Hi everyone, Some of you may not be aware that David Dinnell, in my opinion one of the truly great film curators we have in the world today, was unceremoniously and abruptly dismissed by the Ann Arbor Film Festival a few months ago.
Aside from the thoughtless and callous nature of this act, it's just an infuriating and baffling decision which has, for me and many others, tossed everything that made the Ann Arbor Film Festival great over the past several years into the trash. I'm far from the only person who feels that under David's tenure as program director, Ann Arbor extremely quickly became one of the most interesting global showcases for independent/experimental media art. This was in giant part due to David's far-reaching, creative, and thoughtful programming, as well as the sense of community that this outreach was able to foment at Ann Arbor for the festival every year. Obviously there were many other Ann Arbor community members and the very dedicated staff that made this happen along with David, but David's curatorial vision gave so many people a big reason to be excited every March to attend, to see an excellent and inspiring program of work of all kinds, and also to participate in the community that would assemble there. For my part, I can't express how disappointed I am that this will no longer be the case and how pissed I am that the festival's director and board so unconscionably and stupidly dismissed David. I will not be collaborating with the festival in any way moving forward. If you're someone who enjoyed Ann Arbor in the past several years in person or from afar, via the festival itself, its touring programs, its DVD compilations, or just in the pleasure of its extensive program guides, please read and consider signing this petition to express a community's displeasure with this recent and highly problematic turn of events. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/letter-to-the-board-of-the-ann-arbor-film-festival thanks for your patience with my rant - Mark Toscano
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