Hello!

Just a quick notice today, as we find ourselves in a state of max trepidation over next Tuesday’s election — we have to admit that we feel like Gert Fröbe, just above. Can sanity prevail?  We’re doing our best to be optimistic.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made a disturbing announcement — they’ve laid off a number of specialists in motion picture preservation and library archive work. Although it mostly happens behind the scenes, preserving films is supposed to be one of the Academy’s key functions. Here is the news, as reported at  Variety,  The L.A. Times and  Deadline.

I guess that’s might happen when you sink mega-millions into a museum. It’s the kind of corporate move one expects from a conglomerate-owned movie studio. The Academy’s preservation staff has reportedly been gutted of both its leadership and its most experienced specialists. Photochemical film experts with the knowledge and judgment to do the job right are not expendable. Word is already circulating, calling for an intervention by Scorsese, Spielberg, et. al..

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson