Just a heads-up that this Sunday, November 17th at 10:00PM EST, Turner Classic Movies will air Peter Flynn's FILM IS DEAD - LONG LIVE FILM! This new documentary takes a look at film collectors across the USA. We're a mixed bag to be sure (yes - yours truly and my wife Ariela were interviewed) but a passionate mixed bag. The film is at times funny, pathetic, incredible and melancholy. Check it out!
Nice, I'd be interested in watching that, should it ever become available somewhere else (I don't have TCM). I've always been fascinated by collector & fan culture. 22 years ago, there was a documentary called CINEMANIA that didn't necessarily put film nerds and collectors in the best light (Aspberger's Galore!), but it was intriguing to get a glimpse of the dedication many of them had. This one seems to be a bit more sober than that, and more about preservation than cinephiles.
I will sure watch that, sound interesting. I fall into that category for sure. I have cranked up my TCM time in the past month, and I have enjoyed that quite a lot.
I'll be sure to watch this. I'm wondering if Martin Scorsese appears in this documentary. He is passionate about the dangers of having features only in digital formats, which are constantly changing. He is involved with, ironically, preserving and archiving digital movies on film.
No, none of the "professional" collectors appear - Scorcese, Dante, Tarantino. However, the Roddy MacDowell FBI debacle is talked about.
That Roddy thing is kind of shame, it seems like merely a decade or so later 'copying' films off TV was pretty common and legal. It seems to me that anything that was for private, personal use, should be legal. It is not like Roddy was charging admission at the door.
We watched it too. Very interesting. I could practically smell the ammonia coming off those gooey, disintegrating film rolls. Keep fighting the good fight, Ray!
Gee. I didn't know my old Super 8 films that I'd show to my friends in my basement, such a long time ago, meant anything anymore. Projecting my Castle films, Universal 8 films, Ken Films etc. really were the best of times back in the day.
