Joey, with much respect for your works and while I don't have any solutions, Canyon's becoming a not for profit seemslike a good start. Perhaps then some in "the industry" who claim earlyinspiration from experimental films will get out their checkbooks. Keeping Canyon going wouldn't take that much. Perhaps some in the Bay Area couldform a fund raising committee.At the risk of bringing up an old issue here, I am disturbed that nowherein the debate is it mentioned that there is a unique aesthetic value, formany films, to presenting them as originally intended, on film. Yes,projectors are harder to find; yes, some schools won't pay for rentals. Idon't have any solutions to all that. But if the members of this listwon't even acknowledge the particular qualities of film projection, andthat so many of the greatest works of the avant-garde were made with those particular qualities in mind, and that such works often lose hugely on video, then the "battle" is over before it has even begun. You can hardlytry to find projectors and rental funds if you don't even care.
Similarly, instructors who don't care about this difference can hardly explain itwith any passion to their students. I have found that many students canindeed appreciate the unique qualities of film with only a little explanation and encouragement.David Tetzlaff:"...everything needs to gets digitized, and made available in a medium rez form along with prints. So, when you rent a print of 'Cosmic Ray' fromCanyon, you get an SD DVD of 'Cosmic Ray' to put on reserve in the libraryfor the length of the term...."This does not even acknowledge that there are still filmmakers, stillliving filmmakers, perhaps even in my view some of the very greatest offilmmakers, who refuse to "digitize" their work because they feel too muchis lost. Is there no respect at all for the artist's intentions withregard to her or his work?
Fred Camper
Chicago
