From: Steve Polta (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2008 - 13:18:28 PST
Hi Dominic. I did not intend to speak for Canyon and I apologize if it came across that I was doing so. I understand that the business model and procedures may have changed since I was involved. And I deeply appreciate the continued existence and work of Canyon Cinema and the Film Co-Op (and you as the long-time Director of Canyon) in making this film accessible at all.
My comments could be read as advisory to virtually anyone seeking to make a profit in delivering a specific "product" to a specific "market." You gotta let 'em know what you have and why they should care. I wish the value of experimental film was self-evident but it's not. And pushing it really is hard work, often thankless.
To speak for Cinematheque: Honorarium rates have certainly increased over the last fifteen years. We *do* try. And I truly wish they could be higher.
(And for what it's worth, none of the staff of three is anywhere near getting rich off Cinematheque: to a large degree, I actually support myself with a full time job completely unrelated to film, a job which I enjoy immensely.)
--- On Wed, 11/26/08, DOMINIC ANGERAME <email suppressed> wrote:
> From: DOMINIC ANGERAME <email suppressed>
> Subject: Re: Experimental films showing at various Universities
> To: email suppressed
> Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 12:01 PM
> Well Steve....you have opened a can of worms.....To correct
> some things
> that Polta states about Canyon Cinema. When Steve worked
> here it was
> more than 8 years ago...our Board is not passive at
> all...It has
> raised quite a bit of capital from private donations that
> has helped us
> stay in business...The Board is in the process of re
> vamping the
> website and creating a non profit organization for various
> purposes we
> have actively sought out international rentals, I have
> traveled and
> presented Canyon programs at festival such at the Nashville
> International FF, Big Muddy Film Festival, New Orleans
> Film
> Festival, Havana Film Festival and in the future to Japan
> and other
> places...too many to list here.
>
>
>
> Steve...the phone no longer rings...it is all email....I
> appreciated
> your work on the Board here and the two years as an
> employee.....however, many things have changed since you
> have
> left.....Canyon actively rents continuos projection of dvds
> to Museums
> and Galleries...
>
>
>
> I wish you would not speak for Canyon Cinema since you have
> not been
> actively involved for more than four years and have no idea
> of what is
> keeping us alive.... Instead you should be speaking for the
> Cinematheque that still pays its filmmakers a pittance (I
> do not think
> the honorarium has gone up in more that 15 years) for
> showing films to
> a nearly empty venue....and yet has a staff of three
> people.
>
>
>
> Dominic Angerame
>
> Director, Canyon Cinema
>
> --- On Wed, 11/26/08, Steve Polta
> <email suppressed> wrote:
> From: Steve Polta <email suppressed>
> Subject: Re: Experimental films showing at various
> Universities
> To: email suppressed
> Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 10:51 AM
>
> Not to start a big fight or anything but perhaps it would
> behoove the
> distribution coops to address this more directly than by
> posting to a discussion
> board. Yes——the material conditions are changing, and
> loyal faculty are
> retiring. But perhaps it would be worth the coops
> developing outreach strategies
> by which their collections could be "sold" to
> institutions. To play
> devil's advocate here, let's ponder: "Why are
> these films
> important?" "Why *should* instructors show these
> films to their
> classes?" "Who really cares?" Many of us on
> the list have
> opinions on these questions, but these opinions are not
> penetrating into the
> classrooms (other than obliquely). What can a distributor
> do to infiltrate these
> institutions? Creation of study guides? Convincing creation
> and distribution of
> information (i.e. promotional material) on collections?
> Assembly of rental
> packages and possible related reader-type material? These
> are just ideas. The
> co-ops' business
> model (from what I can tell, and I worked at Canyon for
> three years and was on
> their board for——was it four?) is, by its nature,
> passive——essentially a
> wait-for-the-phone-to-ring type deal, virtually no outreach
> or promotion of
> collections. You can bet that such operations as text book
> distributors,
> mainstream video distributors, and the more active
> "niche"
> distributors (such as Newsreel and Women Make Movies) work
> very hard to create
> "sales tools," make phone calls and otherwise
> talk up the
> educational/cultural value of their holdings in an effort
> to "drive
> business". While I realize the cultural forces
> "against us" are
> great, in my opinion, such strategies would be something
> for the co-ops to
> consider...
>
> Steve Polta
>
>
> --- On Tue, 11/25/08, DOMINIC ANGERAME
> <email suppressed>
> wrote:
>
> > From: DOMINIC ANGERAME
> <email suppressed>
> > Subject: Experimental films showing at various
> Universities
> > To: email suppressed
> > Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 1:31 PM
> > I originally address to Gene Youngblood, however
> thought I
> > would put this out there to the entire list.
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Gene,
> >
> >
> >
> > I know that you have retired, however, I was curious
> if
> > the
> > person who replaced you had any experimental film
> > inclinations. Canyon
> > no longer receives any rental requests from the
> College of
> > Santa Fe and
> > it was, until your retirement, one of our biggest
> > renters, The
> > unfortunate situation appears that a lot of experiment
> film
> > classes or
> > programs are mostly one person driven. Once that
> person
> > retires the
> > replacement is no longer interested in experimental
> cinema.
> > I first
> > noticed this when Dick Myers retired from Kent State.
> He
> > use to rent at
> > least $1500 a year for film screenings. Canyon has not
> > received one
> > film rental request since he left. The same is true
> for
> > Occidental
> > College when Chick Strand left, all rentals stopped.
> Stan
> > Brakhage use
> > to rental at least $5000 worth of experimental films
> from
> > Canyon a
> > year....now the requests from UCB have dwindled down
> > considerably. This
> > is the same for the San Francisco Art Institute,
> School of
> > the Art of
> > Chicago, University of Oklahoma and many more places
> too
> > numerous to
> > list here.
> >
> >
> >
> > What I might suggest to those on the list that are
> still
> > teaching and
> > plan to retire to try and have a say about the
> replacement
> > and their
> > interest in experimental cinema. It would certainly
> help
> > the field stay
> > alive. I realize that often times teachers have no say
> in
> > who their
> > replacement will be.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> >
> >
> > Dominic Angerame
> >
> > Exec. Director, Canyon Cinema
> >
> >
> >
> __________________________________________________________________
> > For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> > <email suppressed>.
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.