From: DOMINIC ANGERAME (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Oct 02 2010 - 22:27:16 PDT
I whole heartedly agree Mark, he is rare in this day and age.He helped me out
enormously on my latest film The Soul of Things
Dominic
----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Toscano <email suppressed>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <email suppressed>
Sent: Wed, August 18, 2010 5:42:47 PM
Subject: [Frameworks] in support of Josh Rushton at FotoKem
Hi folks,
I sent this email out to a bunch of folks individually, but realized there may
be filmmakers and archivists (etc.) on this list who have had great experiences
with FotoKem master timer Josh Rushton, who was laid off (for budgetary reasons)
last week. Apparently it may actually help if enough people lodge their
complaints with the lab against this decision.
The email I initially sent out privately is below, along with the emails of the
higher-ups at FotoKem who would have some say in reversing the decision. Bottom
line is that Josh is an excellent, sensitive, thoughtful, and creative timer,
and an extremely efficient and dependable one too. He's been at it for about 30
years, and knows 16mm pos-neg and reversal film very subtly and deeply, and his
layoff is a major loss at the lab. He really has the understanding, patience,
and openness to tackle all kinds of jobs, from the most conventional to the most
oddball, as well as all the unusual archival problems that come up. I hope, if
you're a FotoKem customer, and particularly if you've had a good experience with
Josh, you'll take a few minutes to write the five people listed below. There
are too few people left who are as capable in this area as Josh, and I feel like
we can't afford to lose him, if at all possible. Thanks for reading!
*
Hi folks,
I think all of you are familiar with Josh Rushton, long-time FotoKem timer.
Some of you may have heard that Josh just got laid off from the lab as part of a
larger layoff across various departments there.
[you can skip this paragraph if you already don't need convincing that Josh's
job is worth trying to save:] In my preservation and restoration work, I've had
the extreme pleasure of working with Josh on dozens of projects, and was
devastated by this news. I understand the myriad reasons that go into laying
staff off, but because of his particular expertise in and sensitivity to
contemporary and historical 16mm filmmaking in particular, the loss of Josh is a
massive one. He understands how reversal film looks, and is sensitive to the
idea that not all films strive to appear identical. He's also timed some of my
own films beautifully. He's come up with some great solutions to difficult
timing and printing problems. Betzy Bromberg tells me it was also Josh that has
kept after the techs at the lab to keep their machines running cleanly and
precisely. I also consider him very friendly, thoughtful, intelligent, and
curious about the projects I give him,
and he handled even the most difficult projects with ingenuity and patience.
And I gave him some really hard stuff to work on! He is simply one of my
favorite timers I've ever worked with, and is one of the main reasons I've been
doing so much 16mm (and 35mm) work with FotoKem for the past few years.
I wrote a personal note of protest to some of the higher-ups at FotoKem to
express my extreme disappointment that they let Josh go, as did Betzy Bromberg,
who has also come to rely on Josh's understanding and expertise for her own
films. But we were thinking that, even if it only has a small chance of
changing their minds, it would be worth asking as many people as possible who
appreciated Josh's work to write a quick plea to FotoKem to try to get his job
back.
I was thinking of pre-writing something that people could just send with their
name on it, but it would be MUCH better if you could write something in your own
words, even the briefest protest, and mail it to FotoKem directly. I know it's
a lot to ask, especially with so much other garbage going on in the world, but I
hope you'll find the few minutes needed to do it.
Here are the folks to write to (per Jerry Roskilly):
Bob Roskilly, Walt Rose, Jerry Roskilly, Dan Muscarella, and Bob Semmer
and here are their email addresses:
email suppressed
email suppressed
email suppressed
email suppressed
email suppressed
***And PLEASE pass this on to as many folks as you know that have used FotoKem
and may have worked with Josh. I just sent this to the people I could think of
off the top of my head, and I know I'm missing tons of other folks.***
thanks for reading,
Mark Toscano
(writing on behalf of himself)
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