[Rumori] On UbuWeb Films

[UbuWeb]

September 15, 2005

Dear Friends,

We relaunched UbuWeb on September 14th with over 150 avant-garde 
films in digital formats for your viewing pleasure. Within hours, we 
received several hostile letters from representatives of filmmakers 
-- all lawyers and business people, not the artists themselves -- 
issuing cease and desist letters and threatening lawsuits. Every 
time, it seemed, we opened our inbox yet another appeared. We had 
little choice but to obey and as a result, we have iced the section 
-- for the time being.

We never intended UbuWeb to take any money out of the pockets of 
these artists; rather we feel that simple exposure to even the most 
degraded, corrupted, miniscule, and compressed .avi would increase 
interest and exposure to avant-garde film, a field whose audience has 
long been in decline. Our idea was to make accessible the generally 
inaccessible, with the hopes that should you desire to see the film 
in all its glory, you will make your way to the nearest theatre 
showing them (although there are very few) or find better copies on 
DVD. UbuWeb was never meant to be a substitute for the experience of 
viewing a film; it was meant as a teaser, an appetizer, until you can 
get to the real thing.

However, the real thing isn't very easy to get to. Most of us don't 
live anywhere near theatres that show this kind of fare and very few 
of us can afford the several hundred dollar rental fees, not to 
mention the cumbersome equipment, to show these films. Thankfully, 
there is the internet which allows you to get a whiff of these films 
regardless of your geographical location.

Obviously, certain members of the film community did not share our 
sentiments. They would rather keep these jewels to themselves or a 
select few huddled in dark rooms.

One complaint read "Kenneth Anger is penniless and living in a shack, 
yet you are making his films available for free and taking money away 
from him?" To which we reply: if the current system of avant-garde 
film distribution was working so well, why would the great artist 
Kenneth Anger be living in a shack and not a mansion? Is this really 
a system to hold on to? Obviously, something isn't working. If they 
really cared about Kenneth Anger, they would hope to expose his 
arguably-forgotten work to a non-geographically-specific digital 
savvy audience via the radical distributive possibilities of 
internet. Guaranteed, Mr. Anger would see his royalties soar as a 
result.

UbuWeb doesn't charge money, nor does it make money, nor does it take 
money. The idea that our efforts in any way would enrich ourselves is 
preposterous. UbuWeb has been performing its version of community 
service for ten years without making a penny.

We'll be back with our film section. Just give us some time to sort 
through permissions, paperwork, and other sordid details. To be 
continued...

All the best,
UbuWeb
http://ubu.com