Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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Brian C
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

#126 Post by Brian C » Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:21 pm

This was in Jacksonville, FL, which I have to think is weirder than Oklahoma. Our basketball coaches were actually pretty nice guys.

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

#127 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:26 pm

I never had a single history teacher who wasn’t a coach and none cared enough about history to have an opinion they wanted to express, but they were all pretty nice and friendly and the classes were easy so high school me was fine with it

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cdnchris
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

#128 Post by cdnchris » Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:34 pm

My history teachers were usually passionate about it, even when we literally did have the gym teacher one year.

My geography teacher had a habit of just showing random movies in class with a loose relation to "geography". Legend says he played the last half of The Usual Suspects in one class because he had to return it that afternoon.

Report card day was also fun because he would just look at you and give you a grade, not reference his notes. I still recall him looking at me with a squint and then saying "I'm giving you a B." It felt a bit personal.

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

#129 Post by domino harvey » Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:38 pm

cdnchris wrote:
Thu Jun 25, 2020 9:34 pm
Legend says he played the last half of The Usual Suspects in one class because he had to return it that afternoon.
This literally made me LOL

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RSTooley
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#130 Post by RSTooley » Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:24 am

A New York Times article concerning Criterion's lack of diversity was posted in the arts section this morning. Becker confirms a future release of Gordon Parks' The Learning Tree and a potential future release of Barry Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy. It'll be interesting to see the fallout from this one.

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willoneill
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#131 Post by willoneill » Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:45 am

There are, for example, more directors in the Criterion Collection with the last name Anderson than there are African-Americans.

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#132 Post by Drucker » Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:51 am

The article was eye opening for me. I suppose I've always naively assumed Criterion takes a path of least resistance as it pertains to rights-owners, but it seems that there really aren't any rights issues with a number of films by African American directors that they have passed on.

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knives
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#133 Post by knives » Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:59 am

willoneill wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:45 am
There are, for example, more directors in the Criterion Collection with the last name Anderson than there are African-Americans.
Is that true. Off hand I can think of only two Andersons while I can think, admittedly one who is very new to the collection, two African Americans.

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HinkyDinkyTruesmith
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#134 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:03 am

Laurie, Wes, Paul Thomas, Lindsay, and John Murray.

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knives
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#135 Post by knives » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:10 am

Dang, that is a lot of Andersons.

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swo17
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#136 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:15 am

It is true there are numerous undeserving white directors and probably not any undeserving African-American directors in the collection. But what essential/historically important directors are missing from the latter category? (Hint: Ava DuVernay is not one of them, and I'm going to stop reading your article as soon as you mention her.) All I can think of is Melvin Van Peebles.

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criterionsnob
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#137 Post by criterionsnob » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:31 am

Becker also mentions seeking out some laserdisc titles to re-add to the collection on Blu-ray (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Boyz N the Hood, She’s Gotta Have It, Menace II Society, Dead Presidents).

Also that Charles Burnett "had been asked to record an interview about a film by another director, the Italian Ermanno Olmi." Does that mean reissues of Il posto and I fidanzati, or was this done for Filmstruck at some point?

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RSTooley
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#138 Post by RSTooley » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:38 am

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is currenlty with Vinegar Syndrome, so a future release isn't likely for that one. I believe Spike Lee confirmed a future release of She's Gotta Have It recently, did he not?

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knives
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#139 Post by knives » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:41 am

swo17 wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:15 am
It is true there are numerous undeserving white directors and probably not any undeserving African-American directors in the collection. But what essential/historically important directors are missing from the latter category? (Hint: Ava DuVernay is not one of them, and I'm going to stop reading your article as soon as you mention her.) All I can think of is Melvin Van Peebles.
That reminds me of a third director in the Robeson set. Milestone has recently been very good on this front with stuff like Losing Ground and unquestionably Boyz deserves a spot. Bill Gunn seems a good choice as well. At least for one offs I feel these are a good dozen or so choices that would fit with Criterion.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#140 Post by Vincejansenist » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:53 am

The journalist's twitter account describes Criterion as "a family company, run for decades by a single leader with ultimate authority over who gets in and who’s left out."
Is the presumption here that it should be a publicly held company or that authority for decisions should be dispersed to the vox populi of the market? That feels antithetical to the exact idea of curation that underlies Criterion's ethos...

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Ribs
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#141 Post by Ribs » Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:58 am

A problem the article ignores about the laserdisc era is that in the DVD era the studios reclaimed most of their marquee titles, of which Boyz absolutely has become; Columbia released it multiple times on DVD, Blu-ray, and now has a 4K release. Criterion would be much better off looking into premiering a disc of Singleton's Rosewood (the two other films that feel most up Criterion's alley, Higher Learning and Poetic Justice, just got released on BD by Sony itself last year).

Also, as we know, Criterion isn't quite the way the article frames it, where it makes it seem like Peter Becker is the only person making curatorial choices. He may be the endpoint that gives final go-aheads, but there is definitely meetings, discussions, etc. that go on inside the company with disc producers, and I'm sure even admin staff that help to determine releases that don't necessarily start from him, it's not just from him down.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#142 Post by CSM126 » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:01 pm

I don’t doubt that there are lots of great films by POC that Criterion has unfairly passed by, but something about this article’s cavalier attitude towards film licensing, as if it’s so simple, irks me. Those Hughes Brothers films (certainly worthy of being reissued) are deep in the Disney catalog, and Criterion only ever gets in there if a Major filmmaker (Wes Anderson, Michael Bay) demands that Disney agree. I imagine the Hughes’ have less clout. Also, they really made Ava Duvarney sound like a prick (“I want my Criterion and didn’t get one, WAHHHH”).

If anything, this article speaks to how silly it is to view one label as the be-all-end-all. They can’t do everything. They can do better, but they can’t singlehandedly repair the nation’s systemic racism vis-a-vis art appreciation.

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dustybooks
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#143 Post by dustybooks » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:07 pm

I think the broader problem is that Criterion has this image as being a prestigious walled garden rather than just a boutique label that licenses product, which of course gives them an advantage in the marketplace, but I wish people didn't propagate this notion that a film only becomes "important" when they release it.

That said: Kino's generosity with things like the Pioneers boxes and their vastly greater pace of releases definitely makes them look good in this scenario, but of course that requires ignoring the two companies' relative quality control.
Last edited by dustybooks on Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Ribs
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#144 Post by Ribs » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:09 pm

It’s a lot easier to release films from diverse backgrounds when you’ve released most of your acquired library in one form or another already and release 20+ new titles a month.

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colinr0380
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#145 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:11 pm

I am just surprised that Peter Becker had apparently never heard of To Sleep With Anger until 2016! Did he never read our forum comments!! :P

It would be good to see Dead Presidents make it back into the collection as another Laserdisc rescue. And I'd love to see Sankofa get a release from somewhere.

Also, the director of Welcome II The Terrordome confirmed in an interview recently that her film was due for a Criterion re-release.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#146 Post by Vincejansenist » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:22 pm

I think the real hot take is that (bottom line aside) Criterion actually should release less American films from directors of all races in favor of more international work. And less work from the past twenty years in favor of older films. Not that Grand Budapest Hotel and Portrait of a Lady on Fire aren't great, but I think in twenty years GBH's inter-war nostalgia exercise will benefit from the context of reflective distance from the promise/betrayal of the Obama years. And one can hardly say anything about Portrait at the moment other than the many wonders that are in the film itself! There's hardly any context at all!

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#147 Post by mteller » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:32 pm

swo17 wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:15 am
It is true there are numerous undeserving white directors and probably not any undeserving African-American directors in the collection. But what essential/historically important directors are missing from the latter category? (Hint: Ava DuVernay is not one of them, and I'm going to stop reading your article as soon as you mention her.) All I can think of is Melvin Van Peebles.
This kind of gatekeeping is exactly why more African-American directors aren't considered "essential/historically important".

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Saturnome
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#148 Post by Saturnome » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:36 pm

Also, the director of Welcome II The Terrordome confirmed in an interview recently that her film was due for a Criterion re-release.
Well! I just watched Welcome II The Terrordome yesterday. I loved it. A somewhat confused and messy but fascinating work.

Do Haile Gerima refuse to be in the collection? That's what I get from the article. I'd love his features to be available and restored. And quite a few L.A. Rebellion titles could make a nice set. Forgotten features like Zeinabu irene Davis' Compensation.

Also isn't it almost certain that a some point we'll get a physical release of Watermelon Woman? They made a lot of promotion of it's stream, and it got quite popular on social media.

The Criterion Collection lack representation from all around the world anyway. Of course all cultures aren't France or Japan, but a lot have at least one film worthy of Criterion's mission statement ("greatest films from around the world"). The World Film Foundation help a bit, though not much. Classic african film is barely present on blu-ray. Idrissa Ouedraogo's Yaaba is one of my favorite films and I'm not sure it was ever released on DVD by anyone in America. The few classics of African cinema we ever got here were released mostly by Kino. Others we had on VHS by New Yorker Video and that's it. Quite a few have never been released.
I guess the problem here is what have been restored recently among these classics.

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jwd5275
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

#149 Post by jwd5275 » Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:50 pm

If anything, we can look at Becker's similar acknowledgement about the lack of female directors and his promise to do better. The result: 10 of the last 12 months have seen titles announced from female directors.

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willoneill
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse in the Press

#150 Post by willoneill » Thu Aug 20, 2020 1:11 pm

It's an interesting article, and yes it'd be great to have more quality blu-ray releases from Black directors (among other less-represented areas of film). The article does raise many questions; for instance, the author either doesn't understand or pretends not to understand both the complexity of home video rights, and the fact that the early years of DVD were such a financial boon for the studios that they licensed out a mere fraction of what gets licensed now.

To me though, the biggest question, and I'm not sure where I even stand personally on this, is how much social responsibility a private company is expected to have. Criterion is the most "famous" boutique label (I say this because it's the only one my non-film fan friends can name), but it's not the only one. Why are only their choices criticized? Criterion is not a public entity, or even a publicly-controlled company. It's a private company, and in America, aren't they allowed to run their business as see fit (within the obvious limits of the law and the norms of their industry)? To look at it another way, why do they have the sole responsibility (that is, like it or not, the tenor of that article) for the home video representation of black directors?

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