PRESS RELEASE
February 14, 2017 — New York, NY — IndieCollect announced today that it will receive a donation from Spotlight Cinema Networks on behalf of Ira Deutchman.
Spotlight Cinema Networks and the Art House Convergence presented the first Spotlight Lifetime Achievement Award to the renowned film distributor and producer on January 17. The award was created by Spotlight Cinema Networks in partnership with the Art House Convergence, an organization devoted to increasing the quantity and quality of art house cinemas in North America. As part of the Spotlight Lifetime Achievement Award, Spotlight Cinema Networks makes a charitable donation of $2,500 to an organization chosen by the honoree.
Deutchman today designated IndieCollect as the recipient. IndieCollect advocates for preservation of, and access to, American independent cinema, past and present.
“I want to thank Ira Deutchman and Spotlight Cinema Networks for this wonderful gift,” said IndieCollect’s founder Sandra Schulberg. “This award speaks to our mantra, ‘Save Does Not Mean Seen.’ Our preservation campaign is intricately linked to our determination to exhibit, or cause to be exhibited, the films we restore. Rescuing physical elements is a means to an end; our primary aim is to rescue from obscurity.”
“While there are a lot of great organizations devoted to film preservation” says Deutchman, “the history of independent work has been largely ignored. No comprehensive online catalogue of independent films exists and many important indie films can no longer be seen because they are not available in digital formats. Thanks to IndieCollect, there’s a better chance that this diverse body of work will survive for future generations.”
IndieCollect operates two main programs: an adoption service to place filmmakers’ master elements in long-term cold storage at no cost to the filmmakers, and a non-profit film scanning service so that historic indie films can be revived in a high-resolution 4K digital format. It recently restored the Apparatus Collection – ten early films made by Christine Vachon, Todd Haynes, Barry Ellsworth and their confederates – which played at the Metrograph cinema in downtown New York in December 2016. It is currently restoring Cane River by Horace Jenkins, a rescue effort featured in the New York Times.
About IndieCollect
IndieCollect is a program of the Laboratory for Icon & Idiom, Inc.(LII), a non-profit organization dedicated to the principle that access to the work of American independent filmmakers is essential to understanding America’s history, let alone its arts and culture. Independent films will survive only if active steps are taken to preserve them. IndieCollect has archived or repatriated more than 4,000 films including:
- Yoko Ono’s Smile, Rape, Freedom, Bottoms, and Apotheosis
- Gus Van Sant’s Thanksgiving Prayer
- The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love by Maria Maggenti
- Spike Lee’s Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
- Anemone Me by Suzan-Lori Parks
- Man Push Cart by Ramin Bahrani
- Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. by Leslie Harris
- Living on Tokyo Time by Steve Okazaki
- In the Soup, Hero, Sons, and Lenz by Alex Rockwell
For more information: indiecollect.org
— IndieCollect announced today that it will receive a donation from Spotlight Cinema Networks on behalf of Ira Deutchman.
Spotlight Cinema Networks and the Art House Convergence presented the first Spotlight Lifetime Achievement Award to the renowned film distributor and producer on January 17. The award was created by Spotlight Cinema Networks in partnership with the Art House Convergence, an organization devoted to increasing the quantity and quality of art house cinemas in North America. As part of the Spotlight Lifetime Achievement Award, Spotlight Cinema Networks makes a charitable donation of $2,500 to an organization chosen by the honoree.
Deutchman today designated IndieCollect as the recipient. IndieCollect advocates for preservation of, and access to, American independent cinema, past and present.
“I want to thank Ira Deutchman and Spotlight Cinema Networks for this wonderful gift,” said IndieCollect’s founder Sandra Schulberg. “This award speaks to our mantra, ‘Save Does Not Mean Seen.’ Our preservation campaign is intricately linked to our determination to exhibit, or cause to be exhibited, the films we restore. Rescuing physical elements is a means to an end; our primary aim is to rescue from obscurity.”
“While there are a lot of great organizations devoted to film preservation” says Deutchman, “the history of independent work has been largely ignored. No comprehensive online catalogue of independent films exists and many important indie films can no longer be seen because they are not available in digital formats. Thanks to IndieCollect, there’s a better chance that this diverse body of work will survive for future generations.”
IndieCollect operates two main programs: an adoption service to place filmmakers’ master elements in long-term cold storage at no cost to the filmmakers, and a non-profit film scanning service so that historic indie films can be revived in a high-resolution 4K digital format. It recently restored the Apparatus Collection – ten early films made by Christine Vachon, Todd Haynes, Barry Ellsworth and their confederates – which played at the Metrograph cinema in downtown New York in December 2016. It is currently restoring Cane River by Horace Jenkins, a rescue effort featured in the New York Times.
About IndieCollect
IndieCollect is a program of the Laboratory for Icon & Idiom, Inc.(LII), a non-profit organization dedicated to the principle that access to the work of American independent filmmakers is essential to understanding America’s history, let alone its arts and culture. Independent films will survive only if active steps are taken to preserve them. IndieCollect has archived or repatriated more than 4,000 films including:
- Yoko Ono’s Smile, Rape, Freedom, Bottoms, and Apotheosis
- Gus Van Sant’s Thanksgiving Prayer
- The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love by Maria Maggenti
- Spike Lee’s Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
- Anemone Me by Suzan-Lori Parks
- Man Push Cart by Ramin Bahrani
- Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. by Leslie Harris
- Living on Tokyo Time by Steve Okazaki
- In the Soup, Hero, Sons, and Lenz by Alex Rockwell
For more information: indiecollect.org
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