Sent by the Library of Congress Guild to highlight the risk of
quasi-privatization of some of the LOC image archives.
- Greg Johnson

From: "Guild" <guild@...>
To: Group recipients
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:58:12 -0400
Subject: End Smithsonian-Showtime Deal
End Smithsonian-Showtime Deal, Filmmakers and Historians Ask

By Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Page C02

More than 200 filmmakers and historians asked the Smithsonian Institution
yesterday to abandon its production deal with Showtime Networks and
reconsider a recently imposed policy that limits access to Smithsonian
archives and experts.

In a letter to Secretary Lawrence M. Small, the Smithsonian's top official,
the group objected to restrictions on filmmakers and researchers who seek
"more than incidental" use of its public archives. After the Smithsonian
signed with Showtime to make television programming, filmmakers and
researchers whose projects focused extensively on the Smithsonian's holdings
or staff were informed that they had to offer their film treatments first to
Showtime.

This policy will discourage independent filmmakers from creating projects
for other media outlets. Indeed, this policy will also discourage an
independent filmmaker from making a documentary and releasing it on the
Internet on a noncommercial basis," said the letter, which was released by
the Washington-based Center for American Progress.

The 214 signatories included actress Anna Deavere Smith, filmmakers Ken
Burns and Michael Moore, as well as university professors and officials of
WGBH in Boston and WNET in New York, two of the largest production units
within the public broadcasting system.

The new policy on access was instituted at the beginning of the year but
made public only last month. Objections to the exclusivity deal with
Showtime have been particularly heated among documentary filmmakers, who
regularly draw on Smithsonian materials and already pay fees to do so.

"I was horrified that the Smithsonian would even contemplate a deal that
would give a for-profit broadcaster the right of first refusal," said Nina
Gilden Seavey, an Emmy-winning filmmaker and director of the Documentary
Center at George Washington University. "It is a fire sale of the nation's
history."

Howard Besser, director of the moving image archiving and preservation
program at New York University, concurred: "A public institution should not
make exclusive agreements with commercial entities that preclude others from
doing documentaries."

The letter, also sent to members of Congress, criticized the Smithsonian for
not releasing its agreement with Showtime and asked for the contract to be
annulled because it was not subject to a competitive process and was
finalized without public comment. The signers asked for hearings before the
Smithsonian took "any further actions that limit access to the collections"
or staff at the institution.

The Smithsonian maintains that the contract is a private business agreement,
executed with private funds, and that its contents are propriety
information. In recent years, it has stepped up all of its business
enterprises to earn unrestricted income for various projects. Its
appropriation from Congress -- $644 million this year -- is used mainly for
salaries and upkeep and repair of its buildings.

"We honor our contracts. This is a signed contract," said Linda St. Thomas,
director of media relations for the Smithsonian. "The policy is only for
filmmakers who are making a film for broadcast."

But the letter, citing the museum's standing as a publicly chartered
operation that receives 75 percent of its funds from Congress, said: "The
Smithsonian Institution is not merely a business venture."

Linda K. Kerber, the president of the American Historical Association, also
sent Small a letter objecting to the research rules. "We appreciate the
difficult financial situation the Institution now faces, but expediency
cannot outweigh the standards that should guide a premier institution for
preserving the nation's historical legacy," Kerber wrote.

The Center for American Progress scheduled a panel discussion today with
Burns, the award-winning filmmaker who mined material at the National Museum
of American History for his PBS series "Jazz."

c. The Washington Post


--
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. -
Martin Luther King Jr.


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