Show your support and keep 16mm prints alive!
Show your support by signing this petition now
Dear All,
As I imagine you all probably know by now, the take-over of Soho Images by Deluxe has lead to the decision last week to stop 16mm print with immediate effect. I was in the lad on Thursday and Friday last week with Len when he was told he couldn't take any more orders.
Anyway, I don't think we should let this happen without making some noise. I've been told there isn't a hope in hell of shifting the decision locally and that we have to go higher and to the US, so I've gone to extremes and already made contact with Thelma Schoonmaker (i.e. hopefully Scorsese) an written to Spielberg!!
But our real hope perhaps lies in taking the argument away from the cinema industry. The owner of Deluxe is Ron Perelman, a US businessman who has made his fortune buying up companies and stripping them of their assets. He is also, or has been, a patron of the arts. Through the Guggenheim, I'm hoping to get a letter to him with many co-signatories - so far: MOMA, the Whitney, hopefully the Tate and as many artists, filmmakers, institutions and galleries we can muster.
This is where I need everyone's help. We need to get this list together as soon as we can, so please anyone who can be informed and who is happy to sign or contribute, please sign this petition. I am also writing an article for The Guardian, and have also been in contact with the NY Times. We have to take this argument over the pond.
The decision, of course, is cultural rather than financial. Len said they're backed up with work but to the cinema industry executives, 16mm printing is time taken away from feature work and feature work is all that counts.
Failing to get them to reverse the decision, we must try and find a means to at least get more time. In the end, we will probably need to set up, what is now being called 'a boutique laboratory', possibly with the BFI, and the best hope is that Deluxe work with us in pursuit of this and not against us (i.e. not trash the equipment).
Best wishes,
Tacita Dean
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