Laura, I apologize, but I find this is an extremely offensive comment. A lot of distributors I know personally or by reputation are incredibly brave and have set out in this side of the film business to educate and/or change the world. They're almost as brave as some of the filmmakers they represent. (Though we don't get shot at like some of them.) Many of us have faced hate mail, death threats, bomb threats and a LOT of protests. I'm very proud (okay, vain) that a strategy was named after me from when I was at Kino distributing Last Temptation of Christ and we faced down an enormous amount of pressure to drop the title.
I actually have not heard of films pulled because of controversy (though I suspect some might have been pulled because of slander/libel and some like Last Temptation not picked up by larger distributors), but there are, of course, many books and films that have been pulled from libraries or (just as bad) not purchased. It's wonderful that ALA has a promoted a list of the most banned books each year <http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-challenged-banned-books-2014-20150413-story.html> (with a great photo of our friend who we'll be distributing sooner than later) to face this issue, but that also means it still exists. There are extraordinarily brave librarians to be celebrated and the cause of preservation (except when we're talking 16mm) has been championed by libraries and media centers. But I've seen some of the nasty "stuff" that distributors have faced to champion films. They're pretty cool too. Best regards, Dennis Doros Milestone Film & Video On Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 10:02 AM, Laura Jenemann <ljene...@gmu.edu> wrote: > Relatedly, librarians value freedom of speech. We will hold onto films > that are controversial, and may even oppose our individual values in order > to preserve freedom of speech. Will a vendor/publisher pull a streaming > title if it is related to a controversy because it is bad business? > > > > Laura Jenemann > > Media, Film Studies, and Dance Librarian > > George Mason University > > 703-993-7593 > > ljene...@gmu.edu > > >
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
