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NEWS OF ATHENS’ CINEMA SCENE
First, the Bad News: In case you didn't catch
the news a couple of weeks ago, the Robert
Osborne Classic Film Festival won't be hap
pening this coming year. The festival enjoyed
its most successful iteration last March,
drawing bigger crowds of college students, in
particular, than ever before—i development
that seemed to bode well for the future. But
the University of Georgia withdrew its fund
ing this year, which was a significant chunk
of the cash the festival had to work with, as
well as its institutional support, which was a
less tangible but hugely significant piece of
its involvement. The loss of the university's
backing was too hard a blow to be overcome
by increased private donations, especially at
a time when few people have any extra money
to throw around. Since we (I'm a member
of the ROCFF Advisory Board) didn't want to
put on a dramatically downsized event—nor,
more importantly, did Robert—after having
established such high, and specific expecta
tions over the festival's first six years, it was
decided that it couldn't happen in 2011.
It's not hard to understand the university's
decision not to fund a film festival while
staff and faculty are being laid off due to
state budget cuts, and Festival Director Pam
Kohn has noted that UGA's apron strings were
always meant to be untied from the festival
eventually. Still, there's an argument to be
made that a high-profile civic event that
showcased works that are both serious 20th- -
century art and easily accessible touchstones
of popular culture presented an opportunity
for the university to benefit from increasing
its brand-stamp, rather than removing it. It's
a shame that determination wasn't the one
made, but this is Georgia, after all, not France.
I'm just really, really glad we got to see archi
val prints of Laura and Hud and King Kong and
The Godfather on that huge screen, with the
great Robert Osborne as our personal guide to
those and so many other marvelous films.
Will the ROCFF be back? Dunno. Robert
absolutely loved doing it and loved having it
in Athens. It's entirely possible he'd be game
to revive it next year if the funding could be
put back together, but two years between
festivals is a long time. Robert's busy, UGA is
more likely to have its budget further reduced
than restored, and nobody knows when the
economy will again be conducive to ask
ing individuals and businesses—again, in
Georgia—to donate money to a film festival.
Now, the Good: In the meantime, there are a
few people—including me—who are trying
to put together a festival that would build
on the wonderful example of the ROCFF while
hoping to cast a wider net over the Athens
community. This wouldn't be a replacement for
Robert's festival—that's not necessary or pos
sible—but it would attempt to showcase great
prints of great films from all eras. At the same
time, there are other things a film festival can
do in a town like this: spread out to multiple
venues, screen current independent films in
My Dog Tulip, a film by Paul and Sandra Fiertinger based on J.R. Ackerty’s memoir, is currently showing at Cin6.
competition, facilitate the involvement of
local artists and businesses, and partner with
the nonprofit community, to name a few.
This is in the early planning stages and the
details as such aren't yet worth enumerating.
The only reason I bring it up now is because
it's important for cities to provide opportuni
ties to see all kinds of films in the best
manner possible, ancf I want you to keep that
in mind for ours. Ill keep you posted.
A Which Brings Us To: Our beloved Cine, of
course. Which, as of the day this column '
appears, is featuring four—count 'em!—
films that I'm excited to see. Gareth Edwards'
low-budget, character driven sci-fi ffiece
Monsters sounds great based on the assess
ments of most of the folks Tve-read, including
Flagpole's Drew Wheeler, and Fair Game, based
on the story of Valerie PUme's outing as a CIA
agent by the Bush administration, just seems
like it might provide some catharsis for my
outraged liberal ass. Stephen Frears' British
comedy Tamara Drewe, based on a graphic
novel based on the novel Far from the Madding
Crowd by Thomas Hardy, stars the sexy and
fun Gemma Arterton and sounds like sexy fun.
And My Dog Tulip is just going to make me
and Mrs. Film Notebook cry. There's more great
stuff to come, including Claire Denis' eagerly
awaited White Material, so hop aboard www.
athenscine.com and do some research.
Final Notes: Yes, it's the holidays, and every
thing's stopped happening, but there's an
iFilm at the ACC Library Dec. 30: Note by
Note, a doc about the life of a Steinway con
cert grand piano, showing at 7 p.m. Dec 30...
And did I remind you last year to watch Ernst
Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Comer over
the holidays? Well, watch ft again! {Hint: It's
on TCM at eight Christrias morning.)
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16 FLAGPOLE COM DECEMBER 22,2010