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Important American independent films are stuck on the shelf because they haven’t made the leap into the digital age. That's the reason we're launching this Kickstarter campaign.
Our goal is to make a slate of extraordinary, early-career films produced by Christine Vachon & Todd Haynes (CAROL, FAR FROM HEAVEN, I'M NOT THERE, BOYS DON'T CRY, SUPERSTAR) available in a gorgeous 4k digital format for the first time.
SAVE THE DATE
I’m very excited to announce that Jake Perlin, Artistic Director of the Metrograph cinema in New York City, has agreed to host the world premiere of our 4K restorations of the Apparatus film collection. The series will unfurl in early December with Christine Vachon, Todd Haynes and Barry Ellsworth in attendance, along with other directors and special guests.
We hope you can join us for the exciting reunion of these pioneering filmmakers by choosing the SPECIAL THEATER SCREENING reward. (Please note that travel and accommodations are not included.)
SANDRA SCHULBERG ON STARTING INDIECOLLECT
I’ve heard hundreds of stories about lost negatives and films that can no longer be seen. We filmmakers never had a plan for protecting our work. That’s why I started IndieCollect.
Already — as reported in the New York Times — IndieCollect has taken custody of thousands of film negatives, most presumed lost by the filmmakers. Since then, we’ve also gone into filmmakers’ homes, garages and storage units to help them inventory and archive their work.
IndieCollect has placed the film & sound elements for 1,500 titles in archives with optimal cold storage conditions at no cost to the filmmakers. That’s three large truckloads!
BUT SAVED DOES NOT MEAN SEEN!
IF THESE FILMS ARE NOT SCANNED, THEY MAY NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN.
We are scanning films with our amazing, brand-new Kinetta film scanner to make long-lost indie treasures available in a 4k digital format for the first time.
First up on our scanning slate is a collection of daring, inventive & witty, early-career films, produced by Christine Vachon & Todd Haynes, the makers of the extraordinary, award-winning movies CAROL, FAR FROM HEAVEN, I'M NOT THERE, BOYS DON'T CRY, SUPERSTAR, and many others.
Christine & Todd were astounded and delighted when we told them we found the master picture & sound elements for eight of the shorts they produced in the 80s & 90s with Barry Ellsworth under their Apparatus banner. Apparatus was a non-profit production company they used to produce & direct their own films, and to support innovative work by their colleagues.
Used by permission. See Robin Holland/robinholland.com
With your support we will digitize and make this unique collection available to our Kickstarter backers in a beautiful Blu-ray edition and 4K digital copies to be streamed at your convenience.
After each film has been scanned, the original film & sound elements will be placed at one of our collaborating archives for safekeeping.
GEMS UNSEEN: Early Films from Christine Vachon & Todd Haynes
Here’s a quick glimpse of the films in the collection.
ANEMONE ME (1990) The story of a blind man who falls in love with a merman, directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner & MacArthur “Genius” Suzan-Lori Parks and Bruce Hainley.
LA DIVINA (1989) Brooke Dammkoehler’s meditation on the rise to stardom of a glamorous movie idol (modeled after Greta Garbo), draped in gorgeous black & white photography and a tone of delirious grandeur.
OREOS WITH ATTITUDE (1991) A wickedly witty satire by Larry Carty that turns racial stereotyping inside out Screened at New Directors/New Films in 1991.
HE WAS ONCE (1989) One of the most original films ever made, this “pseudo-animation” by Mary Hestand features a cameo appearance by Todd Haynes. (This is the only film in the collection available on DVD, but it has never been scanned in high-resolution.)
CAUSE AND EFFECT (1988) Susan Delson’s offbeat exploration of the obvious and the unexpected links in people's lives.
DAYS ARE NUMBERED (1986, 18 min), Christine Vachon’s story of a man haunted by the grotesque memory of having stepped on a dead animal's carcass. Starring Michael Sean Edwards (the voice of Richard Carpenter in Todd Haynes’ SUPERSTAR) and featuring a young Steve Buscemi.
NATURAL HISTORY (1986), Barry Ellsworth’s story of an adult infant named "Child” whose parents — in a desperate quest to expel him from home — resort to a magic spell they’ve seen in a TV doc about Malaysian baptismal rites.
THE WAY OF THE WICKED (1989, 15 min), Christine Vachon’s fantastic parody of the Catholic Church, an odyssey about two women trying to stop a young girl from biting the Host at her First Communion.
LOST FILM FOUND!
Inspired by our efforts and your enthusiasm, Killer Films scoured its deep archive and – lo and behold! – discovered the prints of three films directed by Christine Vachon: DAYS ARE NUMBERED, THE WAY OF THE WICKED, and A MAN IN YOUR ROOM, that we all thought was lost.
A MAN IN YOUR ROOM (1984, 6 min), Christine Vachon’s story of a priest haunted by his desire for an impish young man.
While corresponding with Barry Ellsworth — who founded Apparatus Productions with Christine Vachon and Todd Haynes — he let us know about more films produced during the Apparatus years, including his 1985 short, TOMMY’S, which stars a young Steve Buscemi.
TOMMY'S (1985, 15 min)
A LOST FILM
In the process of researching this collection, we've been able to document more Apparatus productions, but we haven't found the elements. We need your help to determine their whereabouts.
- ASSASSINS: A FILM CONCERNING RIMBAUD (1985, 43 min), Todd Haynes’ first film, in which he depicts the poet as homosexual outlaw.
Thanks for helping us locate the original film elements for Todd Haynes’ first film, ASSASSINS (1985, 43 min). We've received some really helpful responses — but, as yet, no negative.
Meanwhile, our friends at the Film Society for Lincoln Center sent the print they screened last fall. It's fairly worn, with scratches and weak splices. Based on our initial assessment, it’s clear that using this print as the basis for a 4K restoration would be a huge challenge. We will continue our search for the original negative and/or a much better print. If you have any leads, email us at lostandfound@indiecollect.org, or tweet us @indie_collect with the hashtag #lostandfound.
WE'VE GOT THE SCANNER! HELP US ACTIVATE IT!
As cinephiles, creators, and connoisseurs, we hope you recognize these films need to be SAVED and SEEN AGAIN. Your support will kick start our film scanning & access program, starting with the direct costs associated with scanning the Apparatus collection.
HOW KICKSTARTER FUNDS WILL BE USED
- To offset the labor costs of cleaning & scanning the film and sound elements for each title;
- For color correction;
- To output to new digital formats — the digital master, mezzanine copy, access copies;
- To make LTO (Linear-Tape Open) backups for the Library of Congress;
- To amortize cost of acquiring and maintaining the necessary equipment (e.g., image/sound capture, workstations, LTO decks, digital storage, etc.)
These steps allow us to properly capture and preserve the original film materials and provide the filmmaker with high-resolution files.
IndieCollect is not acquiring the rights to the films we scan. We are doing this as a non-profit service to our fellow filmmakers and to take active steps to preserve the legacy of American independent cinema. We hope that new 4K digital versions will encourage commercial and non-profit distributors to put the films back on the market, or give filmmakers the tools to do that for themselves.
EVERY BACKER COUNTS! PLEASE JOIN FORCES WITH US NOW.
We only have until July 27 to meet our goal, so the pressure is enormous.
Please back us now. Every backer counts.
Please also spread the news about this project. We'll provide updates that you can share on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
With so many thrilling films that need to be scanned and archived, we really need your support.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Sandra Schulberg and the IndieCollect Team
Israel Ehrisman, Steve Blakely, Kirsten Larvick, Ina Archer, Omchand Gee, David Leitner, Colin Stanfield
WHAT ARE STRETCH GOALS?
If we raise more funds than needed to scan the Apparatus collection, we will reach into our vault to offer you many more films.
Peep inside our vault and discover some of the other treasures we hope to scan and revive next.
- Scott B & Beth B's "punk" film masterpieces
- Smorgasbord of "Sundance Shorts" made by filmmakers at the start of their illustrious careers, including Gus Van Sant's "Thanksgiving Prayer;"
- Best of Barbara Hammer, the iconoclast who gave us "Nitrate Kisses;"
- Works by African-American artists Zeinabu irene Davis & Yvonne Welbon;
- Social issue docs by Mirra Bank, Joyce Chopra, DeeDee Halleck, Judith Helfand, Barbara Margolis, Julia Reichert, and others;
- Masters of the Avant-Garde from the Film-Makers' Cooperative archive;
- Cult favorite "Liquid Sky" by Slava Tsukerman;
- Nancy Kelly’s “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” and many more.
THE BIG PICTURE: What the Future Holds
No one knows what films will be deemed worthy — artistically, culturally, historically — 100 years from now. All we do know is that independent filmmakers do not, as a rule, have the resources to properly protect their own films.
So we've got to save as many as we can, as best we can, as soon as we can. Or else indie films will suffer the same fate as silent films: 85% of them lost before anyone realizes what a gigantic mistake it was to let that happen.
IF YOU LOVE FILM, ESPECIALLY INDIE FILM, DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN. NEGLECT IS OUR ENEMY. ASSUMING THAT SOMEONE ELSE IS SOLVING THE PROBLEM IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER.
Thanks again,
Sandra
Risks and challenges
Scanning archival film elements (whether 8mm, 16mm, or 35mm) can be challenging, especially if there has been damage to the celluloid. The physical condition of the works that we are planning to scan has been assessed, and we are optimistic about our success. Moreover, our new Kinetta archival film scanner was designed specifically to gently handle older film material. It does not use sprockets to advance each frame of the film, so it can accommodate torn sprocket holes and other weaknesses. Steve Blakely, our head of Collection Assessment, has more than 30 years experience in the film laboratory business. Once the film scanning is done, a separate team takes on the "finishing" of the work (sound synchronization, color correction, etc.) This part of the process involves artistic decisions — ideally made in collaboration with the original filmmakers — so that the new digital version of the film looks as good as, or even better than, the original. Fortunately, most of the films on our scanning slate were made by filmmakers who are alive and well and very excited about the opportunity to consult on the finishing process.
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