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By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Posted Wednesday, June 14th, 2006 - Comments Off on Indie no more: AIVF throws it in
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Indie no more: AIVF throws it in

The Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, a longtime indie voice and publisher of The Independent has sent out a letter announcing they’re done as of June 28. 0605cover.gif “In February AIVF launched an emergency fundraising appeal with an announcement to members that the organization faced an uncertain future. We are sorry to report that we have not reached the fundraising targets necessary for a turnaround and continuation of operations. However, long-term supporters in the independent community are organizing later this month to assess whether a core group of champions can take over hands-on management of the Independent while also reinventing and relaunching AIVF as a membership organization. We are also actively exploring other options for continuing publication of the Independent through other like-minded organizations.” [More of the release is below; here’s the website.]


Read on for important information about AIVF member benefits and updates on future prospects: Health insurance continues through 12-31-2006: For those currently covered by health insurance based on your AIVF membership, your coverage will continue through the end of this year (Dec. 31, 2006) no matter what your renewal date…. Also, we are in conversation with other independent media organizations to see if they will be able to extend health insurance coverage for AIVF members beyond 2006… Operations will close 6-28-2006: AIVF will close operations and vacate its office space by June 28. We are in conversation with like-minded organizations that may be able to provide alternatives for AIVF members, such as specific benefits or a complimentary membership….
Future Prospects: Whether or not AIVF is ultimately able to continue as an organization, we are hopeful that the Independent will continue as an information resource and voice for the independent community. While supporters are regrouping to assess whether the magazine can be taken on under AIVF auspices, AIVF’s transitional board has also been exploring the option of having a like-minded successor organization take over publication of the Independent. With the assistance of a consultant with expertise in small press magazine publishing, we have created financial models and initiated conversations with a handful of interested independent media groups. Chief among our concerns with any potential successor organization is a commitment to the Independent’s core values: advocacy to promote and protect diverse independent voices, information exchange and community support for independents, and excellence in the art and craft of independent media making.
Special legacy issue of the Independent: Look for a special issue of the Independent in July highlighting some of the important stories, voices and moments in independent filmmaking since AIVF was founded in 1973. While no single issue of the Independent can totally represent the many layers of our rich history over more than 30 years, this issue offers a glimpse of what has been accomplished due to the creativity and hard work of so many.
— AIVF Board of Directors

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon