[Frameworks] Jazz Music and Avant-Garde Film

[Chuck Kleinhans]

Not to question the  expertise of fellow frameworkers about film, but I think we need to hear  from intellectual property lawyers and DVD executives on this matter.

As I understand it, music rights for films are handled by a few Hollywood outfits.  All  about rights by artisans and indies are automatically refused by the copyright owners (or some absurd fee is given suitable for commercial cinema and TV).

So you have to work through the spendy lawyers at these intellectual property shops.  Can a starving artist get a break?  probably a matter of luck or accident or pity….but I really don’t know.

What do the Visual Music folks say?

Chuck

On Nov 9, 2017, at 12:05 PM, Adam Hyman <adam at lafilmforum.org<mailto:adam at lafilmforum.org>> wrote:

Unquestionably they didn’t have the rights to start, but it also wasn’t a big issue.
Rights for those films have become an issue when DVD editions were desired to be made.  Reputable companies won’t distribute DVDs without evidence of licenses (or fair use opinions from lawyers).
I think since A-G films live below the commercial radar, most don’t get rights.

From: Myron Ort <zeno at SONIC.NET<mailto:zeno at SONIC.NET>>
Reply-To: "Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>>" <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>>
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2017 11:55:18 -0800
To: "Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>>" <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com<mailto:frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Jazz Music and Avant-Garde Film

To me there is the interesting question regarding which avant garden or experimental films obtained the rights for the music. Some maybe not at first but maybe later if the film became more widely known.

Not jazz, but I wondered if Kenneth Anger had the rights to all that pop music when Scorpio Rising first came out, likewise Bruce Conner’s “Cosmic Ray”, now that Bruce is blue chip museum material I am sure they have the obtained the rights especially since the major power of that film is the Ray Charles music but I have my doubts about those rights when first the film came out.   Harry Smith just put on his favorite album at the time Monk or whatever, likewise the early films of Joseph Cornell.  Smith’s early compilation of American Folk Music was likely very casual about rights at first, just using his collection of rare old 78 rpm material.  Does anyone actually know facts relating to all this. I think at some point I did read that Anger said he had rights to the pop music, but not exactly sure if that was true at the beginning.


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