It is very easy for us to judge others. We can sit alone type almost
anything we like, and theorize as we please. But how difficult is a
particular person to deal with? We cannot know without having been
there. I once taught with someone who was so off the rails, and not in
very interesting ways, that he was just about impossible to deal with,
and most agreed. Maybe someone could have dealt with him successfully,
but most could not.
Gross incompetence is a pretty serious charge. Why is one person right
and the other five wrong?
If it is true, as those five state, that Saul has completely
misrepresented what happened (and I am not saying that it is true), then
he has behaved unprofessionally, and actually, with gross incompetence.
Or, have you not read this whole thread? Did you notice all of Scott
MacDonald's comments? One of the worst things about this list is people
running off at the mouth in threads that they have not read all of, and
thereby making false accusations against others on our very own list, as
recently happened to me. (When I asked for a correction, the person who
made the misstatement replied that she was much too busy to get further
involved.) The extreme disregard of facts in our broken political
culture sometimes has faint echoes here.
Fred Camper
Chicago
On 4/11/2018 9:33 PM, Salah Hassanpour wrote:
Isn’t this a tacit admission of that faculty’s gross incompetency as
far as failing to exhaust appropriate ways to deal with these
situations before allowing them to escalate to the point where
compelling what ought to have been an emeritus faculty out of their
job is deemed the proper course of affairs?
Salah Hassanpour
*From: *Fred Camper <mailto:f...@fredcamper.com>
*Sent: *April 11, 2018 22:28
*To: *Experimental Film Discussion List
<mailto:frameworks@jonasmekasfilms.com>
*Subject: *Re: [Frameworks] Forwarded from Massart Faculty
Yes. Wow is right. I was the first to express sympathy, and anger that a
film showing to a class could have been an issue. But perhaps that was a
false narrative?
I do not need to take sides here, just note that there are often two
sides, and we should not have jumped to conclusions from one story, even
if from an artist we respect. We know that sometimes, experimental
filmmakers can, um, be difficult. I would like to think that art schools
should accommodate some degree of difficulty from their artists, but
there are also limits.
There was a time decades ago when I was unemployed, broke, and
spiraling downward. A filmmaker who I greatly respect (and I know many
on this list also do) wanted to me apply for an untenured, full-time
position as department chair in the university where he taught. As he
described it, the other members of the film department, all tenured, had
been fighting to the point where they were no longer speaking to each
other. The chair job involved talking about diverse issues with all four
of them and then making decisions. I knew and respected the work of two
of the other three. But the very fact of this situation, and the search
for a chair with this particular job description, boggles the mind, and
I felt a stunning lack of respect for the person they were seeking to
hire, whose continued employment as untentured faculty would depend upon
their votes. I suspected that after a few years of this I would have
been forced to retire to the rubber room -- and might never have emerged.
Most of us have passionate beliefs about aesthetic and related matters.
It takes temperance and skill to argue them from the full depths of our
passions while still letting the people we are arguing with feel
acknowledged and respected. I know that at this I have often failed.
Fred Camper
Chicago
On 4/11/2018 8:54 PM, Jon Behrens wrote:
> wow
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Apr 11, 2018, at 4:28 PM, Ed Halter <h...@edhalter.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hey Frameworks
>>
>> Felt I should share this announcement that was forwarded to me from
the Massart faculty.
>>
>> ------------
>>
>>
>> TO THE MASSART COMMUNITY:
>>
>> The faculty and staff of the Film/Video department demand that
Professor Saul Levine stop his
>> lies about recent events at Mass Art and his cyber-bullying against
his colleagues.
>>
>> It is because of Professor Levine’s very public attacks and
misrepresentations that we feel
>> obliged to correct his version of the complaints against him.
>>
>> He has bullied his colleagues and created an abusive working
environment over many years.
>>
>> He has derailed and destroyed important discussions about urgent
departmental and curricular
>> issues.
>>
>> This is NOT an issue of academic freedom. No one at Mass Art made
any effort to censor or
>> punish Professor Levine for screening his film or any other film he
has shown over the years.
>> No one forced him to retire.The decision to retire is entirely
Professor Levine’s.
>>
>> We recognize Professor Levine as a brilliant artist and programmer
and are thankful for his
>> contributions to the department and to Massart.It is extremely
painful to see his toxic rant
>> against the department, besmearing the College and insulting us by
name while claiming
>> himself as the victim.
>>
>> As artists, teachers and mentors, it is our responsibility to stand
up when we are bullied and to
>> treat each other with respect. It is also our duty to foster an
open, respectful, and collegial
>> environment for our students.
>>
>> Soon-Mi Yoo, Chair
>> Ericka Beckman, Professor
>> Gretchen Skogerson, Professor
>> Joe Briganti, Studio Manager, Video Area
>> Kim Keown, Studio Manager, Film Area
>> _______________________________________________
>> FrameWorks mailing list
>> FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
>> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
> _______________________________________________
> FrameWorks mailing list
> FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
> https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
_______________________________________________
FrameWorks mailing list
FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
_______________________________________________
FrameWorks mailing list
FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
_______________________________________________
FrameWorks mailing list
FrameWorks@jonasmekasfilms.com
https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
