able to deal with these things without it really getting out of hand.
Frameworks is a great resource. How often do we see people here post trying to find people or prints or trying to reasearch paticular topics. I myself had incredible help this year in this capacity for which I am very grateful for. In fact how often in life have people genuinely helped me, or even been able to genuinely help me? People on this list really helped me this year, at a time when I was still very much struggling psychologically with the mess my head had become. I'm sure other people have had similar experiences whether they realised it at the time or not.
Frameworks is one of the few places that people can find out more about experimental film, especially for those who are cut off from the centres of such things or from the little scenes out there or from academic resources, and thus have very little access to such information.
I'm sure theres loads more that could be added to the list but I've chosen to stop there. I just wanted to mention these things as we sometimes get so caught up in the litle things that it stops us seeing the bigger picture. We can't see the wood for the trees and we can't see the wonderful things that are obviously there because we are too caught up in something else that is probably less significant.
love
Freya
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.