[Frameworks] AN OPEN LETTER FROM MARK RAPPAPORT TO THE INTERNATIONAL FILM COMMUNITY
Tim Halloran
televisual at hotmail.com
Sat Sep 8 11:10:07 CDT 2012
Wow.
Those that can't, steal.
Tim
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 7, 2012, at 1:07 AM, "Pip Chodorov" <frameworks at re-voir.com> wrote:
> http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2012/09/06/ray-carney-stop-thief/
>
>
> September 2012
>
> To all filmmakers, film critics, film archivists,
> film academics, curators, festival directors, and
> film enthusiasts everywhere-
>
> I am writing to you because something very
> unforeseen, very unexpected, and most unpleasant
> recently happened in my life,
>
> When I moved to Paris seven years ago, I had to
> decide whether or not to take with me copies of
> my films, video masters, early drafts of scripts,
> duplicates of reviews and announcements, etc.
> When I mentioned this to Ray Carney, tenured
> professor at Boston University and author of
> several books on John Cassavetes and who also
> claims he is "generally recognized to be the
> leading scholarly authority on American narrative
> art film," he eagerly offered to hold all of my
> materials. I accepted his offer, with the
> understanding that he would return them to me
> upon request and that they remain at BU. Five
> years later, in 2010, I requested the return of
> some of my video masters to make copies of them
> for various film archives in Europe. Carney duly
> returned those video masters to me. They were in
> excellent condition.
>
> Since that time, various companies have expressed
> interest in streaming my films, and UCLA, in
> conjunction with The Sundance Institute, have
> volunteered to archive video masters of Sundance
> alumni films. In early April, I made several
> requests to Carney for the return of my
> materials. I sent Carney several e-mails (to
> various e-mail addresses), and I called his home
> and office and left numerous messages. Carney
> ignored all of my attempts to reach him. As a
> result, I hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit in
> Massachusetts, where a judge issued a temporary
> restraining order and a preliminary injunction
> against Carney. The court entered a default
> against Carney (who had not responded to my
> complaint) and ordered Carney to return the
> materials to me, or else be held in contempt of
> court. After that, Carney hired a lawyer who
> stated Carney intends to defend his conduct by
> arguing that I "gave" him the materials outright
> as "a gift."
>
> There is much at stake here for me. Without the
> digital video masters, my films, everything prior
> to 1990, Casual Relations, Local Color, The
> Scenic Route, Impostors, Mark Rappaport-The TV
> Spin-Off, Chain Letters, plus the High-Definition
> version of Exterior Night, cannot be made
> available for streaming, commercial DVDs,
> video-on-demand, or any electronic delivery
> system down the road. My life as a filmmaker, my
> past, and even my future reputation as a
> filmmaker are at stake. I gave Carney no rights
> to my materials except the right to hold them and
> return them to me on request. His lawyer has
> refused to disclose the current location of my
> materials.
>
> Carney tried to cast doubt on the truthfulness of
> the inventory I presented. Furthermore, under
> oath, he stated "some of the items I received I
> no longer have because I gave them away to third
> parties. I discarded other items due to the
> degraded and unusable condition they were in when
> I received them. Finally, I discarded other items
> at later dates after they were worn-out by the
> normal wear and tear of being used." This is
> sworn statement from Carney who, earlier, on his
> website bragged, "Mark is a great friend and gave
> me almost everything he owned when he left New
> York for FranceĀ So I am now the 'Mark Rappaport
> Archive.' I have the largest collection of
> material by him in the world: file cabinets and
> storage bins full of amazing things: production
> notebooks, film prints, rough drafts, revisions,
> scripts, film stock, DVDs, tapes, notes,
> jottings, journals, etc. etc. etc. It's a dream
> come true for me and one of the major film
> collections by one of the world's greatest
> artists. All being preserved for posterity at any
> cost."
> http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/aboutrc/letters57.shtml
> (PLEASE NOTE: If this interests you, go to the
> website before this entry is removed.)
>
> Elsewhere, he describes me as "a genuine national treasure."
>
> The judge, at a pre-trial hearing, demanded that
> Carney supply the court with a full inventory of
> what he still had, what he gave away, and what he
> destroyed. Carney subsequently delivered a full
> inventory-which included absolutely everything I
> gave him. None of it had been given away or
> destroyed. Although he clearly had perjured
> himself, I was ecstatic to learn my materials
> were intact. After four and a half months of
> this, Carney got in touch with me to propose a
> deal, saying, "I sincerely wish you well and I am
> sorry this issue has come between us." "I am
> willing," he writes, to "ship everything back for
> a modest consideration, simply to cover my costs
> and the time and trouble of having stored the
> material for the past seven-and-a-half years." In
> return for my own films, I was to pay him
> $27,000! Some may call this extortion, I call it
> merely outrageous. Just to put it in perspective,
> that would equal 3 years of the monies I get from
> Social Security. To continue the suit to trial
> would have cost me about the same amount, in
> addition to the thousands I had already spent. I
> couldn't afford to continue.
>
> Just when I filed for a dismissal of the suit,
> Carney demanded back, because he claims they were
> part of "the gift" I gave him, the video masters
> that he returned to me in 2010-namely From the
> Journals of Jean Seberg, Postcards, Exterior
> Night, and John Garfield.
>
> I've heard somewhat similar stories from other
> filmmakers, although none quite as breathtaking
> as this.
>
> For a variety of reasons, I think this is a
> cautionary tale you might consider emailing to
> colleagues, friends, and acquaintances who are
> interested in the conservation and protection of
> works by non-mainstream filmmakers, film
> preservation in general, and archiving not just
> films but film-related artifacts of the recent
> past by independent filmmakers. Please feel free
> email this letter, post this on Facebook pages,
> and submit it to various blogs.
>
> If you want to write about this situation, I have much more information.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Mark Rappaport
> marrap at noos.fr
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