[Frameworks] more on the Academy

[Steve Polta]

For the record, the Academy Foundation actually does have an "Institutional Grants" program which provides financial support to small avant-garde film organizations (among other orgs) and another grant which supports film festivals.
Info here: http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/grants/index.html
list of institutional recipients here: http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/grants/institutional/recipients.html

There are dozens of recipients on that list, including Millennium Film Workshop, San Francisco Cinematheque and, notably, San Francisco's Ninth Street Center for Independent Film, which received $5000 [the average grant award] in support of its "Canyon Cinema screening program." (This is all public information, via the link above.)

Whether a $5,000 grant from this organization is considered significant is I guess debatable but as Director of San Francisco Cinematheque (a recipient)—and I certainly wouldn't say no to more—I sure ain't complaining...

Steve Polta



--- On Wed, 2/29/12, Tom Whiteside <tom.whiteside at duke.edu> wrote:

From: Tom Whiteside <tom.whiteside at duke.edu>
Subject: [Frameworks] more on the Academy
To: "Experimental Film Discussion List" <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 5:28 AM



 
 




I started this yesterday but shelved it; now that others have posted I am a bit more confident and will send --- 
   
This is such an interesting statement. I know what you mean, but still…
There are avant-garde sympathetic folks at the Academy...      Could we possibly hope for “supportive” or even aim for “enthusiastic?”  OK, how about substantial funding for Canyon Cinema and the other 20 or so (100?) small avant-garde film organizations
 that need it right now? Take a tiny fraction of what you spend on regular old Lavish Hollywood Lifestyle and show some respect for experimental film. 
   
It is very nice, it really is, that both Brakhage and Kuchar got their memorial moments at the Oscars, but why not something for them while they were still alive?
 
   
I know the Academy is doing very important work in film preservation and that’s really all I know about their connection to experimental film. But taken as an industry, taken as American Culture #1, taken as a commercial art form that has
 learned and benefitted from the work created by experimental film pioneers for decades, why not show some respect and take 0.5% of the Movie Star Champagne Budget and fund art in this country?  Painting had an Academy once, but some painters broke away from
 it. 
   
Tom 




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