R.I.P. - New Yorker Films

New Yorker Films has gone out of business. Just look at some of the directors whose films were distributed by NYF:

Ackerman
Bertolucci
Bresson
Chabrol
Fassbinder
Fellini
Godard
Herzog
Kieslowski
Malle
Rohmer
Rossellini
Sembene
Wenders
Schlondorff

Zoinks!

Exactly how this will affect the overall distribution of art films in this country remains to be seen. I shot an e-mail over to UW prof J.J. Murphy asking him this very question. We shall see if I get a reply.

Having mentioned him, I want to thank Prof. Murphy for confirming that Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light will be at this year's Wisconsin Film Festival. If I don’t get the chance to see it in Chicago, I'll definitely be jockeying for a ticket.

UPDATE: I got a reply from Prof. Murphy.

This is indeed very sad news on so many levels, and frankly I've not had much time to process it. Dan Talbot is a legendary figure. He was a member of the original New American Cinema Group back in 1960 that laid the foundations for what became the modern American indie film movement. Independent filmmakers were unable to get their films screened in commercial cinemas, so one strategy was to buy theaters. That's what Daniel Talbot did with the New Yorker Theatre. Distribution became a logical outgrowth, hence the creation of New Yorker Films, which over the years amassed a terrific library, making independent and international cinema available to audiences in the theatrical and non-theatrical markets. If you look at some of the recent New Yorker titles, they handled the non-theatrical rights to such films as 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, Baghead, Cache, Distant, Junebug, The Life of Reilly, Still Life, Gus Van Sant's Elephant and Paranoid Park, as well as many of the classics of international art cinema. Unfortunately, the non-theatrical market has fallen apart in recent years, so that was probably not a big money maker for them. They had important DVD titles as well.

The biggest effect of losing New Yorker Films will be what happens to the library. There are rumors that it will be put up for auction, but no one knows for sure what will happen to these titles, or about the condition of the prints. This could have a huge effect, for instance, if someone were planning to do a retrospective of a particular director. I'm not a lawyer and know nothing about who owns the rights to these films. This could affect the availability of many important films for quite some time -- until this gets sorted out. There is now one less player in the marketplace. I consider that a huge loss, even if other companies attempt to pick up the slack. We're talking about a company that has been in business for 43 years, a company that has shaped and had a profound influence on the reception of independent film and international art cinema in this country. I guess when major banks and investment firms are going under, it's not surprising that a company such as the New Yorker would have to close up shop in this troubled economy. But it's painful to anyone who loves this type of cinema. I think most cinephiles are depressed to hear this news.