The silence is deafening...

Save Film at LACMA has secured a date to meet with Michael Govan—Sept. 1. This so-called "popcorn summit," has as its stated goals to convey the critical importance of the LACMA film program for our community; help find ways to reinstate and enhance the museum's commitment to film; and present Michael Govan with our petition. The meeting location is still unconfirmed. Present at the meeting will be film scholars, movie critics, film lovers and others deeply affected by the museum's decision. We are pleased Mr. Govan committed to this meeting.

At the same time, we are puzzled by LACMA's lack of response to Martin Scorsese's passionate letter published in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section's front page (Aug. 13). This letter was a moving plea to LACMA leadership to come to its senses and recognize the error of cancelling the film program. Scorsese also asked the museum to declare its commitment to film as an art form, calling LACMA's action a "serious rebuke to film within the context of the art world."

We wonder about the meaning of LACMA's silence. Given the outpouring of dismay over the cancellation, LACMA owes it to our community to engage in open, honest, civic dialogue.
So far we've seen form letters and boilerplates filled with double-speak from LACMA—even on their so-called Discussion Forum. Damage control is not enough. We demand to know what the museum's intentions are for the film program.

While we look forward to hearing, in our meeting, Michael Govan's thoughts on the subject, the museum—a public institution—owes Los Angeles, and now, the world, a public response. LACMA needs to communicate to its constituents its answer to Scorsese's letter and a recognition of the many voices of dissent.

Movie lovers unite

Commentary in the blogosphere is growing in leaps and bounds this week, particularly in the wake of Martin Scorsese's passionate and well-researched open letter (see our previous post), published online and in the print edition of the Los Angeles Times.

• Anne Thompson at indieWIRE writes: "Govan is talking about focusing on new directors and experimental cinema, which misses the point of building a large following for serious classic programming. The point is, this kind of program can only work with support from above and a clear direction."

(Note the comment by Chop Shop's acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani that follows her piece.)

• The MSN Movies blog asserts, "This decision, one that should be reversed, is sad, bad and needs help."

• The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City extends a hand in solidarity: "We here at the filmlinc blog were saddened to see our left coast brethren lose such a precious venue through which to experience cinematic rarities. . . . film lovers coast to coast are up in arms."

• Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed feels "a twang of envy" at our success so far as he recalls LACMA's defunct Monday Evening Concerts: "Saving the film program at LACMA without significant institutional support won’t be enough. LACMA has to first care as much about once more bringing together a broad arts community as it does about getting its hands on Eli Broad's bank account."

• David Hudson at The Auteurs Daily encourages readers to sign our petition, then notes: "Today marks Alfred Hitchcock's 110th birthday and what better way to celebrate than to revisit a tribute from, yes, Martin Scorsese, in which he 'restores' a film that was never made: The Key to Reserva."

An Open Letter to Michael Govan and LACMA

Photo Credit: Andrew Medichini / Associated Press

From the Los Angeles Times:

I am deeply disturbed by the recent decision to suspend the majority of film screenings at LACMA. For those of us who love cinema and believe in its value as an art form, this news hits hard.

We all know that the film industry, like many other institutions and industries, has to be radically rebuilt for the future. This is now apparent to everyone. But in the midst of all this change, the value and power of cinema’s past will only increase, and the need to show films as they were intended to be shown will become that much more pressing. So I find it profoundly disheartening to know that a vital outlet for the exhibition of what was once known as “repertory cinema” has been cut off in L.A. of all places, the center of film production and the land of the movie-making itself.

My personal connection to LACMA stretches back almost 40 years to when I lived in L.A. during the '70s and regularly attended their vibrant film series, programmed by the legendary Ron Haver. It was actually at LACMA, during a 20th Century Fox retrospective, that I first became aware of the issues of color film fading and the urgent need for film preservation. Ian Birnie, a programmer of immaculate taste and knowledge, has continued in the tradition of Ron Haver, who was so well-versed in cinema past and present. I do not understand why this approach to programming needs to be re-thought. I am puzzled by the notion of pegging future film programming to “artist-created films,” as stated in the letter announcing this shift – to do this would be tantamount to downgrading the worth of cinema. Aren’t the best films made by artists in the first place?

Without places like LACMA and other museums, archives, and festivals where people can still see a wide variety of films projected on screen with an audience, what do we lose? We lose what makes the movies so powerful and such a pervasive cultural influence. If this is not valued in Hollywood, what does that say about the future of the art form? Aren’t museums serving a cultural purpose beyond appealing to the largest possible audience? I know that my life and work have been enriched by places like LACMA and MoMA whose public screening programs enabled me to see films that would never have appeared at my local movie theater, and that lose a considerable amount of their power and beauty on smaller screens.

I believe that LACMA is taking an unfortunate course of action. I support the petition that is still circulating, with well over a thousand names at this point, many of them prominent. It comes as no surprise to me that the public is rallying. People from all over the world are speaking out, because they see this action – correctly, I think – as a serious rebuke to film within the context of the art world. The film department is often held at arms’ length at LACMA and other institutions, separate from the fine arts, and this simply should not be. Film departments should be accorded the same respect, and the same amount of financial leeway, as any other department of fine arts. To do otherwise is a disservice to cinema, and to the public as well.

I hope that LACMA will reverse this unfortunate decision.

--Martin Scorsese
New York, N.Y.

Govan agrees to meet this week

After a little over a week of running a highly visible internet campaign to convince LACMA's Michael Govan to reverse his unpopular decision to cancel a respected, long-running film program, Save Film at LACMA issued Mr. Govan an invitation to a "popcorn summit." The summit will include a core group of the broader Save Film at LACMA coalition. The Los Angeles Times reports on the progress here.

Dylan channeled in video short

The Los Angeles Times writes today that it "doesn't usually like to single out promotional videos from special interest groups, but over the weekend we received one from Save Film at LACMA that grabbed our attention for its creativity."

We're getting lots of good feedback from people who have watched the video, and we're especially grateful to our volunteer production team. Be sure to forward the video to your friends!

A protest video

Written by Ken Windrum
Filmed and edited by Tony Peck
Recorded by Sam Langford

Govan says donors step forward

Very exciting news from the Los Angeles Times this morning:

"In the wake of the chorus of disapproval that greeted last week's announcement that he was red-lighting the 40-year-old weekend film series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, museum Director Michael Govan has some good news: Potential donors have stepped up, interested in helping underwrite the series."

Full story here.

Suffice it to say, we are thrilled at the possibility that donors may step forward to save the film program at LACMA. However, until until we're assured that the film program is staying in place, we'll continue to collect signatures (currently numbering 1,250 supporters!) and build our protest on Facebook in full force.

More voices . . .

• Los Angeles critic Tim Grierson laments a beautiful list of loss: "Sitting a row in front of Chris Parnell a few weeks later for Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light. The film's flaws aside, this is the sort of movie whose power simply cannot be duplicated on DVD."

• Edward Goldman on KCRW's Art Talk: "It's disingenuous for the museum to blame the audience for the demise of its film program; it feels as if LACMA has lost its passion and conviction for the art form which is the core identity of this city."

• And from the archives, two portraits of Ian Birnie, ten years apart:

LA Weekly, 1999: "It's a tribute to Birnie's sense of adventure that LACMA's film offerings roam the cultural map, from the high end of popular culture (Charlie Chaplin, Jerome Kern, the films of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro) and the bracingly low (John Waters, Roger Corman), to art house series such as the recent sold-out Robert Bresson retrospective and Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue. 'In the three years since Ian took over,' says the American Cinematheque's uber-programmer, Dennis Bartok, 'he's built on the museum's traditional strength, which was classic Hollywood films, but he's also expanded to do things like the Valley of the Dolls series. Between him and us and the smaller outfits that program specialist film festivals, there's more great exhibition in L.A. than anywhere in the country, including New York.'"

Artillery Magazine, 2009: "For Birnie, it's not about good or bad, it's about the different trips each film takes you on. It's about the directors, a lot of whom he entices to LA. Or it might be about the film career of a single actor. . . . Birnie has turned the Bing Theater at LACMA into a temple where we filmgoers can worship in the dark over and over while bemoaning the onslaught of summer blockbusters. He has also turned the Bing into a library where, if you are patient enough, you will see something you never saw before or thought you would never see again. But most of all, the Bing can be proud it is part of LACMA because, thanks to Birnie, its movies belong in a museum."

LACMA getting an earful about axed film program

Film critic David Ng, writing for the Los Angeles Times, caught up with the work of Save Film @ LACMA this evening:

"Who knows the wrath of a film community scorned? The Los Angeles County Museum of Art does.

In a little more than a week, the controversy over LACMA's decision to ax its 40-year-old film program has grown into a full-blown online debate, with the museum starting its own electronic forum Tuesday in response to an aggressive Facebook campaign and online petition seeking to restore the much-loved but debt-ridden program."

Full story here. We're delighted that the conversation is building day by day.

The Times also posted Kenneth Turan's Critic's Pick--LACMA's upcoming roster:

"With the film series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art heading into the sunset, this weekend and the next provide a chance to do three good things at once: (1) experience the soon-to-be-empty Leo S. Bing Theater, one of this city's great movie venues, (2) see some wonderful films -- "Being Jewish in France," a compelling documentary, from Friday to Sunday, and "Leon Morin, Priest," a rare Jean-Pierre Melville classic on Aug. 14-15 -- that would not be in Los Angeles at all if it weren't for LACMA, and, finally, (3) show support for a fine program that is falling victim to painfully shortsighted and craven behavior. Thus pass the glories of the world."

“Toward the dictatorship of ignorance …”

French filmmaker (and president of Institute Lumiere) Bertrand Tavernier has signed Save Film @ LACMA's petition. His comments:

"LACMA is (I cannot write was) one of the most important, creative institutions. Its film programming was always exciting, challenging, different. LACMA was one of the only places where you could have a program about the French films made during the Nazi Occupation, a great [opportunity] to speak of the Resistance and the selling out.

You could see great American masterpieces and underrated gems. For me, LACMA was the pride, the honour of Los Angeles. It was an Oasis remembering us that the past is not dead. It is not even past. To cancel the film program is a very important sign and symbol. An act of allegiance, submissiveness towards the dictatorship of the present, towards the dictatorship of ignorance."

You can read more about this wonderful filmmaker here at Wikipedia.

Today, Aug. 5th, Save Film @ LACMA asks you to donate your Facebook status to support film in Los Angeles. It's easy, just insert the text below and include a link to the petition to restore the cinema program at LACMA. We appreciate your support.

Proposed text:

Did you hear? LACMA is terminating its 40-year old film program. That's right! In L.A., home of Hollywood, the city's major museum will no longer have a regular film screening program. Show your support to keep film alive in L.A. -- please sign this petition -- we are growing strong.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-LACMA-film

The Associated Press has noticed the work of Save Film @ LACMA and published a story that is now circulating in many newspapers:

"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.

Group Forms to Save Film Program at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Media Contact: Kathleen Dunleavy
310.709.3689
savefilmlacma@gmail.com

Powered by Internet social networking site, group of diverse stakeholders band together to demand rescue of LACMA film program

LOS ANGELES, Ca. – Aug. 4, 2009 – To combat the July 28 decision by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to suspend its 40-year old film program, a group of concerned citizens, museum members and passionate film lovers--responding with blazing speed--has formed to help save film in Hollywood’s backyard. This group, known simply as Save Film at LACMA, boasts over 600 members including prominent movie critics, university professors, film-makers, film programmers and other art, culture and industry leaders. The online petition (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-LACMA-film) gathered over 250 signatures since it was posted on Aug. 2.

"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. I hope the powers-that-be will reconsider their decision,” said Leonard Maltin, prominent film critic, author and historian.

“It should not be assumed that Los Angeles is only concerned with big-budget Hollywood cinema. Los Angeles has a long history of fostering and hosting various forms of alternative cinema,” said Berenice Reynaud, Co-Curator, Film at REDCAT and Faculty, California Institute of the Arts School of Film/Video. “LACMA’s film program created a dialogue about classic and international cinema and I hope the LACMA leadership will rethink its demise.”

About Save Film At LACMA

The mission of Save Film at LACMA is to prevent the elimination of the film program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The grass-roots group wants LACMA Director Michael Govan to reconsider his decision to terminate the current film screening series and to restore the film program under the leadership of popular long-time programmer, Ian Birnie. Save Film at LACMA is an open group and anyone can join via Facebook at “Save Film at LACMA” or at: www.savefilmatlacma.blogspot.com. Interested parties can also get updates via Twitter at savefilmlacma. Save Film at LACMA is composed of key individuals volunteering to participate in the film program's improvement and contribute to fund-raising and marketing/publicity efforts to increase the audience size and protect a treasured program from future dismantling.

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Download Save Film @ LACMA Flyer

Feel free to download, print, and distribute this high-resolution JPG of Save Film @ LACMA's promotional flyer. (Click for larger size.)

Community protests are growing

Articles and podcasts are appearing daily, registering the dismay so many Angelenos are feeling regarding LACMA's decision:

• FilmWeek's host, KPCC's Larry Mantle, shockingly advocates staying home and watching DVDs, but film critics Lael Loewenstein and Claudia Puig communicate the severity of the loss for our city (about 2/3 of the way into the program).

• Kenneth Turan discusses his excellent Los Angeles Times op-ed on KUSC's Arts Alive podcast (about 16 minutes into the program).

• Tales of a Cinesthete decries "A New Low for LACMA."

• Variety's Todd McCarthy joins the chorus: "A generation ago, Los Angeles had an abundance of revival houses and institutions devoted to showing older, foreign and specialized fare: the Nuart, Fox Venice, Sherman, New Beverly, Vagabond, UCLA Film Archives, frequently USC, the Tiffany on the Strip and others that came and went. . . . But LACMA has always had the most central location and a certain cachet as a high art venue that set it apart."

• Variety's Anne Thompson notes: "LACMA said the program lost $1 million over the last ten years and had failed to build an audience. Sorry, I thought the room was usually packed when I attended. I loved the programming, but it was arcane and eclectic, as a museum's should be, not designed to 'build an audience.'"

• Marshallastor.com asserts: "I’m still incensed by LACMA’s decision to maim its film department under what seem like increasingly flimsy reasonings."

• Kino Slang's esteemed Andy Rector vents at Girish Shambu's discussion site:

Did anyone do the basic math on that? LACMA Film Program = 1 million dollar "loss" over a 10 year period. Nix the worthless 450 million dollar Renzo Piano re-design and that would pay for 4,500 years of the LACMA Film Program. No, Govan wants the ice age NOW. I put loss in quotes because that's how the discovery of cinema (not artfilm) by hundreds of thousands of people is being described. I can't tell you how devastated and outraged I am about this. LACMA was as close as I and many others had to a Cinematheque in Los Angeles - steady, reliable, sincere, mixing classical and modern cinema, without elitism, without superfluous commentary, without the disgusting ceremonies of spectacular contemporary art and museum practice, or the groupie-ism of cult houses. Incidentally, it was a place where you might meet a bunch of teenagers (urged, maybe even required, to attend a film there by their teachers, but still) from Ingelwood who really liked WOMAN IN THE WINDOW and discussed it. . . .

Venues for Film Appreciation Diminish in Los Angeles

By Ken Windrum
Adjunct Professor, Los Angeles Pierce College

The decision by Michael Govan of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to close down the almost 40 year old film program is an ominous sign for those who wish to appreciate cinema as an art form under the proper conditions.

Theatrical screening may be only the tip of the iceberg profit-wise in these days of synergy and convergence culture but remains the only way to fully experience films. Sadly, opportunities to see movies, with the exception of current releases, on the big screen with an audience are diminishing. Ironically, the forces of DVD and cable which provide an inferior viewing experience, although they may have an advantage acoustically, are creating this circumstance. A for-profit theater owner closing down as a result of this

competition is sad and understandable. For a museum, ostensibly dedicated to art, the hegemony of DVD and cable should be all the more reason to prize and nurture the screening of film in its 8, 16, 35 and 70mm formats.

At the Bing Theatre at LACMA one can see good prints on a large screen with good sound and a generally quiet and focused (i.e. not concurrently text-messaging) audience. The emotional charge of this experience is noticeable when seeing a film theatrically one had only experienced before on TV or video/DVD. The movie seems to come alive in scope, power, humor and almost every other variable.

Other venues around Los Angeles may provide this service but none of them is sponsored by an art museum. LACMA is also unique in scheduling a far more catholic, broadly considered programming schedule which highlights films old and new, domestic and international, canonized and unfamiliar. Only UCLA's Film and Television Archive, currently hobbled in a cramped, uncomfortable space with a smaller screen than their old on-campus venue, offers this broad range. UCLA's programming often tilts towards more outre and obscure choices than LACMA which, albeit extremely valuable for specialists and hardcore cinephiles, may not help provide viewers with access to as many canonical and classic film screenings as LACMA. This specialist tendency of UCLA is certainly amplified by the genre and camp-obsessed programming at American Cinematheque at the Egyptian (less so at their Aero venue) and Cinefamily.

Only the homely, miraculous New Beverly Cinema continues to soldier on providing theatrical viewing of the basic repertory. The point is that all these theatres are valuable and each plays a part in providing Los Angeles with a halfway decent repertory scene. LACMA plays the part of backbone, via focusing on canonical titles, and yet provides the most consistently varied programming across the spectrum of film practice.

Lolita at LACMA

Last night, we went to LACMA and handed out information sheets -- with names, e-mail addresses, etc. (see below). Everyone was very supportive of the effort to keep films at LACMA--except the security guards who told us that we had to leave "private" property and stand on the sidewalk.

Here is a good article: http://www.laobserved.com/intell/2009/07/lacma_abandons_film.php

And, here are some handy names/e-mails to write to:

WRITE!
LACMA Board of Directors

Michael Govan, Director
mgovan@lacma.org

Melody Kanschat, President
mkanschat@lacma.org

Andrew Gordon, Chair
Andy.gordon@gs.com

William Howard Ahmanson, Vice Chair
info@theahmansonfoundation.org

Lynda Resnick, Vice Chair
lresnick@roll.com

Terry Semelm, Vice Chair
tssemel@windsormedia.com

Ann Rowland, CFO
arowland@lacma.org

WRITE! CALL!
LA County Supervisors

Mark Ridley Thomas, 2nd District
(LACMA’s in his district)
markridley-thomas@bos.lacounty.gov
213-974-2222

Gloria Molina, 1st District
molina@bos.lacounty.gov
213-974-4111

Zev Yaroslavsky, 3rd District
zev@bos.lacounty.gov
213-974-3333

Don Knabe, 4th District
don@lacbos.org
213-974-4444

Michael Antonovich, 5th District fifthdistrict@lacbos.org
213-974-5555

CONSIDERING membership or renewal???

Let them know that you will NOT renew and will CANCEL your membership if the film program dies.

Alvaro Vasquez
Assoc. VP, Membership
avasquez@lacma.org
323-857-6151

LACMA's Cruelest Cut

Hi Everyone--Today in the Los Angeles Times, this Op-Ed appeared. If you have an opinion on LACMA's decision to cut film...please write to the LA Times editor!


What does shutting down its film series say about L.A.'s premiere art museum?

By Richard Schickel

August 1, 2009

I was at LACMA three weeks ago and joined about a dozen people wandering grimly through an ugly, off-putting exhibition of contemporary Korean art. I understand the rationale for the show; Koreans are a significant minority in our community and are entitled to attention from our premiere art museum.

After that, I joined about 300 others for a screening in the Bing Auditorium of "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman." As art, it was in no way superior to the Korean daubs, except that this weirdly pretentious 1950 movie is also rarely seen. And it was part of a series of films starring James Mason, now a half-forgotten actor but, as the series proves, a powerful and skillful one who deserves our awed attention.

As important, the film, however silly it was, had much to teach us about the fantasy life of the American 1950s. Louche idlers on the Spanish Riviera, a cruel and decadent bullfighter, a guy trying to set a land speed record in a wonky-looking sports car and Ava Gardner lusting after the mythically wandering seafarer of the title. I mean, really, can you ask for anything more?

And that's my point. It is the duty of museums to place before us the accumulated works of the ages, movies definitely included -- old and new; obscure and well known; good, bad and absurd -- in order to keep us in touch with the rich and ever-informative history of an ever-evolving, yes, I'll say it, art form.

Which is why the news that the L.A. County Museum of Art's director, Michael Govan, has decided to close down the museum's expertly managed film program is so dismaying -- and don't believe for a moment that this hiatus is designed to refresh and strengthen film at LACMA. As Times' movie critic Kenneth Turan observed in his angry, excellent article Thursday, that sounds like a slick rationale from a culturecrat in a smart suit.

Some simple truths need to be stated here: Film may often be marred by goofy plots and preposterous characters, but it is no less a visual art than painting or sculpture. The fact that good movies arise out of a corrupt commercial system makes it more, not less, worthy of our attention. How in the world does a "Chinatown" arise out of that unpromising soil?

For that matter, what about something like "Police Python 357"? It was for me the great discovery of the brilliant "French Crime Wave" series that LACMA film curator Ian Birnie, now demoted from full- to part-time status, mounted earlier this summer. Though I like to think of myself as a knowledgeable film historian, I had never heard of it or of its auteur, Alain Corneau.

Something similar could be said of about half the other films in that series. If nothing else, you could have found in it the roots of the French New Wave -- a phenomenon I'm sure even Govan has heard about. And you could have witnessed the great Jean Gabin (weary, taciturn and the kind of actor Spencer Tracy aimed to be but never quite became) in "Touchez pas au Grisbi," experiencing a screen portrayal at its highest and most subtle level. And, no, folks, it is not available on DVD in the U.S.

Nor is it likely to be re-shown in Los Angeles any time soon. We may or may not be, as the annoying KUSC tag line has it, "the creative capital of the world," but we are surely the movie capital of the world. And once LACMA closes down its film program, we will not have a serious, well-planned repertory series. Sure, there's UCLA and the Aero and the Hammer Museum and the odd one-week runs of classics at the Nu-Art -- worthy venues all -- though none of them offers what LACMA has for 40 years presented. Or what is available in our true "creative capital," New York, where three imaginative repertory series constantly run.

We are exploring a bitter irony here. Huge advances have been made over the last 50 years in film scholarship and teaching, and even in film restoration. But LACMA, despite its pretense of being a world-class arts institution, has always treated film as a stepchild, operating its program on a minuscule budget, as Turan reported, making only small efforts to find subsidies that would cover its modest deficits. It has always regarded its film audience as not quite full members of the artistic community, as "movie bozos," in film scholar Jeanine Basinger's weary, devastating description of that earnest breed.

Govan is right about this much at least -- they deserve better. They -- we -- may be a minority, but the devotees of James Mason and Jean Gabin are no more outlanders than the devotees of Korean art. Certainly we do not deserve to be summarily cut off from the pleasurable and intellectually profitable contemplation of this great, infuriating, richly ambiguous art form while Govan thinks over some so-far-illusory plan for a movie renaissance at LACMA.

For the moment, his decision signals that we are far from being a "creative capital." It signals that we remain a provincial outpost, braying boosterism while heedlessly diminishing the expressive form of which this city is the most significant avatar.

Richard Schickel is the author, most recently, of "You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story."