Re: [Frameworks] Saul Levine/Harvard Film Archive

[Francisco Torres]

 ''Why play the stock role of ‘The Evil Dean’ in a collegiate comedy when
there are so many other options? ''

Because the pay is good. Not to mention the fringe benefits.




2018-04-21 14:30 GMT-04:00 visionarydata :

> Official Visionary Data Communique Regarding Events Surrounding
> Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Treatment of Professor Saul Levine
>
> In an effort to speak the language of our current antagonists and be
> better understood herein, we’ll utilize that so blandly Obamian turn of
> phrase, LET’S BE CLEAR: Our publication, Boston Film Thing’s initial beef
> with the Harvard Film Archive was with regards to the glaringly low
> percentage of female filmmakers in its programmed schedule. We raised
> questions and provided statistics to point out this lack in the best way we
> knew how. We didn’t necessarily expect a response from such an illustrious
> institution to our small publication. That said we do feel that some
> response or general dialogue with or without our involvement would have
> been productive.  We fully acknowledge that there are things we may have
> missed or gotten wrong and welcome push back and civil debate.  Apparently,
> and despite the lack of response to that issue the HFA has in fact been
> paying attention to us, perhaps more than seems healthy or normal for an
> organization affiliated with the powerful hedge fund known as Harvard
> University.  Some of us have known all along what Harvard and the new model
> of neo-liberal universities and adjacent institutions are all about at
> their core. Some of us had to go within and walk such hallowed halls to
> finally notice the stench.  As a result, we fled the elitist incubators of
> the literal destroyers of worlds long ago.  That said, no organization is a
> monolith and attending screenings at the otherwise lovely HFA has been a
> highlight of our time in this at times culturally frustrating city. Boston
> Film Things has from its inception enthusiastically promoted events at HFA
> to its readership.  We recognize that sometimes the prettiest flowers grow
> in excrement.
>
> LET’S BE CLEAR: What the fug happened between Boston Film Things and the
> Harvard Film Archive?  Perhaps we ‘fugged’ up? We said ‘fug’.  HFA got mad.
> U mad, bro? U seem mad.  We have been told that the Harvard University
> Police have opened an investigation into our activities for aiming the word
> ‘fug’ at members of Mass Art’s film faculty and at a provost whose
> maneuverings against our friend Professor Saul Levine - who has nothing to
> do with the creation of this statement - have angered us greatly. Yes, ‘we
> mad’, but when we mad, we admit it, bro.   When we’re mad, like much of
> humanity, we cuss. As a result, HFA has officially accused us of ‘hate
> speech’ and ‘incitement to violence’ for our use of the word ‘fug’ and for
> clearly hyperbolic and humorous reference to a Situationist motto: ‘Destroy
> all bourgeois institutions. Under the sidewalk is the beach!!’ Firstly,
> let’s all try and be more aware of our counter cultural history.  Secondly,
> one can etymologize ‘fug’ with a quick online search and yes the word has a
> sadly hateful, misogynistic history.  However, outside of the academy,
> that’s not how words work.  Unlike the word’s literal historical meaning,
> the agreed upon vernacular use of ‘fug’ is inarguably neutered to the point
> of having lost almost all meaning except ‘I am mad or otherwise emotional
> right now and wish to emphasize that feeling’ or, of course, to signify
> sexual intercourse, and increasingly, any manner of non-sexual engagement.
> To pretend otherwise and claim such great offense is so disingenuous that
> it’s almost awe inspiring, even for the academy, even for Harvard.  As for
> questions about the latter meaning, please, rest assured none of us have or
> have ever had the slightest desire to engage in sexual relations of any
> kind with our newfound adversaries (we hold fast to the notion that sex
> should be fun). HFA knows darned tootin’ well what we meant and perhaps if
> given a chance, we’d have apologized for being momentarily impolite.
>
> LET’S BE CLEAR:  We see the recent actions of Mass Art and HFA as
> illustrative of a tendency of what has been broadly termed the
> ‘professional managerial class’.  When a member of the professional
> managerial class gets mad it doesn’t look like it does when the rest of us
> get mad.  They don’t cuss like we do.  They don’t talk with their hands
> like we do.  That would be too ‘ethnic’.  They certainly don’t seem to want
> dialogue like we do.  That would require self-examination, which is not a
> particularly useful habit for gaining and maintaining power in this most
> narcissistic epoch.  When the professional managerial class gets ruffled,
> ties in a twist, they fall back on whatever ad hoc, arbitrary jumble of
> ‘policies’ they can and then cower behind desks and the physical threat of
> 

[Frameworks] Noise film

[Jaime Cleeland]

https://archive.org/details/WorldHatesWhatWorldHatesNoiseFilm


Enjoy,

Jaime
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