"A group of film enthusiasts posted a petition online Sunday trying to get the museum to reverse its decision. By Tuesday, 379 signatures had been collected, said Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokeswoman for Save Film at LACMA.
"That a museum as prominent as LACMA would cancel its popular film program and turn away its loyal constituency is sad. That it would treat cinema so shabbily is unthinkable," film critic and author Leonard Maltin said in a statement of support released by Dunleavy."
Full story here. As far as we're concerned, Michael Govan continues to make contradictory statements: "Film is special," he muses. "We need to make it clear it is a big deal and we won't live without film." But then he says, "It's just a matter of how long it takes to build something significant." (Hundreds of our petition signers seem to think the 40-year-old LACMA Film Program is pretty significant as it stands.)
One statistic of note: according to Govan, the average Friday or Saturday night crowd for the past 10 years has been about 250 people! (Keep in mind this is with very little advertising.) That's a very respectable number for any art house in town; certainly a major art museum should be able to sustain a program with such a loyal following.
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