From: David Baker (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Feb 24 2010 - 08:16:06 PST
Pip,
Thanks very much for this information.
At least for a day then Maya's unedited Haitian footage found its
proper level at the Louvre.
Somehow that gives me hope.
I go now to Jonas Mekas with my questions.
I imagine that one way for the equilibrium to be broken
would be for people who care in the Frameworks community
to join me in extending concern to Anthology
regarding the well being of this
invisible masterpiece.
No doubt the money will come if the makers and thinkers herein
make there voices heard.
Thanks for all your good work,
David
On Feb 23, 2010, at 9:05 PM, Pip Chodorov wrote:
> We screened the totality of Maya Deren's Haiti Footage on April 4th,
> 2004 at 4pm in the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. The screening was
> organized in parternship with Anthology in the hopes of raising
> money to preserve the footage. Jonas Mekas dedicated the screening
> to Jean Rouch.
>
> What was actually screened was 240 minutes of silent 16mm footage,
> the complete unique print, the first and only time it has been
> screened in Europe. The auditorium was full, so over 400 people saw
> this footage that day. Nobody came forward with funds to preserve it.
>
> The footage is beautiful. It should be preserved - a new
> internegative could be struck for a few thousand dollars and a print
> could circulate. Deren never touched the footage or edited it our of
> allegiance to the voudoun gods.
>
> -Pip Chodorov
>
>
>
>
> At 17:37 -0800 23/02/10, Mark Toscano wrote:
>> Hi David,
>>
>> Regarding Maya Deren's Haiti footage, I've heard the raw stuff is
>> pretty amazing, but confess to knowing nothing about its
>> preservation status or ownership beyond the assumption that it's
>> controlled by Ito's estate. This is a question for Anthology,
>> really.
>>
>> mark t
>>
>> --- On Thu, 2/18/10, David Baker <email suppressed> wrote:
>>
>>> From: David Baker <email suppressed>
>>> Subject: Re: [FRAMEWORKS] Frameworker in the news
>>> To: email suppressed
>>> Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 10:57 AM
>>> Mark,
>>>
>>> A fascinating program for which one West Coast person
>>> trapped in an East Coast persons body is envious.
>>>
>>> Recently (January 26th) I was vexed by a film program at
>>> Anthology in NYC.
>>> A group from Danspace Project solicited a viewing of Maya
>>> Deren's unedited Haitian Footage.
>>> Initially they were eager to engage in a marathon viewing
>>> of the entire four and a half hour (or thereabouts?)
>>> extant reels. However they learned that the film is too
>>> fragile to be projected . The group settled for a silent
>>> 28min. on Beta,
>>> and another 33 min. on dvd (half of which was actually
>>> shown).
>>> This is all there is to be seen at this time of Deren's
>>> opus.
>>> Some days later an article reported the event in the New
>>> York Times
>>> as a "dance review",
>> > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/arts/dance/28lost.html
>>>
>>> The scant yet spellbinding footage projected was utterly at
>>> odds with the
>>> Ito cut of this material known as "Divine Horsemen:Living
>>> Gods Of Haiti"
>>> Rereading Deren's Authors Preface from the book by
>>> the same title suggested to me
>>> that the entire "unedited footage" may in fact be the only
>>> legitimate FORM
>>> this film can take. What I saw effected me as powerfully as
>>> anything I have seen
>>> in thirty years of looking at experimental film,yet the
>>> film is unprojectable,languishing
>>> in the Anthology archive since 1972. Deren's intent
>>> and orientation was explicitly that of
>>> an artist.(My orientation is specifically
>>> avant-garde/experimental
>>> and it hit me like a lightning bolt.)I know with absolute
>>> certainty Deren's footage
>>> in its entirety is of the utmost consequence to
>>> dancers,ethnographers and
>>> scholars, not to mention artists.
>>>
>>> Has anyone seen the unedited film in its entirety?
>>>
>>> What can be done to remedy this grievous circumstance?
>>>
>>> Can you help?
>>>
>>> David Baker
>>>
>>>
>>> On Feb 18, 2010, at 12:31 PM, Mark Toscano wrote:
>>>
>>> > A good reminder that I've been awful about keeping
>>> that blog active.
>>> >
>>> > To Jonathan for promoting Bordwell's blogging of my
>>> visit: thtppppp.
>>> >
>>> > But I guess I'll use this opportunity to ask if
>>> there's any topic/film/filmmaker I might work with that
>>> anyone here would be curious for me to, uh, blog on on my,
>>> uh, blog.
>>> >
>>> > I promise I'll eventually get to JJ Murphy's Print
>>> Generation. My thoughts for it involve something kind
>>> of elaborate (and I bet many of you can guess what I'm
>>> thinking), so I might have to do some other entries in the
>>> meantime.
>>> >
>>> > Mark T
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --- On Thu, 2/18/10, Jonathan Walley <email suppressed>
>> > wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> From: Jonathan Walley <email suppressed>
>>> >> Subject: [FRAMEWORKS] Frameworker in the news
>>> >> To: email suppressed
>>> >> Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 7:11 AM
>>> >> I hope this little announcement
>>> >> doesn't embarrass him, but Mark Toscano is
>>> featured in David
>>> >> Bordwell's blog this week. A very interesting
>>> entry on
>>> >> Mark's tireless efforts in preserving experimental
>>> film:
>>> >>
>>> >> http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=7017
>>> >>
>>> >> I'm sure everyone already knows about Mark's
>>> blog,
>>> >> Preservation Insanity, but in case not, it, too,
>>> is worth
>>> >> following:
>>> >>
>>> >> http://preservationinsanity.blogspot.com/
>>> >>
>>> >> Happy reading,
>>> >>
>>> >> Jonathan
>>> >>
>>> >> Jonathan Walley
>>> >> Asst. Professor of Cinema
>>> >> Denison University
>>> >> 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>.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> 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>.