I blogged about this at this time last year. The National Film Registry just released this years films. And although we do have a real indie (The Exiles) and some amateur work in the 25 selected, the Amer-Indie wave of the last 20 years is still missing. We can do something about that. We can nominate films for the registry.
Write in to the Registry and suggest a film. Email them at:
sleg@loc.gov
In fact you nominate up to fifty! It must be at least ten years old. But let’s get started for oh ten.
The indie community needs to wake up to preservation issues. All the digi work is extremely vulnerable. There needs to be more of a discussion on this, and active effort of all to at least get to a film print (which can last 100 years vs. the 10 of digital formats).
Anyway: my recommendations this year are a lot like last years:
Melvin Van Peebles’ SWEET SWEETBACK’S BADASSSS SONG (1971)
Susan Seidelman’s SMITHEREENS (1982)
Bette Gordon’s VARIETY (1983)
Alex Cox’s SID AND NANCY (1986)
Spike Lee’s SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT (1986 )
Hal Hartley’s THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH (1989)
Whit Stillman’s METROPOLITAN (1990)
John McNaughton’s HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1990)
Todd Hayne’s POISON (1991)
Hal Hartley’s TRUST (1991)
Gregg Araki’s THE LIVING END (1992)
Allison Anders’ MI VIDA LOCA (1993)
Ang Lee’s THE WEDDING BANQUET (1993)
Tom Noonan’s WHAT HAPPENED WAS… (1993)
Terry Zwigoff’s CRUMB (1994)
Greg Mottola’s THE DAYTRIPPERS (1996)
Neal Labute’s IN THE COMPANY OF MEN (1997)
Todd Solondz’s HAPPINESS (1998)
What are your recommendations?
