By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Santa Monica’s 30-Year-Old Vidiots Closing Doors, But Expanding Activities

Posted Wednesday, January 25th, 2017 - Comments Off on Santa Monica’s 30-Year-Old Vidiots Closing Doors, But Expanding Activities
Be Sociable, Share!

VIDIOTS TO MOVE FROM HISTORIC SANTA MONICA LOCATION AND TRANSITION TO NEW HOME

The beloved video store-turned film non-profit will close the doors of its original location on February 15, but will maintain many of its services and programs as it identifies a new location

Vidiots, the nonprofit film foundation, video store and longtime resource for film lovers and filmmakers alike, will temporarily close its doors on February 15, 2017. With rising costs of operation in Santa Monica, Vidiots Foundation is leaving their Westside store. Targeting to re-open in 2018, the organization will use the transition period to find a new, permanent home in a more accessible Los Angeles location.

Vidiots will also spend its “cocooning” period to focus on its mission of fostering meaningful human interaction around cinema, preserving and providing access to its diverse and growing library of over 50,000 films, and producing unique screening and education programs.

“Although leaving our home of over 30 years will be bittersweet, we are elated that Vidiots Foundation’s next chapter will ensure the preservation and growth of our vast film collection. We look forward to welcoming a new community and to reuniting with our long-standing customers and dedicated members in a new home!” said Vidiots founders Patty Polinger and Cathy Tauber.

During the transition, Vidiots will continue to build its library with new releases, rare finds, films at risk of becoming unavailable to the public, and undistributed gems from the festival circuit not available anywhere else. It will also invest in expanding its operations and services to relaunch as a larger, more comprehensive, and sustainable non-profit organization with a diverse donor base.

Longtime and faithful Vidiots donor Annapurna Pictures will be making the first donation of funds to help support the foundation while in transition and will continue to make additional, sustaining contributions for three years to help Vidiots establish and run their new location. The company will also spearhead the digitization of their VHS library to help keep the spirit of the rare collection alive, preserved, and accessible.

Commented Executive Director Maggie Mackay, “I’m thrilled the Vidiots legacy will continue, and that the singular library Patty and Cathy have built will remain a resource for all of Los Angeles and beyond. With the support of our dear friends at Annapurna Pictures during this transition, we will continue building an extensive donor base and identify a more central location with unlimited potential, so that Vidiots can re-launch as a fully functional, inclusive film space designed for everyone from the most budding film lovers to the most seasoned cinephiles and filmmakers.”

During the hiatus, the Vidiots library will be held in safe storage and Vidiots will maintain many of its signature programs. Vidiots’ friends at the Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles will be hosting the foundation in the Theatre’s 50-seat Pickford Screening Room for screenings and events, including a library pop-up with curated films for rental. In fall of 2017, the venue will also host Vidiots’ second Harry Dean Stanton Award tribute, honoring a member of the film community whose body of work has helped shape American cinema. Last year’s inaugural ceremony featured tributes and performances from Harry Dean Stanton, Father John Misty, Anjelica Huston, Karen O, and David Lynch, among many others. The 2017 recipient and show date will be announced in May.

ABOUT VIDIOTS FOUNDATION

Vidiots Foundation is an inclusive and ever-expanding community hub for film lovers, filmmakers, and anyone curious about cinema. Vidiots is a non-profit, 501(C)3 organization dedicated to the cinematic arts through showcasing the work of emerging and master artists, presenting unique film and education programs, and preserving and providing access to a diverse and growing library of over 50,000 titles.

Vidiots Foundation – taking the video store experience into the 21st century.

For membership information and sponsorship opportunities visit vidiotsfoundation.org 

ABOUT ANNAPURNA PICTURES

Annapurna Pictures, founded by Megan Ellison, focuses on creating sophisticated, high-quality content that is critically and commercially conscious while still appealing to a diverse audience. By upholding Ellison’s vision to put filmmakers and artists first and preserve their authentic creative voices no matter the genre or medium, in 5 years, the company has garnered a total of 31 Academy Award nominations for their projects, including ZERO DARK THIRTY, JOY, THE MASTER, FOXCATCHER, and THE GRANDMASTER. Ellison is also one of only four honorees ever to receive two Best Picture nominations in the same year, with HER and AMERICAN HUSTLE both earning nods in 2014. Annapurna’s most recent project is Mike Mills’ Golden Globe-nominated 20TH CENTURY WOMEN, starring Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, and Billy Crudup, which A24 released in December. Other 2016 titles from the company include SAUSAGE PARTY, WIENER-DOG, and EVERYBODY WANTS SOME, with THE BAD BATCH set for release in 2017. Annapurna is currently in post-production on Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s UNTITLED DETROIT PROJECT and is developing the film adaptation of Maria Semple’s WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE, to be directed by Richard Linklater. Additionally, Annapurna is partners with Boal on the company Page One, where they produced season two of the hit podcast SERIAL. Bigelow also directed and partnered with Annapurna on the animated short LAST DAYS, about illegal elephant poaching and the ivory trade.

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in MCN Curated Headlines, Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on Santa Monica’s 30-Year-Old Vidiots Closing Doors, But Expanding Activities

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

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