What We Must Reinstate

In the final chapter of our five-part tribute to Ian Birnie's program over the past 13 years, we would like to highlight some of the many Preview screenings at the Bing Theater.


• Match Point (In person: Woody Allen, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Chris Rock, Elizabeth Banks, Lisa Guerrero, and Rachel Roberts)

• Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog in person)

• Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney in person)

• Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bennett Miller in person)

• Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh in person)


• The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky in person)

• Everlasting Moments (Jan Troell in person)

• Tokyo Sonata (Kyoshi Kurosawa in person)

Movie Buffs vs. Museum in a Dispute Over Cuts

People across the country are reading about our campaign in today's New York Times. Writer Larry Rohter notes that although LACMA reversed its decision to end its weekend film program, questions remain regarding its specific content and long-term future.

"On Wednesday the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Time Warner Cable and Ovation TV announced combined donations of $150,000, enough to keep the program running through next June in the city that is the financial and creative center of the world film industry. Problem solved and crisis averted? Not exactly."

Read the full article here.

What We Must Reinstate

Another high point of Ian Birnie's programming has been the many exhibition-related film series he has provided over the years (part four of five):



One of our favorites was the six-week 2007 film series, "Through the Looking Glass (and Down the Rabbit Hole...)" that coincided with LACMA's popular Magritte exhibition.

It featured a very diverse roster of films: Hollywood classics The Wizard of Oz and Vertigo, edgy thrillers Point Blank and Rosemary's Baby, hard-to-see foreign masterpieces Woman in the Dunes and Celine and Julie Go Boating, and recent gems Eyes Wide Shut and Mulholland Drive, among many others, and helped us appreciate the ways in which these films compared and contrasted to the works of Magritte. The film notes pulled us into the enigmatic spaces of these movies:

"For filmmakers like David Lynch, Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, and Jacques Rivette, the 'looking glass' is the cinema itself, and the silver screen is the mirror through which we, the audience, pass."

The series was only one exhibition-related film program of many, including:

• "Torn Curtain: The Two Germanys on Film" (four weeks with LACMA's "The Art of Two Germanys")

• “French Surrealist Film and the American Avant-garde Cinema” (five weeks with "Dali and Film")

• "Freud in Hollywood" (two weeks with "Dali and Film")

• “Marion Davies, Randolph Hearst and Hollywood" (two weeks with "Hearst as Collector")

• “A Film Guide to the America of Diane Arbus” (four weeks with "Diane Arbus")

• "Cigarettes & Alcohol: Eight Films by Hong Sang-soo" (two weeks with "Your Bright Future")

What We Must Reinstate

Special screenings and one-night events were memorable gems of Ian Birnie's Film Program at LACMA (part three of five):


• Rebel Without a Cause (45th anniversary cast reunion)

• The Chelsea Girls (two-screen presentation)

• The Decalogue (Kieslowski's complete series)

• US Postal Service Memorial Stamp (release in conjunction with Charles Chaplin and Bette Davis retrospectives)

• Abel Gance’s Napoleon

• A Tribute to Faye Kanin (writer/Academy president)

• Laszlo and Vilmos (American Society of Cinematographers night with Peter Fonda, Vilmos Zsigmond, Richard Donner and Haskell Wexler)

• An Evening with Ellen Burstyn

• A Valley of the Dolls Weekend (with Barbara Parkins)

• The Manchurian Candidate (with Angela Lansbury and John Frankenheimer)

• Harry Smith’s Heaven and Earth Magic ( with a live performance using gels and slides, presented in association with the Getty Museum)

• French Crime Wave (guest Alain Corneau, director)

• Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

• Silent Light (sole Los Angeles screening)

• Being Jewish in France (Los Angeles premiere)

• Susan Sontag Selects 1 & 2: Eight Japanese Classics

• Satantango (renowned 8-hour film by Bela Tarr, sole Los Angeles screening)

Grassroots Protest Forces LACMA to Reverse Decision to Cut Film Program

'Popcorn Summit' between Save Film at LACMA and museum director slated for Tuesday, Sept. 1 will address screening program's future

LOS ANGELES, Ca. – Aug. 26, 2009 – The month-long grassroots campaign to save a beloved 41-year-old film series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) scored a major victory Wednesday, when the museum announced it would continue the program through at least June 2010.

The swift and fierce reaction from film lovers in Los Angeles and around the world swayed LACMA to reverse its July 29 decision to suspend the repertory and foreign film program. Save Film at LACMA, which spearheaded the effort, gathered more than 2,600 signatures to an online petition, garnered "fan" support from more than 3,500 people on Facebook, and urged supporters to convey their concerns directly to the museum. Filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, and Bertrand Tavernier took up the cause, as did nationally known film critics.

Save Film at LACMA is still meeting with museum director Michael Govan on Tues., Sept. 1, to discuss the details of the film program going forward. The coalition has assembled a panel representing film programming, criticism, scholarship, repertory and distribution talent to meet with Mr. Govan.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Debra Levine, founding member of the grassroots coalition. “Our aim was to reverse LACMA’s decision that hurt our community. We commend Michael Govan on his ability to listen well. We look forward to working with him to ensure that film is permanently showcased as high art at the premiere museum in Los Angeles, the birthplace of the film industry.” Levine is a marketing consultant and arts journalist.

On Wednesday, LACMA announced it had secured $150,000 in the form of grants from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Time Warner Cable and Ovation TV to fund programming through June. The donors also are providing promotional support for the film series. LACMA also stated its intention to create a new film department in the museum's curatorial sphere and to see more philanthropic support for film.

"It's exciting news," said co-founder Doug Cummings, editor of Filmjourney.org. "But we still have unanswered questions, such as how many screenings will occur, and whether or not repertory and foreign film classics will be the focus. We also want clarification on the future role of Ian Birnie, our highly respected programmer.”

Levine and Cummings will be among those addressing such concerns in the Tuesday meeting at LACMA. Other participants include Brent Simon, president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; Margot Gerber, director of publicity and promotions at the American Cinematheque; Shannon Kelley, head of programming for the UCLA Film & Television Archive; three-time Oscar winning costume designer James Acheson; film critic Lael Loewenstein; repertory film executive Jared Sapolin; Michael Schlesinger, a veteran executive of classic film distribution; and Kyle Westphal, the programming chair emeritus for the film society Doc Films.

About Save Film At LACMA
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.

Media Contact:
Robin Rauzi, 323-219-1230
savefilmlacma@gmail.com

LACMA's Exciting Announcement

"The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced today gifts of $75,000 each from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Time Warner Cable, in partnership with Ovation TV, to extend continuous film programming through next summer. In addition, Time Warner Cable and Ovation TV have made an in-kind contribution of over $1.5 million to market the film program across their multiple media platforms, both locally and nationally."

More from the Los Angeles Times, here.

What We Must Reinstate

A partial list of Ian Birnie's centennial or career retrospective screenings (part two of five):

• Ingmar Bergman

• Humphrey Bogart

• Charles Boyer

• Robert Bresson

• Lee Chang-dong

• Jean Cocteau

• George Cukor

• Bette Davis

• Brian De Palma

• Arnaud Desplechin

• Rainer Werner Fassbinder

• Cary Grant

• Katharine Hepburn

• Bob Hope

• Hou Hsiao-hsien

• Abbas Kiarostami

• Gregory La Cava

• Fritz Lang

• Carole Lombard

• Anna Magnani

• James Mason

• Joel McCrae

• Kenji Mizoguchi

• F. W. Murnau

• Nagisa Oshima

• Yasujiro Ozu

• Sergei Paradjanov

• Elio Petri

• Richard Quine

• Eric Rohmer

• Robert Siodmak

• Preston Sturges

• Erich von Stroheim

• Edward Yang

What We Must Reinstate

Over the past 13 years, film programmer Ian Birnie has staged memorable in-person retrospectives and tributes to our great artists of the cinema. These were extraordinary moments with living legends of our art form at LACMA. (first of a series of five posts)


• Michelangelo Antonioni

• Jules Dassin

• Olivia DeHavilland

• Elmer Bernstein


• Robert Altman

• Blake Edwards

• David Lynch (with Dennis Hopper)

• Satyajit Ray (Shamila Tagore in person)


• Jeanne Moreau

• Walter Mirisch (with Sidney Poitier, Julie Andrews, and Blake Edwards)

• Gus Van Sant


•  Norman Jewison (with Cher, Eva Marie Saint, Faye Dunaway, Haskell Wexler, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman)

LACMA and the Crisis of Repertory Cinema Advocacy

Programming Chair Emeritus of Doc Films K. A. Westphal, at motion within motion, has written the most comprehensive and technically informed article to date regarding the LACMA film crisis and its relation to larger ongoing issues of repertory cinema in this country.

"The future of the film program at LACMA is not at the mercy of individual donors and their heroic deeds. The dismantling of the film program, which requires a truly miniscule portion of the Museum’s operating budget, is not an unfortunate accident but instead an ideological prerogative. . . . Literally every venue capable of screening archival prints with professional standards is essential to the whole delicate infrastructure of repertory cinema. "

Take the time to read the article in its entirety, here.

Bogdanovich lends us his voice

Longtime film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic Peter Bogdanovich writes Save Film at LACMA:

"Definitely add my name to the list of protesters! This is certainly not the time for the Museum to flake out, when American film culture is at such a low ebb. Now is the time for cultural institutions to step up and be counted, not run away. I vehemently protest."

LAFCA joins the chorus

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Declare their Support of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Film Program

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association deplores the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s decision to suspend its long-standing and invaluable repertory screening program and to remove its gifted program director, Ian Birnie, from its full-time staff. For more than 40 years, this series has been essential to the interests of Los Angeles’ diverse filmgoing and filmmaking communities, providing a unique, centrally located resource for the study and appreciation of world and Hollywood cinema through the decades. In the international movie capital, it is brutally ironic that this indispensable program should be suspended at a time when the serious study of films and filmmaking—particularly on large screens, in 35mm prints—is threatened everywhere.

We are heartened by the sustained public outcry that has greeted this news, and encourage everyone who cares about film to redouble their efforts to urge LACMA to rescind its dubious decision.

Cinema is an art no less important and meaningful to the public than painting, sculpture and the other arts that the museum holds and displays, and its great artists are no less worthy of our respect and admiration than those working in more traditional media. We also observe that the cost of maintaining LACMA’s film program is quite modest and we agree, as well, with museum director Michael Govan’s stated desire to expand both the program and its funding. LAFCA will do everything in its power to support that effort.

To that end, we urge the formation of a public committee, composed of “Friends of Film at LACMA,” to work with the museum to enhance the funding and the community outreach of LACMA’s film programming, with the aim of establishing an ever more vibrant, vital resource that will benefit both the museum and its public.

As both an art form and an industry, film has been of incalculable value to the economic development of the City of Los Angeles, and to the growth of its culture. In that context, LACMA’s recent decision is not only puzzling, but tragic in its larger implications. It demands close, passionate, urgent and untiring reconsideration.

- The Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Robert Abele
David Ansen
Charles Champlin
Justin Chang
Peter Debruge
Alonso Duralde
David Ehrenstein
Stephen Farber
F.X. Feeney
Scott Foundas
Todd Gilchrist
Mike Goodridge
James Greenberg
Ray Greene
Tim Grierson
Kirk Honeycutt
Mark Keizer
Len Klady
Andy Klein
Robert Koehler
Sheri Linden
Christy Lemire
Emanuel Levy
Lael Loewenstein
Wade Major
Leonard Maltin
Willard Manus
Todd McCarthy
Myron Meisel
Joe Morgenstern
Amy Nicholson
Jean Oppenheimer
H. J. Park
John Powers

TIME: "It's the museums that got small."

"It would also be a kind of public service to the rest of us for LACMA to keep classic films in the cultural conversation of the city that produces the movies the rest of us have to see," writes Richard Lacayo, "to remind film makers there that it's not all about Transformers and G.I. Joe. Can it really be so hard for a museum with a budget of $74 million last year to cover a loss that averages out to $100,000 a year?"

Lacayo, the art and architecture critic for TIME, has added his voice to the rising local, national, and international chorus calling for LACMA to reverse its decision to cut its weekend film program. "[Y]ou can't fully understand modern art without a working knowledge of the films that were being made at the same time," he asserts, encouraging his readers to sign our petition. You can read his article in full, here.

Deadline Hollywood

Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily, which casts an eagle eye on the "business, politics and culture of the infotainment industry," posts an update to our efforts--here.

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.