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April 01, 2009

Chaos In NY

It's one of those NYT stories that pulls ts punches and still resonates profoundly for months to come. That is the nature of the bubble of New York, where the NYT is more powerful than any mayor and certainly as mighty as the Senators from this great state.

This is this morning's tale of Mara Manus, the new Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. (Full disclosure... I am friends with a candidate for this job who got down to a direct competition with Ms. Manus.)

There are all kind of details in the piece, which will surely be gone over and over by the high end movie chattering class, supplemented by more honest commentary from those who have left the organization than the quote the POR was able to get - understandably - for this story... people needs their settlement checks.

What really struck me is that this story is going on at festival/film programs all over the world right now. The Film Society is both a great target, because it is so well funded, and it is a muscular and somewhat transparent - because it is so hand-in-glove with journalists - example of the troubles.

Mara Manus was hired not for her artistic insights, but because she is seen as a big muscled NY fundraiser. And I am sure she is. All the sidebar stuff about her involvement in the movie business is... well... pretty irrelevant. She has friends, but no legacy from her years, years ago, in the film world. But she is a part of the NY firmament now, after her tumultuous time at The Public.

But at the moment, there is no money to raise out there. So by hiring a money person to lead at a time when there is no way that the best fundraisers can do what the people who hire them expect them to do, The Film Society of Lincoln Center has left her more than a little bit vulnerable. Had they hired with an eye to aesthetic innovation - which is more mind than money - then strides could be being made while the fundraising efforts suffered.

Of course, when they hired Ms Manus, they were already underway on the new, extremely expensive project. So... maybe there was no answer that could satisfy all the different demands.

The great good fortune at Sundance is that they are not in the real estate business. Toronto, right now... not so lucky.

Times is hard...

Posted by dpoland at April 1, 2009 03:54 PM

Comments

Actually, based on what I've heard first-, second- and third-hand in recent days, film fetivals all over are feeling the pinch. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if, just as David has kept a running list of film critics who have gotten eighty-sixed, he'll soon be running a list of film festivals that are drastically cutting back, or shuttering altogether. (PS: Part of the problem, of course, is the cutback on film coverage -- specifically, film festival coverage -- at some newspapers.)

Posted by: Joe Leydon [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 1, 2009 09:54 PM

I still can't believe the number of nonprofit arts organizations that believed the consultants who told them, during the comparatively flush middle of the decade, that they could finance these expensive expansion and renovation projects.

Here in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts revealed that they had completed a $500 million capital campaign right before the economy collapsed. Dozens of others haven't been so lucky, and have had to sideline or rethink projects midstream.

Posted by: Rob [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 2, 2009 10:59 AM

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