1968 - THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION
OF THE ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
In 1968, thanks to the foresight of Jerome Hill,
a film-maker and a visionary philanthropist, there arose an occasion
to create in New York a film museum dedicated exclusively to film
as an art. Lengthy discussions took place to determine the purposes
and functions of the new museum. It was decided that one of its
main functions would be to serve as a continuous critical tool in
the investigation of the essential works created in cinema. Therefore
it was decided to create what became known as the Essential Cinema
Repertory collection.
A special Film Selection Committee was created to begin to compile
such a repertory. The understanding was that the Committee would
constitute a permanent part of Anthology Film Archives and it would
continue into the future reviewing old and new cinema works, in
all their different manifestations, and keep adding and expanding
the Essential Cinema Repertory collection.
With the enthusiastic support of Jerome Hill, the Committee, consisting
of P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, James Broughton, Ken Kelman and
myself and for a brief period Stan Brakhage began its work. During
the following few years it held numerous and lengthy selection sessions,
compiling the first Essential Cinema Repertory collection consisting
of about 330 titles.
But fate had other plans for us. In February 1973 Jerome Hill died.
The Avon Foundation, Jerome’s foundation behind the Anthology
project, which had built a special, Invisible Cinema theater, designed
by Peter Kubelka, and had paid for the acquisition of all the prints
voted into the Essential Cinema collection, and the running of Anthology
was taken over by people who did not share Jerome’s vision.
All funding to the Anthology project was cut off. Anthology had
to move from the 425 Lafayette Street location, first to 80 Wooster
Street, then to 491 Broadway, and then to its present location.
The Essential Cinema Repertory project was frozen until such time
as another visionary such as Jerome Hill will appear.
The Essential Cinema Repertory, from its very inception, was strongly
and sometimes wildly attacked by those who were not familiar with
the history of the project, for exclusion of many important films.
They were not aware of the fact that the Essential Cinema Repertory
was intended to serve as a permanent critical tool with new titles
continuously added, including possibly the titles that the critics
of Anthology had in mind.
As one looks back through the last thirty years of the history of
cinema in the United States, one has to admit that even in its unfinished
state, the Essential Cinema Repertory collection, as an uncompromising
critical statement on the avant-garde film of the period, has dramatically
changed perceptions of the history of the American avant-garde film.
The avant-garde film has become an essential part of cinema. -
Jonas Mekas
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