8mm Forum: A Thousand Cuts

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 15, 2016, 02:10 PM:

A new book from University Press of Mississippi is due out in September 2016. "A Thousand Cuts" is described as:-
The Bizarre World of Collectors and Dealers Who Saved The Movies.

It is about the death of physical film in the digital age and about a paranoid, secretive and eccentric group of film-mad collectors who made movies and their projection a private religion in the time before DVDs and Blu-rays.

I don't think I am paranoid, secretive and eccentric, but it will be interesting to read the book when published.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thousand-Cuts-Bizarre-Underground-Collectors/dp/1496807731

Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on June 15, 2016, 05:32 PM:

quote:
Authors Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph examine one of the least-known episodes in modern legal history: the FBI's and Justice Department's campaign to harass, intimidate, and arrest film dealers and collectors in the early 1970s. Many of those persecuted were gay men. Victims included Planet of the Apes star Roddy McDowall, who was arrested in 1974 for film collecting and forced to name names of fellow collectors, including Rock Hudson and Mel Tormé.

The description on Amazon makes it really confusing about who these eccentric collectors are. It seems to imply that it's people who want to keep film alive in the digital age, yet the examples they provide later are people who were collecting films in the 70's, - presumably illegally.

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on June 15, 2016, 06:39 PM:

I have had the book on pre-order for a while; it sounds like a good read.

Claus.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 16, 2016, 02:27 AM:

I think the details will be more clear when we are able to read the book.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on June 16, 2016, 02:28 AM:

I will order my copy soon.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on September 23, 2016, 06:24 AM:

My local Waterstones accepted my pre-order this morning for publication on 30 September 2016.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on September 23, 2016, 08:38 AM:

Last week, I went to my local B&N and secured a copy - I'm about half-way through and I will only say it is a most-fascinating read, smattering of history and stories, also remembering those days - Shorty

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on September 23, 2016, 10:19 AM:

Thank you, Shorty.
Obviously publication date for the U.S. was earlier than the U.K.

Posted by Simon Balderston (Member # 5106) on September 23, 2016, 01:17 PM:

hi just ordered my copy want to see how mad we really are.ordered it on amazon once you have paid you can read some of it on line [Razz]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on November 12, 2016, 05:32 AM:

At long last. Just collected from my local Waterstones. They could offer no advice on the delay.
I must now get down to enjoying the book, a quick flip through the pages shows a very sad photograph of a skip (dumpster) loaded with discarded 16mm Bell & Howell projectors.

Posted by Stuart Reid (Member # 1460) on November 12, 2016, 10:27 AM:

Just read it while I was in hospital. A terrific read.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on November 13, 2016, 12:46 PM:

Anyone attending the Blackpool dinner will have a chance to win one in the raffle!

Posted by David M. Ballew (Member # 1818) on December 13, 2016, 03:06 PM:

The authors interviewed one very important collector who rescued some exceedingly rare and neglected titles, but did not include that material in their book. Thanks to this particular collector, some films exist in fine editions on Blu-Ray and in DCP format that in all seriousness would otherwise be lost. This is no overstatement! [Eek!]

I would love to see the fascinating stories that had to be left out of the book, for whatever reason.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on December 14, 2016, 10:19 AM:

It appeared that many collectors were 35mm cinema projectionists who "borrowed" films at the end of their run in their cinema. When asked where they were by the manager they replied that they had been sent on their way.

But keeping 35mm prints at home isn't as easy as one might think, particularly if you never seen a transit case filled with six 2000ft cans. (On cores in cans in GB, but transported on spools in the USA.)

In their later life due to old age and infirmity, the "collectors" could only stare at their stack of spools and cans of films. They were now just too heavy to move! A sad end.

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