Why I’m Supporting The American Genre Film Archive In Saving 35mm Film Prints Tweet RSSS

I don’t go to the Alamo Drafthouse’s Terror Tuesday or Weird Wednesday often enough. It’s a sad state of affair given the embarrassment of riches we filmlovers in Austin, Texas, enjoy. But I like knowing that they are available to me anytime I want. B-movies, 80s slashers, sexploitation films, Hollywood classics, old school kung-fu, biker flicks… all in 35mm.

It’s that last part that matters most. Cinema is film and film is cinema. Quentin Tarantino famously raged against the transition to digital at the Cannes Film Festival just a few weeks ago, saying:

As far as I’m concerned, digital projection is the death of cinema… The fact that most films aren’t even presented in 35mm means that the war is lost. Digital projection is just television in public.

And it’s true, watching a film in 35mm or 70mm or 16mm is an increasingly rare, but essential part of cinema. In today’s digital world, movies aren’t even shot on film anymore. Films like The Master, which was shot on 65mm film stock, are even more rare. But for a century movies where shot on film. Many of those prints won’t make the expensive digital transition, meaning we could lose a major part of our film heritage. That’s where the American Genre Film Archive comes in.

Unlike Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, AGFA specializes in saving endangered prints of the sleaziest B-movies, the goriest horror pictures, the kung-fuiest martial arts movies and other weird wonders. It’s the reason we can watch a documentary about Bigfoot hunters in Oregon on the big screen in 35mm.

So why am I writing this? Because the American Genre Film Archive needs your help. It’s very close to reaching its goal of $15,000 on IndieGoGo, to preserve and protect endangered film prints, starting with The Astrologer.

I adopted a shelf in the archive for $125, but if you can’t do that, any contribution goes a long way toward reaching the goal. For cinephiles, this is a chance to make a difference by saving films that will be lost forever without your help. Won’t you join me in supporting AGFA? The future of film depends on it.