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I found a letter you wrote on the internet... Monday, July 14, 2008 3:28 PM From: "Sharon xxxxxxx View contact details To: alrazutis@yahoo.com Hi, I am a filmmaker and grad student at SFU, currently writing my thesis. I was looking for a little history on the debate between Silverman et. al on the one side and Rimmer et. al on the other. I haven't found anything so far, but in the research I came upon your resignation letter and laughed out loud when I saw the date of the letter. I'm sure you know this but most of the problems you cite in the film department have only gotten worse. I T.A.'d one course in the film department and swore I'd never do it again. The sessional I was working for was from the communications department. He anecdotalized everything, constantly turned film into hockey and made the students buy a huge text book filled with plot summaries interspersed with informational blurbs on technological progress. Among many other hideous things, during the experimental film lecture (one day in the whole term devoted to the entire history), he prefaced it for the students by telling them that they would likely hate it, and made the TA's sit by the doors as sentries to make sure the students didn't leave. Ahh, that's the right tenor... I only TA'd art courses after that. thanks for the laugh, sardonic as it may have been, Sharon xxxxxxx (last name deleted by XAR for web version) --------------------------------- On Jul 15, 2008, at 2:29 PM, Al Razutis wrote: > > Thanks for your note. > > There wasn't really any debate between Silverman and Rimmer, it was her and I (and Michael Eliot Hurst). Rimmer, being primarily visual and non-verbal, has neither the vocabulary or skills for debate, especially with one as smart and conniving as Silverman. > > You can read more (including editorials in Opsis, articles that I wrote or mentioned) at: > > http://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/v-write.html > > (this will link you to the archive site) or the essay written on: > > http://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/films_and_videos.html > > Silverman, of course, 'won' getting her tenured dictatorship position at UC Berkeley. Gruben and Browne, well, you know. Mark Smith, the departmental lab assistant snitch to those who 'valued' such crap, the same guy who had to write his memos in longhand because he couldn't type, nor had finished high-school (I found out much later), recently retired to a 'boat' in a marina near Sidney. Wellsby, I understand, is also creatively and mentally retired on Bowen Island. > > I'm looking forward to what the next gen of filmmakers and teachers will do. I'm never pessimistic. > > Al > > -------------------------------------------- On Jul 17, 2008, at 11:32 PM, Al Razutis wrote : > Regarding: > "I don't know if I got under Rimmer's skin, > or if he just cared more than he wanted to... either way he came back > from the brink of apathy long enough to teach me a valuable lesson. > I'll always appreciate him for that." What was that lesson? It will fill in the blanks. ------------------------------------- Re: I found a letter you wrote on the internet... sharon ps: read your 2001 plea for cineworks board members yesterday... the new programmer at Cineworks while having no experience with or in film at all (she comes from a creative writing and philosophy background) is young and energetic and trying to make Cineworks a society again (the way you define it.) It's a struggle for many reasons I think. She asked me to be on her programming advisory committee, which I have joined, but there is so much that needs to be done it's daunting... it makes me feel old, and tired and resentful (but really jealous) of people who don't feel the obligation to do these things... I sit on the board at Artspeak Gallery and it seems so much more possible to do things there, the organization (which has been around almost as long as Cineworks) is not so hamstrung by the past, by nostalgia... but perhaps that is a result of the homogeneity of artland... Still, filmland just doesn't question its ontology and attempt a re-definition enough. I think this is what keeps art dynamic and vital, while film seems stuck in its old definitions (a bug in a web)... no wonder 'memory' is its default metaphor ------------------------------ Re: I found a letter you wrote on the internet... Thanks back. I will look into these. Much obliged. Sharon ps: I am never pessimistic about art, but about education... that's another story : ) -----------------------------------------------------
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