From: DOMINIC ANGERAME (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2008 - 16:16:23 PST
Hi Jason...Columbia College is one of Canyon's main renters and I want
to thank you for that support.....it has helped immensely......I know
that there are several experimental fms teaching at UCB and maybe they
are using their collection. I know Phil Solomon has purchased many
films for such use....however, many films are not available for
purchase, to the best of my knowledge, such as Sitney Peterson
who now seems to be forgotten....it is very seldom that we rent a film
by James Broughton, and many more....too much to discuss here....
Dominic
--- On Wed, 11/26/08, Jason Halprin <email suppressed> wrote:
From: Jason Halprin <email suppressed>
Subject: Re: Experimental films showing at various Universities
To: email suppressed
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 6:45 AM
Hi Dominic,
I do not dispute that the issue you bring up is quite valid, but it appears to
me that some of the connections you make below between single faculty members,
the value of experimental work in the eyes of a particular department, and the
frequency with which they rent from Canyon may not be accurate.
In the case of my alma mater, CU-Boulder, a quick check of their current
faculty would reveal a list of experimental artists and classes featuring
experimental production. Also, It should be noted that the two (critical
analysis) courses I took from Stan Brakhage featured mainly narrative film, so
perhaps it was the disappearance of his weekly salon that really accounts for
some of the drop in rentals. I'm speculating about that last point, but it
should also be brought up that CU, like a number of other institutions, has a
sizeable archive, so perhaps a push was made for faculty to use resources that
had already been purchased and housed on site before renting prints to show in
class. If one of the current CU faculty on this list would like to correct me
or add on to this, it would be appreciated.
Another example I might bring up is the institution where I teach, Columbia
College Chicago. The focus of our film program is not experimental, and it is
safe to say that the 25 or so students (we have about 2000, yes 2000 film &
video students) who sign up for the Optical Printing class each semester
represent the bulk of our students who are making experimental 16mm work. We
show films from Canyon in class almost every week (viewing "Alone, Life
Wastes Andy Hardy" last night in class is the highlight of my week). The
weekly rentals are supported by the course fees, and I'm fortunate to have
stepped into a situation where a rental budget was already in place. Perhaps
Columbia is an outlier in this discussion, but as the two people who teach
Optical Printing are adjunct faculty, our "retirement" would leave no
room to argue for an appropriate replacement (something you point out as a
likely situation), though it is plausible that someone who could
teach the Printing class would be hired. I think the more likely reason that
you would see rentals decline (actually, cease), would be an elimination of the
course entirely. That is something I would fight against, but as I'm not
allowed to vote on the committee that would ultimately make the decision,
rhetoric would be my only weapon.
I'm on the side of keeping places like Canyon up and running, which is one
of the reasons I site when justifying the costs of showing rented films in
class. If the school were to have purchased two films per semester for the last
ten years, we would have an adequate archive for our needs, but I'd rather
not leave it up to our library to care for the films and to have the choice of
entire catalogs of films to choose from.
Urging people who teach to take an active interest in their replacement is a
good start. I suggest that more arguments be articulated regarding the value of
showing art, and specifically film, on its original medium. And, I'd like
to hear other opinions about this issue...
-Jason Halprin
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:31:24 -0800
From: DOMINIC ANGERAME <email suppressed>
Subject: Experimental films showing at various Universities
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I originally address to Gene Youngblood, however thought I would put this o=
ut there to the entire list.
Dear Gene,
I know that you have retired,=A0 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,=A0 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.=20
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>.