The Film Exhibition Fund Announces Grantees For Inaugural Celluloid Series Support Grants

The Film Exhibition Fund has awarded its first two Celluloid Series Support Grants to Anthology Film Archives and Microscope Gallery, for $2500 and $2300 respectively.

Anthology Film Archives will be using the grant to support its August 2022 screening of several Andy Warhol films on 16mm celluloid: Sleep (1963), Empire (1964), and Chelsea Girls (1966), the first two of which run over five and eight hours respectively, and the last of which involves over three hours of dual-screen projection.

"Preserving the experience of theatrical projection - and especially the projection of 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm film prints - is at the core of Anthology's mission," said Anthology Film Archives Film Programmer Jed Rapfogel. "We're motivated by the conviction that something crucial is lost when films are projected digitally, but of course in this day and age a commitment to film projection is easier said than done thanks to the dearth of functioning film labs, the categorization of so many prints as archival, and the sheer cost of film rentals and shipping. In that context, the creation of The Film Exhibition Fund - and the (financial but also moral) support they provide - is truly a godsend! It's a much-needed positive development for those venues that are determined to keep film projection alive."

Microscope Gallery will be using the grant to support its current (ongoing through July 2022) envelope-pushing performance series Imageless (presented in collaboration with Anthology Film Archives) including celluloid work by Bradley Eros, Takahiko Iimura, Andrew Lampert, Maurice Lemaître, Mary Lucier, Anthony McCall, Jonas Mekas, and others.

"The support received by The Film Exhibition Fund has been essential to the realization of our film performance series, especially for the rental of films from film distribution centers in New York and abroad as well as for special film projectors," said Microscope Gallery Co-founder and Co-Director Elle Burchill. "Often the presentation of works in their original celluloid film format is discouraged by the perceived costs and other difficulties associated with it. The Film Exhibition Fund makes a real difference, allowing audiences to experience moving image works in the way the artists had originally conceived them, which is in turn crucial to their reception and understanding."

The Film Exhibition Fund is a new grants-giving 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the continued screening of celluloid film prints. The Film Exhibition Fund was founded by film programmer Max Carpenter, who currently presides over a board consisting of archivist Laura Major, film nonprofit executive Jake Perlin, and curator David Schwartz. "I can't begin to express my happiness at seeing the Film Exhibition Fund already making some small but significant differences in the exhibition landscape," added Carpenter. "Paying fees or a salary to a projectionist, paying for the shipping of film prints (often international), paying archival rental fees: these are expenses that are more or less invisible to the average theater patron, and these expenses are not easily recouped by ticket sales. Every opportunity to award grants through the Film Exhibition Fund is also an opportunity to further educate the public on the many costs inherent in keeping celluloid exhibition alive and well, and I couldn't be more excited about doing so."

The Film Exhibition Fund is now shifting back to soliciting donations and fundraising to provide for its next wave of grants, with the hope to expand the applications from NY-based institutions to venues across the country. Donations can be made at filmexhibition.org/donate.html

Max Carpenter is a film curator, writer, and crossword constructor based in New York. Series programmed by him have screened at the Museum of the Moving Image, the Harvard Film Archive, the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art, and AFI Silver, and he has worked extensively on other programs with the Museum of the Moving Image and MoMA. Most recently Max presented "On Cinema at the Cinema at the Cinema" at the Museum of the Moving Image.

For more information, visit filmexhibition.org