[Rumori] Fwd: Sampling and fair use - pressure me!

[Rick Prelinger]

Looks like this filmmaker could use some help.

Rick



>>Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 01:17:23 -0500 (EST)
>>From: satanmacnuggit <satanmacnuggit at dojo.tao.ca>
>>Subject: Sampling and fair use - pressure me!
>>
>>NIFF AND FAIR USE
>>A PRESSURE CAMPAIGN AGAINST MYSELF
>>CALL FOR SUPPORT FROM JONATHAN CULP
>>
>>This one is really important and is just killing me so check it out.
>>
>>In 2002 I had a film accepted, then rejected from the Niagara (Canada)
>>Indie Film Festival due to copyright. As you may know, I make collage
>>films from mass media imagery in order to question and contextualize, and
>>therefore critique, those images. I do this because 1) I'm broke and it's
>>an accessible method under the circumstances, and 2) I have loved hip hop
>>ever since my ear caught a fragment of "Night of the Living Baseheads" in
>>the intro to Bowie's "Fame." The idea that I owe money (tens of dollars a
>>SECOND usually) to corporate owners of intellectual property, if I wish to
>>critique them in my media of choice, is just not convincing to me.
>>"Artists' rights?" Ain't I an artist?
>>
>>So in 2003 I submitted again, pleading with them that, now that the place
>>where I was born finally has ONE film festival, they could reconsider this
>>rule. I made my arguments and gave them letters of support, including from
>>other film festival workers, since this policy is in fact an anomaly on
>>the festival as opposed to broadcast level - even TIFF has given awards to
>>uncleared collage films in recent memory.
>>
>>CASH awards at that - and that is one reason I found NIFF's response
>>unacceptable, because they made the case that it was unjust for collage
>>films to be entered into competition for cash prizes. The compromise they
>>offered was to show my films at a special free screening, to be followed
>>by a debate with a copyright lawyer. Aside from the fact that I was
>>working and could not attend the festival, I couldn't help but remember
>>what Alanis Obomsawin told the CBC when they broadcast a rebuttal after
>>"Kanehsatake": the film speaks for itself.
>>
>>Now it is 2004 and the festival deadline is approaching again, and I am
>>living IN THE VERY CITY where the festival is happening. I have dreaded
>>playing political games with one of the tiny handful of arts resources in
>>Niagara, and so I have tried to deal with it through reason and argument.
>>The upshot of this was that, after strenuously agreeing with all my
>>arguments, the festival director explained, "It's complicated and you'll
>>just have to trust me." You can write your own snappy answer to THAT.
>>
>>So...I wrote a petition. I prepared to place it on line, and started
>>asking around for folks to endorse my demands. Which were:
>>
>>1) that NIFF accept fair use collage films on equal terms, without
>>stigma;
>>
>>2) that NIFF allow filmmakers to 'sign off' on copyright liability without
>>additional interrogation and policing by festival staff;
>>
>>3) that NIFF should institute concrete and publicized methods by which the
>>public can participate in decision-making and the formulation or amendment
>>of policy.
>>
>>I've never organized, as opposed to documented, an activist campaign
>>before. My skills are not too compatible but I was ready to learn if the
>>alternative was artistic exile. However, now I have to face facts. Ever
>>since I got back from tour, I have been dealing like mad with my personal
>>emotional baggage, which I won't even get IN to here. Although I finally
>>have a (temporary, borrowed) home and (too many!) moments to myself, my
>>demons are eating up time that I should be spending on editing my feature,
>>jamming with my band, writing.
>>
>>At any rate, one thing I have learned is that it is futile to try or
>>pretend that you are solving the problems of your world ALONE; and to try
>>to organize a campaign in my current situation would almost certainly
>>reproduce that terrible mistake.
>>
>>SO:
>>
>>What I am going to suggest that you do is to write to ME and exert a
>>pressure campaign on ME to keep making collage films, that methods of
>>media sampling and commentary can be worthwhile and useful and should be
>>supported from an activist and/or artistic perspective.
>>
>>Talk in your own words, from your own knowledge and experience, and give
>>examples if possible. Differing viewpoints are welcome. Pix and crap like
>>that all great; hell, do a collage about it. Email everything to
>>jonathan at satanmacnuggit.com.
>>
>>If I get enough replies before April 1, I will put them out in a zine, or
>>post them on the web site, or both. NIFF will definitely get to see
>>your perspectives, in whatever form.
>>
>>Circulate, post, publish, announce. The more the merrier. Thanks!
>>
>>- Jonathan Culp
>>Satan Macnuggit Popular Arts
>>www.satanmacnuggit.com
>
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-- 

Rick Prelinger
Prelinger Archives    http://www.prelinger.com
P.O. Box 590622, San Francisco, Calif. 94159-0622 USA
footage at panix.com

Online film collection at Internet Archive: 
http://www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php