From: Tony Conrad (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Feb 06 2009 - 08:07:51 PST
Because the online form is limited to 150 words, I am sending an abbreviated
version of the following letter online, and I have also sent hard copy to Ms Levin.
-----------t0ny
February 7, 2009
Kate D. Levin, Commissioner
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
31 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007
Re: Saving the New York Film-Makers’ Cooperative
Dear Ms Levin:
The New York Film-Makers’ Coop is far more than a member-operated cooperative
society. Begun as a fragile “coop” in the idealistic 1960s, it has nevertheless
survived because:
1. The NYFMC is the sole open distribution source for the major as well as the
minor masterworks of independent cinema culture on the east coast, let alone New
York.
2. The NYFMC houses the world’s most extensive collection of indigenous American
media work of the 20th century, invaluable in the way of great library or museum
collections.
3. The NYFMC has stood as the core institutional center around which New York
independent film culture circles. The others – Anthology, Millennium, the
Kitchen, and many newer but significant film houses – have a clear relation to
the NYFMC as the founding center of their activity.
4. The NYFMC collection includes functionally irreplaceable works by several
generations of historically recognized American film artists whose work has been
funded by the NYS Council on the Arts, the NEA, the Rockefeller (and other)
foundations – and who are the subject of increasing study and international
attention today.
5. Operating on a perennially pinch-penny budget, the NYFMC has long offered some
of the most bang for the buck among any New York cultural organizations.
And
6. Because of its unique history and social development, replacing the NYFMC will
never be possible.
Please help New York save this embattled and fragile monument to New York’s
independent film, suddenly threatened at the worst possible moment.
Best wishes,
Tony Conrad, Professor (and filmmaker!)
Department of Media Study
University at Buffalo
Buffalo NY 14260
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.