Smithsonian sells out film archive to Showtime channel in shady backdoor deal

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

http://public.resource.org/sunshine.html

― Hi, I read blogs (ex machina), Thursday, 6 April 2006 14:53 (twenty years ago)

"Noted documentarian Ken Burns was quoted in the New York Times as saying this arrangement would have 'prohibited him from making some of his recent works.'"

Despite this, the arrangement seems to suck.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 6 April 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

Hahahah, thank you.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 April 2006 15:33 (twenty years ago)

It is insane that these things aren't FORCED into the public domain by default.

― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Thursday, 6 April 2006 15:33 (twenty years ago)

The NYT: "It's not our obligation to help independent filmmakers sell their wares to commercial broadcast and cable networks," said the official, Jeanny Kim, a vice president for media services for Smithsonian Business Ventures.

Yeah, great. Think of the trade-off we're getting: thoughtful documentarians aren't getting access to material they (and we) are theoretically funding through our taxes, just so the Smithsonian/Showtime alliance can litter the media landscape with the kinds of docs that are crummy and base when the Hitler Channel does them.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 6 April 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

I mean, the History Channel market is presumably what this alliance is going after, right? Here's THC's prime-time line-up for tonight:

6pm: UFO Files
7pm: Modern Marvels
8pm: The Antichrist
9pm: The Antichrist
10pm: Bible Battles

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 6 April 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

i'm not surprised at this, a lot of other historical film archives formerly owned by the government have been sold over the past 20-some years to commercial entities. i'm just waiting for wal-mart to take over the library of congress.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 6 April 2006 16:11 (twenty years ago)

hstencil-- what other historical film archives? Ones not part of larger entities like NARA and LOC? (In my experience, the Smithsonian is fairly difficult to work with anyway, and expensive as well, I believe. Didn't realize it could get even worse!)

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 18:44 (twenty years ago)

Fuck one Smithsonian. Does anybody remember that war exhibit they put up a year or two ago called "The Price of Freedom: America at War" or some shit???? And of course the famous little card that sat next to the Enola Gay which said the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed "tens of thousands" of people and "led immediately to Japan's surrender" so along with CAN WE PLEASE GET THE SHAMELESS LIES AND PROPAGANDA OUT OF OUR HISTORY MUSEUMS PLEASE i guess we can now add CAN YOU PLEASE STOP SELLING OFF ASSETS OWNED BY THE PUBLIC k thnx

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 6 April 2006 18:53 (twenty years ago)

10pm: Bible Battles

This should be Falwell v. Robertson with epees. It'd be a top thirty show.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Thursday, 6 April 2006 18:54 (twenty years ago)

Also high on the list of appalling things: The September 11 collection that includes Mayor Guiliani's cell phone. http://americanhistory.si.edu/september11/collection/index.asp?seed=48522&offset=20

Clothing from New York City mayor
Description: This collection of clothing worn by New York City Mayor Rudolf Giuliani includes a hat, boots, and two jackets.

Context: On the morning of September 11, lame duck Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was watching the progress of the New York City primary election. Having lost popularity in a public split from his wife, and fighting prostate cancer, Giuliani was ready to step out of the limelight. Instead, the events of the day served to rocket him to the pinnacle of visibility.

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:01 (twenty years ago)

The Shroud of Rudy.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Okay I'm sorry but anyone walking into a museum and NOT expecting to see propaganda is really fooling themselves; the entirety of human history is fueled by propaganda and unless all of mankind suddenly becomes something completely different I don't really see that changing.

― Dan (Self-Awareness Is Key) Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

I CAN'T WAIT FOR *KITTY HAWK AFTER DARK: THE TWISTED LIVES OF TWO UNNATURALLY CLOSE BROTHERS AND THEIR STRANGE OBSESSION WITH FLYING MACHINES*!

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

(I kind of don't know what my point was here.)

― Dan (Um...) Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:07 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Dan, but there's propaganda and there's, eh, let's call it "mendacity." "Tens of thousands" is an accurate description of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki casualties in the same way that "hundreds of thousands" is an accurate description of the number of Jews killed in WWII. One hundred thousand is the low estimate.

x-post OK, nevermind then.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:10 (twenty years ago)

OK but did they really have to call it "The Price of Freedom" - GAAHHH.

Actually scott I like where this is heading, forget everything I said before.

― Tracey "Upcoming Exhibit All About Cinderella Man" Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:10 (twenty years ago)

I say fuck documentaries based on archival material... and I work for a historical archive!
It's all just bells and whistles for the narrative text anyway. People should learn how to read or listen.

― Washable School Paste (sexyDancer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:11 (twenty years ago)

The Daily Show spot about tips for the Iraqi Civil War to thread!

― Fight the Real Enemy -- Tasti D-Lite (ex machina), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:16 (twenty years ago)

I am particularly bothered by, simultaneously, the scope of objects that the Smithsonian owns, the lack of accessibility for the public to even know what these objects are, and most of all, the ridiculously banal and superficial exhibits that they choose to display! Fuck those dudes.

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:16 (twenty years ago)

I CAN'T WAIT FOR *KITTY HAWK AFTER DARK: THE TWISTED LIVES OF TWO UNNATURALLY CLOSE BROTHERS AND THEIR STRANGE OBSESSION WITH FLYING MACHINES*!

-- scott seward (skotro...), April 6th, 2006.

speaking of Kitty Hawk...

― latebloomer: someone's been drinking my youth! (latebloomer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Yo Washable-- we should fight! It's not just bells and whistles; what makes textual artifacts more worthwhile than visual artifacts?

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:18 (twenty years ago)

(Perhaps that should read "more worthwhile and/or informative")

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

xpost: camera's are often not running during history's key moments, or history's key moments often not visual. Filmed "history" often one of convenience. 20th Century vs. All Of History, etc, etc...

― Washable School Paste (sexyDancer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Smithsonian in watching their fucking backs like any other paranoid federal institution should be expected to do after seeing what keeps happening to NPR, NEA, and PBS = shocker

still not as shit as the FCC

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:38 (twenty years ago)

Cameras are not always running, nor are speeches transcribed/ primary source documents always preserved; I suppose in documentaries, secondary source/scholarly voice-overs and narration are analogous to visual recreations? As far as being interpretive is concerned...

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Working in a historical archive, I've noticed that documentary-makers usually have their narrative fixed and only use archival film to illustrate said narrative, they are not looking at archival film as source material.

― Washable School Paste (sexyDancer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:47 (twenty years ago)

(So as to not misrepresent myself: I mainly work on docs in the time periods before film, so I was talking about "visuals" meaning to include paintings, documents, photographs. With regards to those materials, yeah, they can be filler, but that depends on the strengths of the visuals--in one documentary, we made a character's part WAY larger because we found an amazing photograph of him way late in the game, and lost one altogether because there was nothing at all.)

Generally, narrative is never fixed and changes around the visual edit...

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 19:52 (twenty years ago)

This becomes less so once the motion picture develops. Using newsreels as source materials like using NYPost as source. Only good if you're looking to document a certain veiwpoint, not objective reality.

― Washable School Paste (sexyDancer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:09 (twenty years ago)

If you know of better source materials for documenting "objective reality" you might wanna let every documentary filmmaker ever know about them!

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:12 (twenty years ago)

The Smithsonian doesn't just own newsreels, do they? A very positive thing about digital video is the amount of footage that is now non-news/large-corp related (I know of one documentary based a lot around bystander footage, and yes, of course, that visual info is subjective as well, but what textual info isn't?)

― now now, Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

The way people react to film as "real" is different than the way people react to words.

― Washable School Paste (sexyDancer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:18 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure how that changes the fact that the "objective reality" source materials to which you allude simply do not exist.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:22 (twenty years ago)

i was thinking of the wpa library in particular, tho i am pretty sure there are some others.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Oh they exist alright, you just can't sense them through conventional means. Ask a poet.

― Washable School Paste (sexyDancer), Thursday, 6 April 2006 20:27 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.