ABOUT THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE MOSCOW CINEMA MUSEUM (Naum Kleiman, director): Open Letter to the Worldwide Supporters of the Cinema Museum Dear Friends, I want to thank each and every one of you. In the previous days of crisis, we have seen how many friends we really have – old friendships have proven themselves and new friends have been made. Seeing your signatures and reading your letters of support not only rejuvenated our spirits, they also brought us joy and a deeper understanding of our responsibilities. Your talent, authority, and sincerity has been a great help to all of us. If friends are the creators, defenders, and custodians of any living culture, then you show what this culture can do. Your letters brought an unofficial Association of Friends of Cinema Museums into being. Your support is indispensable not only to Moscow’s Cinema Museum, but to cinematheques and film museums all over the world. The staff of the Cinema Museum has returned to work on Monday, November 10th. At my own urgent request, they have withdrawn their letters of resignation. This step required from them even more courage and dedication than the readiness to leave the museum. In the course of the past two weeks, the staff members have held numerous consultations, listened to many varying opinions, and held a museum-wide meeting with both a presidential advisor and representatives of the ministry of culture. But neither orders of the authorities nor judgments of unauthorized persons made them decide to remain at the museum under the supervision of a director whom they still do not trust. As uniquely qualified curators and archivists of Russias film culture, they believe that the best way to save the museum is to remain at their posts. The risk that incompetent replacements could pose to traditions and collections that have been carefully developed over the past 25 years is simply too high under current circumstances. Your solidarity has been the greatest reflection of our collective’s beliefs, which persist unchanged. I have not rescinded my letter of resignation, and was dismissed by the new director on November 7th. I see no possibility for productive work or genuine responsibility in the fictitious role of “President of the Museum”. I will no longer be on the museum’s staff, but I am not leaving the museum – I will continue to assist the scholarly staff in their research, and help them to defend their rights and their dignity. For that purpose, a special supervisory committee, which will include significant filmmakers, museum professionals, journalists, and human rights activists, is being organized. They will inform you about any relevant developments pertaining to the Cinema Museum. The dignity of the Museum’s staff consists in their solidarity and professionalism. Our greatest honor and duty consists in preserving our collection, with which we have been entrusted by Russia’s greatest filmmakers and their families. And our joy consists in working for you, for everyone who loves cinema. Love is much more powerful than self-interest and suspicion, pettiness and vengeance, thirst for power and brute force. We have learned this from the cinema, whose treasures, we are sure, must be preserved for the future and shown to the present. November 10, 2014 Naum Kleiman
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:34:46 +0000
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