A U. S. site for next Welles Conference

[Tony]

The Toronto Film Festival is all ready to go in September, so I'd think now would be a good time to contact them about a tie-in with a mini-Welles conference for 2007. Toronto has, of course, all the facilities for showing films, including a small art theatre that I'm a member of, a government sponsored organization called Cinematheque Ontario. The last time I believe they had a Welles series was in the spring of 2000, so they might be up for the idea.

The TFF is currently the number 4 festival in the world, behind Cannes, Berlin and Venice, yet some say it has become the most influential for deal-making. In any event, a Welles mini-conference/series would certainly get a lot of international attention here.

And I could take the bus.

[catbuglah]

Not to knock Tony's suggestion - just to add another suggestion for consideration - Montreal - I certainly feel that it would work quite well there, in terms of attendance and visibility. Welles events I've attended get great local attendance and press coverage- Welles is big in France and that popularity is echoed with the French population in Montreal - He's popular in the local rep theaters and cinefile video rental stores - There's an annual Montreal film festival (though not as big as Toronto's) but not bad, also at least a couple of other high-profile annual specialized film festivals (an art documentary one and a psychotronic/Asian thing) - Plus a european ambiance. There's the National Film Board and a provincial Cinema center that shows classic films.
Suzanne Cloutier is still mentioned when they run Othello on TV... You get to sample the unique culinary curiosity called poutine. The only challenge would be maybe the need for a certain amount of French programming. (P.S. The French actor who presented this one-man Welles play I attended mentioned that he couldn't use Welles film footage because he was refused permission by the Welles estate- I don't know if this has any bearing on things...)

[Christopher]

I was talking to a friend last night about holding the Welles retrospective in Canada where it would be beyond the reach of the "Orson Welles Estate," and he pointed out that intellectual property rights are world-wide and not restricted to only one country, in this case, the United States. However, my friend is not a legal expert on this subject. Are there any lawyers on the board who would know if this is or is not correct? Catbuglah's post about the French actor not being able to use Welles film footage in his one-man Welles play would seem to suggest that the Welles Estate can interfere with productions in Canada.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't consider holding the next Welles retrospective in Montreal or Toronto, but it would be good to get some clarification about what rights, if any, the Welles Estate would have in Canada.

Finally, I believe that a film festival has to agree to host the Welles retrospective. For instance, the Berlin Festival turned down the chance to hold the 2005 retrospective which was finally hosted by the Locarno Festival.

[Glenn Anders]

Christopher: Surely Canada and the United States have "intellectual property agreements," but I wouldn't know how they are being honored these days. The new Canadian Government does seem more compatible with the Bush Administration than the last one.

And as you wisely remark, the key factor is if a site or Festival will agree to host.

Glenn

[Gordon]

The Toronto Festival starts in two weeks, so I assume we would be talking about an event in coordination with the Toronto Festival in 2007.

I agree that we need, for many reasons, legal advice.

There has never been a controlling legal decision about the actual rights of the self styled "Estate".
That is one reason why I think a supporting organization to facilitate Welles projects should be discussed.
I'm not a lawyer, but I imagine it would not be difficult to assert a legal claim in Canada.
I am somewhat familiar with academic issues involving Fair Use. If we have a conference that is primarily sponsored by a university, and if we can identify a funding source that would pick up the costs of screenings, we might be able to arrange screenings, that would be preceded by a lecture, without charging admission. I think it's worth tempting She Who Must Not Be Named, if our event is in such a controlled, non-commercial environment, with steps taken to control piracy.

- A two Step Proposal:

If a festival has tentatively agreed to Host the FilmMuseum's 2008 event, and it is not in North America,
we could still work with a Festival or university in the United States to sponsor an event, next year.
The two step process Christopher outlined in an earlier post may be a good idea. Perhaps a more limited event within the next year could serve as a venue for planning a more significant event in 2008, with or without the participation of Munich.

There are advantages to holding the first event in Bloomington. Let me expand the arguments for Bloomington first advanced by Tony W.:

- Many Wellesians would like to visit the Lilly, if they had the reason or opportunity. In addition to the Welles collection, the Lilly is the repository of the papers of John Ford and Peter Bogdanovich. Perhaps, to broaden interest and participation, a Bloomington event could be dedicated to Welles and Ford. There is more and more interest in Ford as his films have been released on DVD.

- It might be possible to enlist the assistance of an educational organization.

- The setting in Bloomington of the Memorial Union, next to the Lilly, is I think, the perfect venue for such an event. Indiana University has excellent resources for conferences. There might be an advantage to holding an event away from a media center. It would not be seen as competing with an event the next year in a big city.

- There is no place in the United States, other than the Lilly, that today serves as a Welles Memorial.

If Bloomington is too inconvenient a location, perhaps San Francisco could serve the same function of hosting a more limited event in 2007.

Following a 2007 Bloomington or San Franciscan event, a 2008 event could be organized in coordination with a mjaor North American Festival, even if Munich decide to hold their Triennial in Europe again. To my mind, the logical location for a 2008 major Welles retrospective would be one of three places:

Southern California, New York or Toronto.

The advantages of Toronto have already been outlined by Tony.

Let me now list the advantages of Southern California:

There are three major film programs, all of which have ties to Welles in the Area.
-It was at USC that Welles met with students and discussed "The Trial".
- The UCLA archives were active in restoring and Preserving MacBeth.
- AFI has had several Welles related efforts.

The three above are also the leading film schools in the USA.

- There are major film festivals in Los Angeles, including AFM.

- The Newport Beach Film Festival could also be approached.

-There is a concentration of media in Los Angeles. If there were to be a newsworthy event such as a re-release of Chimes at Midnight or the Restored Leaky Garage Don Q, a Los Angeles event would yield the maximum impact.

Los Angeles is the site of so much related to Welles life from the studios to the Magic Castle.

- A Los Angeles event might, at last, galvanize support for Welles related efforts from the many important people in the area that are fans of Welles.

- My guess is that more of the people likely to attend a North American Major Welles Retrospective live in Southern California than anywhere else in the United States.

- There is a logic to holding a Welles retrospective in the City where his greatest works were created.

[Tony]

A few things come to mind:

1. Has anyone talked to Stefan Droessler? He's the guy to supply most of the film, right?

2. I recall Gary Graver saying there would be no more showings of TOSOTW until it was edited and completed.

3. What new can be offered in the way of film? Hasn't what's available all been seen? I would think there should be something previously unseen to attract attention and people.

4, If Stefan has to present a conference every 3 years, and Locarno was the last, then he'll be scheduling for 2008; would he be interested in doing 2 conferences back to back?

[Jeff Wilson]

I have emailed Stefan already, and unless he weighs in himself, will report what he responds. What anyone arguing for whatever site must remember is that hosting an event like this will require strong corporate sponsorship; money will be needed to fly in, transport, feed, and put up guests, pay for any screening costs/shipment of prints, potentially a program, and so on and so forth. A big city festival would have the best odds of having such sponsorship, as nice as going to Bloomington might be. Also, you want a site with a large enough audience to actually come to as many of the screenings as possible, and while Bloomington is a lovely place, you don't have anything there beyond the university and Indianapolis, which is 40 minutes away.

[RayKelly]

>>2. I recall Gary Graver saying there would be no more showings of TOSOTW until it was edited and completed.
>

Tony,
That's what Graver told me prior the showing of OSOTW scenes & other Welles footage in Northampton, Mass. back in March. Then, he held a showing in June in Australia... so I think the embargo is not written in stone.

[tonyw]

:) In addition to my suggestions, I would also support Toronto. But I have another question which Glenn and others could answer. I've read somewhere that it was Guinn "Big Boy" Williams who cut Orson's tie and had a fistfight with him. Although Welles did refer to Ward Bond later in many interviews I wonder whether he decided to refer to another obnoxious, but more well-known personality for audience recognition.

[Christopher]

Hi Jeff,

It's good to have you back, and thanks for reminding us all about the need for a corporate sponsor and the costs involved in putting on these retrospectives. That is why it makes the most sense to use a big-city film festival as the host. Also, at an event which the film community would attend, it is more likely to find backing for completing some of Welles's unfinished projects.

Tony,

To answer your question about new footage being shown at the retrospectives: yes. The Munich Filmuseum is continually working on restoring the footage in their archives, and one of the purposes of holding a retrospective every three years is to make new prints and/or restorations available to the public.

[Tony]

But then, Christopher, that begs the question: why would Stefan give us any newly restored material rahter than keep it for his own mandated tri-annual conference? I think the logical conclusion is we must do it in conjunction with him and his institution, or not at all.

What do you think?

[Jeff Wilson]

On a related note, there is a Welles conference in the US this year, at Yale University at the end of November. Link below.

Yale Welles Conference

[Christopher]

Tony,

I've been assuming all along that any comprehensive retrospective on O.W., along the lines of the one given last year in Locarno, would be done in conjunction with Stefan Drossler who would, after all, be the person in charge of organizing it. However, if there were sufficient interest, Stefan might be amenable to putting on a smaller conference before 2008, such as the ones he did at the Film Forum in New York and in Los Angeles in 2004 which preceded the major one in Locarno. But that would depend on his availability and so many other factors....

[Gordon]

I think one important difference between a 2007 smaller conference and the programs in NY & LA in 2004 is that this time there should be the active co-sponsorship of a university. It would build attendance, and help with organization.

[Clive Dale]

What about Detroit for the mini-conference next year?