According to Thefilmstage, a slew high profile filmmakers have joined to cause to keep FilmStruck alive. We covered the imminent demise of the beloved streaming platform, but this potential for new life is welcome news. 

If you want to join the cause, sign the petition here. 

It wouldn't be the first time a filmmaker rode to the rescue of a cinephile favorite. The New Beverly Theater in Los Angeles was a beloved source of old-fashioned double features, playing prints of some of the greatest classics domestic and foreign. When times got tough and it looked like the end of an era, Quentin Tarantino purchased the theater and kept it going. 

The preservation and availability of the classics is a cause taken up by many of our most successful filmmakers, in large part because they learned the craft from those very classics themselves. 

In a way, they are paying it forward to the next generation of filmmakers and audiences. What was available to them should be available to all, and hopefully we can continue to use the best movies of all time to create better audiences and better filmmakers.

Check out the letter to Warner Bros. Picture Group chariman Toby Emmerich, via Deadline: 

Dear Toby,

We know that Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have been in touch with you and Warners Media Group about the demise of FilmStruck and have urged you guys to keep it going.

While it was not your decision, we would like to loudly echo their sentiments. The FilmStruck service was (IS) the best streaming service for fans of cinema of all kinds: classic studio movies, independent cinema, international treasures. Without it, the landscape for film fans and students of cinema is especially bleak. There’s a reason there was a huge outpouring from artists and fans over it being shuttered, they were doing the Movie God’s work.

We know one of the reasons that it has been shut down is because of an upcoming Warners streaming service, but really FilmStruck shouldn’t be a conflict of interest. In this day and age where there are dozens of platforms, curation of content is really important and FilmStruck was providing a service to both satisfy older fans of cinema and a younger generation of cineastes that will be making amazing movies long after we’re dead.

In an era of huge corporate acquisitions of cinema by communication companies- in a business that may render billions of dollars off a medium like cinema, we believe this is a gesture that is needed- a minuscule show of goodwill towards the preservation and accessibility of a tradition and a rich history that would benefit the public.

So we want to add our names to the petition started by Marty and Steven and want you (and Warners) to know that we feel equally strongly and would do anything to support the service being saved.

Yours,

Paul Thomas Anderson
Ana Lily Amirpour
James Brolin
Damien Chazelle
Alfonso Cuarón
Guillermo Del Toro
Leonardo DiCaprio
James Gray
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Bill Hader
Karyn Kusama
Barry Jenkins
Rian Johnson
Christopher McQuarrie
Reed Morano
Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Barbra Streisand
Edgar Wright

 

We'll see if it has any effect. Fingers crossed.

 

 

 

Source: The Filmstage

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